IMDb plot summary: A young woman comes to Hollywood with dreams of stardom, and achieves them only with the help of an alcoholic leading man whose best days are behind him.
Directed by William A. Wellman. Starring Janet Gaynor, Fredric March, Adolphe Menjou, and May Robson.
There have been four movie versions of A Star Is Born so far. I've seen the versions from 1954 and 2017, and now this one from 1937. This is the only one of the four versions that isn't a musical, so no big musical numbers here, but it does an amazing job of showing the characters themselves. Sometimes it's hard to see why this couple loves each other, but it's so obvious here. There are so many scenes where they joke back and forth with each other and it's clear that they "get" each other on some wavelength and enjoy each other's company. I have seen Gaynor in very little, but she's the epitome of the girl next door here, sweet and charming and likable, but hardier and more ambitious than you might at first suspect. The scenes where paparazzi harass her even in the midst of tragedy hit hard, and you just want these characters to be all right. For the first time I can see why this story spawned so many subsequent adaptations.
How it entered my Flickchart:
A Star Is Born > Fahrenheit 451
A Star Is Born < Dark Passage
A Star Is Born > Charlie St. Cloud
A Star Is Born < L'atalante
A Star Is Born > Meet Joe Black
A Star Is Born < The Birds
A Star Is Born > 2012
A Star Is Born > The Outsiders
A Star Is Born > La jetee
A Star Is Born < 49 Up
A Star Is Born > Porco Rosso
Final spot: #1119 out of 3402, or 67%.
No comments:
Post a Comment