There isn’t much of any interest in movie theaters these days, so it’s a good time to remind everyone of all the classics available to enjoy. In fact, it’s always a good time to view the classics. So here is a short review and analysis (and something of a rating) of the A Star is Born films.

Now the historians reading this will be quick to note that there are only four English language films with the A Star is Born title: 1937, 1954, 1976, and 2018. But there is actually a film that set the understructure for the story in as early as 1932.

1932

What Price Hollywood? is the story of a waitress who catches the eye of a drunken film director, who turns her into a star. The director’s career begins to take a dive while the young lady becomes an awarded performer. There is a suicide, and the star goes on to a continued successful career.

Sound familiar? There are a few major differences, especially the ultimate romance being with a third party and not the director. But other than that, the bones of the story are pretty much the same as the other four films.

Other key differences: This is a relatively new entry in the world of sound, it’s black-and-white, and it’s pre-Code, with a perhaps surprising number of elements that wouldn’t play just a few years later: some one-liners, some (relatively) skimpy wardrobe choices, unmarried pregnancies, etc. Being pre-Code, it can feel modern; being a 1932 film, it can come off as pretty creaky sometimes.

What works in its favor are the director, the writers, and the cast. The director is George Cukor in his early years. Coincidentally, Cukor was later the director of 1954’s A Star is Born (the Judy Garland one). There are a number of stylistic flourishes, like the “becoming a star” montage, that are quite cutting edge for the time. The screenwriters were listed as Adela Rogers St. Johns and Jane Murfin, who received an Oscar nomination (but no win) for Best Writing, Original Story. But the “by” credit of Gene Fowler and Rowland Brown is more accurate, with the Oscar winners providing the continuity, and not the idea or original script.

The cast is one that most folks not be that familiar with, but were big at the time. Pre-Code queen Constance Bennett (sister of Barbara Bennett and Joan Bennett) stars, and in spite of the emerging studio style of acting, she manages to be fresh and believable throughout. Lowell Sherman , who plays the director, was an actor who later made it as a director himself, and he is quite good here. Neil Hamilton (known to silent film students as one of D.W. Griffith’s actors and to more modern audiences as Police Commissioner Gordon on the Adam West “Batman” series)) made another successful entry into sound films with his performance here (though he comes off as a big stiff). Lastly, future Black stars Eddie “Rochester” Anderson and Louise Beavers were featured.

This is a more imaginative film than you might think, and of course it’s a time capsule, providing the original outline for the subsequent ASIB films. But it’s also a place capsule, setting the stage for the darker fare of Sunset Boulevard and The Bad and the Beautiful. It’s worth watching as “the original,” but also as a film on its own terms.

No rating, but for a more in-depth look at What Price Hollywood?, check out

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1937

Just a few years after this film, Cukor was approached by future Gone with the Wind and Rebecca producer David O. Selznick to director the first version actually named A Star is Born. Cukor could see the VERYCLOSE similarities between the new script and What Price Hollywood?, and declined. Instead, William Wellman (The High and the Mighty, The Ox-Bow Incident), who also co-wrote the script, directed. (Ironically, and confusingly, Wellman and co-writer Robert Carson won the Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story. Good for them, but the story was anything but original.)

It’s a lush, BIG FAT early Technicolor beauty starring the first Oscar-winning actress, Janet Gaynor (Sunrise) with a career-reviving performance, and Frederic March, already successful but still ascending (The Best Years of Our Lives). Also featured are legends Adolphe Menjou, May Robson, Andy Devine, Lionel Stander, Owen Moore just a couple of years before his tragic and untimely death, and last but not least, Peggy (“Climb Every Mountain”) Wood.

It was the first all-color film to be nominated for Best Picture, and its Technicolor was far more sophisticated and muted than earlier all-color films. It’s a lovely film just to look at.

