For those not familiar with the 1932 film, it was the first movie in the series of remakes now known as “A Star is Born”. It was extremely well-made and almost impossible to find. I had to buy the DVD. It was directed by George Cukor who also directed the 1954 Judy Garland “A Star is Born”.
The series has historically been snubbed by The Academy only winning two Oscar for Best Song (the Streisand and Gaga versions). In this case, it was nominated only for Best Original Story. Robbery I say!! Constance Bennett should have been nominated that year and Lowell Sherman should have won, but we all know the Academy hates movies that show Hollywood as it really is.
The wife and I are doing this because we want to watch all 4 Stars and she has never seen this version. I have (years ago on AMC) and the Gaga/Cooper one.
The first version of A Star Is Born is a fairly loose remake of What Price Hollywood?. The plots of the four versions of A Star Is Born are certainly closer to each other. Please go ahead and watch all four of them.
It’s interesting that they switched half-way through to having it be based on music not film.
You might really enjoy this podcast about how and why the Barbra Streisand/Kris Kristofferson version was made.
the most reviled version is the one starring Barbra Streisand, made in 1976 and produced by Barbra’s hair dresser-turned-boyfriend Jon Peters. In the middle of the New Hollywood 1970s, when American film was supposedly engaged in a mass project of questioning establishment myths, Streisand and Peters embraced Hollywood’s oldest, most institutionalized myth and appropriated it as a way to build an enormous (and enormously un-self-aware) monument to their own lives and their real-life romance. The result was both a huge success and a disaster. It paved the way for Streisand’s future directing career and Peters’ future as a Hollywood mogul, while also branding both with bad reputations — partially thanks to an expose on the production of the movie published by its jilted director.
I’m an idiot. Completely forgot the 1937 Janet Gaynor Star is Born. Next on our list.
We saw WPH last night. Mrs Cad claims it is not really a version of ASIB since the mentor and husband were separate people. I contend that if you combine those two characters it IS a version of the later film. But I know fans of the movie agree to disagree. Either way she agreed that WPH is a great film and like me really enjoyed Lowell Sherman’s performance.
OK. Janet Gaynor next.
I mean something very specific when I say that none of the versions of A Star Is Born should be thought of as versions of What Price Hollywood?. Read the credits of all five of these films. You can find the credits on the Internet Movie Database. Look under All Cast & Crew. The three later versions of A Star Is Born admit to being versions of the first film. None of the four admit to being versions of What Price Hollywood?. Yes, even at the time some people thought that the first version of A Star Is Born was inspired in some way by What Price Hollywood?. The writers of What Price Hollywood? threated to sue the makers of the first version of A Star Is Born. In the end they didn’t, and they didn’t get any on-screen credit. Either they decided that it would be too expensive to sue them, or they got paid some money that they were told not to talk about.
How do you find the line between being inspired by another work of art (whether it’s books, films, music, art, dance, computer games, or whatever) and just having vague resemblances? The problem is there is no such line. There’s a spectrum going from no resemblance at all to being exactly the same. In the end, you have to choose an arbitrary point at which you say that the resemblance is close enough that you have to pay royalties.
I think it is that people can agree to disagree about that
Janet Gaynor in A Star is Born this weekend. It will be interesting to compare to WPH.