If you see What Price Hollywood? before viewing or revisiting this version, you’ll be surprised at the many “similarities” shared by the two films. It’s no wonder that RKO Pathé seriously considered suing Selznick (who in his megalomaniacal way, claimed to have originated the story), but decided against litigation.

This film is as solid a piece of Hollywood studio filmmaking (albeit in the earlier sound era) as one will find, and could easily have been the definitive version. But…

Rating (not counting What Price Hollywood?, which stands alone): Tied for second place.

1954

Cukor finally got his chance to direct a version of A Star is Born in 1954, with the first musical version starring Judy Garland and James Mason. This is Garland’s cinematic high point after The Wizard of Oz and Meet Me in St. Louis, and she was robbed, IMHO, of the Oscar because of how difficult she could be, due in equal parts to her personality and her addictions. But this is one of the great musical performances of all time, and she is outstanding, of course in the musical numbers, but also in the dramatic scenes.

Mason is also fantastic in this film, but his performance gets lost in one of the great years of male acting. In addition to Mason here, 1954 saw Humphrey Bogart’s Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny, Bing Crosby in his best performance in The County Girl, and of course Marlon Brando’s towering work in On the Waterfront. These three performances may have pushed Mason’s work into the background of our collective memories, but his performance here is full of big and little delights, and deserves more attention than it’s received over the years.

In many ways, the film is almost over the top, or at least on the verge of being over-stuffed. But with Cukor at the helm, and the two lead performances, this is the A Star is Born for the ages.

Rating: First Place

1976

Really, truly, don’t bother. This is easily the weakest of the films. It’s clearly meant to be little more than a star vehicle for Barbra Streisand, and her work here is simply not her best.  Director Frank Pierson, later better known for this television work, may well have been unable to push down the Streisand “energy” into the service of the main character; we really don’t see Esther Hoffman as much as we see Superstar Streisand singing, talking, or waiting for others to finish so she can talk.

Though he claims to have been drunk most of the time, male lead Kris Kristofferson gives the strongest performance, but is consistently bulldozed by his co-star. His performance is, upon a second viewing (needed to provide the ability to focus on him rather than the lead female), complex and subtle. Unfortunately, he is quoted as saying, “Filming with Barbra Streisand is an experience which may have cured me of the movies.” Cinema’s loss.

The highlight of the film is not a performance, a scene, or a production aspect, but a song: “Evergreen,” composed by Streisand (music) and  Paul Williams (lyrics). It’s a lovely, thoughtful, gentle song sung beautifully by Streisand (who won her second Oscar for its composition), and is the one takeaway from an otherwise forgettable film.

The film is a time capsule, like its two immediate predecessors. But it’s a time most of us want to forget, and the rest of us should. It’s screamingly 1970s in the worst ways, and with an overbearing performance by an unrestrained Streisand, it’s often painful to watch.

Rating: Easily number 4 of 4.

2018

There were some surprise elements to this version starring Lada Gaga and Bradley Cooper, who also directed. No one knew how gifted a director Cooper could be, and Gaga was a revelation. This may have caused something of an overreaction at the time, but the film is still solid, and breathes a lot of life and energy to the “franchise.”

Like the 1976 version, it’s very updated, feeling very much of our time. But it’s yet quite timeless in its relationships and its demonstration of how the crash of success vs. failure can hamstring a partnership, whether personal or business. Some of the updating is, IMHO, unnecessary and distracting. But this is a major announcement of the arrival of a cinematic star and a topflight director.  

Cooper plays homage to the earlier versions of A Star is Born in ways that are fun to look for, but this is a strong, engaging film in its own right. Cooper still hasn’t quite been understood (or appreciated) by either the Academy or film critics, but if Maestro is any indication, we have a unique cinematic voice that debuted here that will eventually be viewed as the artist he obviously is.

Rating: Tied for second place.

Bottom line: If you’ve seen any version of A Star is Born, it’s a worthwhile exercise to see the versions you haven’t seen.

Of course, that excludes the ’70 version!