A Star Is Born--Restored Version VHS

Many films have a convoluted history, but few so much as A STAR IS BORN. The basic story of a famous Hollywood alcoholic who promotes the career of an unknown--only to see her star rise as his falls--was based on the lives of a number of silent-era figures and first filmed in 1932 as WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD? After a number of plot changes, the story reemerged in 1937 as A STAR IS BORN starring Janet Gaynor and Frederic March. Then, in the 1940s, A STAR IS BORN was recycled into a radio play--and the leading lady was Judy Garland.Garland's private life was difficult, and in 1950 she made a highly publicized suicide attempt. When she proved unable to recover herself quickly, she was fired by MGM amid much negative publicity, and it was assumed her career was over. But within a few years Garland reemerged as a powerful concert performer, and momentum began to build toward a screen comeback. Garland, who recalled her radio presentation with fondness, suggested A STAR IS BORN.The production was plagued with problems. A number of leading actors turned down the male lead before James Mason accepted. A considerable portion of the film was shot when Warner Brothers decided to present it in Cinemascope, and this entailed scrapping all previous footage reshooting from scratch. Garland herself proved typically highstrung, and her temperament led to numerous delays. The budget ran out of control, and by the time A STAR IS BORN arrived on the screen it had become the single most expensive film made up to that time.The film's opening seemed to justify all the difficulty and expense. Critics were positive and the public was eager. But Warner Brothers remained concerned about the film's length--and although director George Cukor offered to recut the film gratis, the studio hacked it apart. It was soon apparent that critics and audiences alike were considerably less enthusiastic about the edited version, and the film ended its theatrical release with a whimper.During the decades that followed the film gained a reputation as a mutilated masterpiece. A lackluster 1970s remake fueled interest in a restoration, but the missing footage could not be relocated. In 1983, however, the full, unedited soundtrack and many of the missing scenes were rediscovered. In working with the film, conservators pioneered the use of still photography to fill in the still-missing scenes, a technique that would be used to restore such classics as GREED, METROPOLIS, and LOST HORIZON. And upon release, A STAR IS BORN was once again hailed as a masterpiece.Stylistically, A STAR IS BORN is an aggressive film filled with bright colors, bombastic music, and larger than life performances. As such, it seems typical of "blockbuster" films of the 1950s and 1960s. But A STAR IS BORN uses this "bigness" to a considerably different end than its counterparts: rather than containing garish display for its own sake, it contains it for thematic purpose.The theme developed by writer Moss Hart and director Cukor (who considered this his masterpiece) is one of the various levels of artificiality intrinsic to show business, and differences between degrees of artificiality are carefully drawn in scene after scene. The audience enjoys a show--never knowing that the star is blind drunk. The set crew prepares to film an upbeat musical number--never aware that the leading lady is having hysterics in her dressing room. A wife watches a private screening of a film--not realizing that her husband is being quietly fired in an adjoining room.The performances that drive A STAR IS BORN are perfectly in line with the film's juxtaposition of reality and artifice. Garland offers a justly famous bravado performance in broad strokes and with an undercurrent of artifice that becomes increasingly noticeable as the film builds, underscoring her gradual immersion in and consumption by the film industry. Mason, in equally brilliant fashion, contrasts her with a performance that becomes painfully realistic as the film progresses. The dissonance created is quite startling: it is easy to see why the two characters attract each other, but it is also easy to forecast how they will self-destruct.Although musical numbers abound, A STAR IS BORN is not typical of the genre, for the music does not form the primary structure of the film. Still, like most other elements in the film, the songs feed into the film's themes--and always in the most ironic way possible. Near the film's conclusion, Maine ask Vicki to sing for him while he, unbeknownst to her, prepares for suicide. The song she sings is "A New World." And indeed after Maine's death it will be all of that, a world in which unreality will go unchecked and Vicki will win applause by introducing herself as "Mrs. Norman Maine," turning her private grief into box office salvation.A STAR IS BORN is profoundly bitter film that for all its brashness operates in a remarkably subtle way to make a very dark statement about Hollywood fame: the entertainment we enjoy on screen is an illusion with a price, and that price is a confusion of reality and fantasy played out with stakes of life and death. The DVD offers the film in its restored state, in Cinemascope, and with television broadcast footage of the Los Angeles premiere. If you're serious about film, this is a must-own, must-see.--GFT (Amazon.com Reviewer)--

If you're here, you likely know the film's plot, as well as the making, butchering, and reconstruction of the film, so I'll not go into all that. I'm strictly going to comment on the contents of this new package.First, let me sing the praises of this new set. Most importantly, the film has been given a beautiful restoration. While video issues from the film's previous DVD release haven't been completely eradicated, they have been improved greatly. The colors are beautiful and vibrant, especially during "Born In A Trunk." Sharpness is improved, albeit not completely perfect due to the single-strip Technicolor film stock, which just can't be sharpened as much as some other film stocks can. The film definitely won't be confused for a brand new film anytime soon, but it definitely doesn't look as though it's pushing 60.In addition, all bonus material, except for a few text screens of bios and such, from the film's previous DVD release have been transferred to this new set, meaning we get the deleted "When My Sugar Walks Down The Street," originally included in "Born In A Trunk," as well as the entire network broadcast of the film's premiere at the Pantages Theater, plus newsreel coverage, multiple takes of "The Man That Got Away," audio from deleted scenes that weren't reinserted into the 1983 restoration, a short Warner Bros. promotional film that features some alternate takes from the film, and theatrical trailers for all three versions. In addition, we also now have even MORE takes of "The Man That Got Away," alternate versions of three musical scenes and one dramatic scene, a cartoon really only similar in title, ("A Star Is Bored"), recording sessions, radio interviews, color Cinemascope footage of the premiere, and the 1942 Lux Radio Theater broadcast of the original film with Judy as Esther Blodgett and Walter Pidgeon as Norman Maine. Evertything included here is a welcome addition and when some studios notoriously reissue their DVD's and take away decent bonus materials and replace them with mediocre crud, it's nice that Warner has kept everything and added onto it.However, this new DVD edition of Star is far from perfect. In fact, it's downright disappointing in many aspects. First of all, the previous DVD was a flipper disc, with the film on one side and bonus materials on the other. This time, the film is split between two sides of a flipper disc. Although both sides are dual-layer, side 1 doesn't even take up the full 4.35 GB that a DVD-5 uses, and side 2 just barely goes over the 4.35 GB limit. No reason it couldn't have been on a single-sided dual-layer disc like last time, or if it MUST be split, split it between two single-sided discs and make it a 3-disc set.On the previous DVD, all widescreen extras were enhanced for 16:9 TV's, which is pretty standard practice today. However, everything on here is letterboxed in a 4:3 frame. Absolutely ZERO excuse for this in 2010, especially on features that were given the 16:9 treatment on the previous disc. The only one not letterboxed is the trailer for the 1976 remake, which is now simply open-matte, filling up a 4:3 frame. (This especially bodes badly for the 1937 trailer, which was pillarboxed in a 16:9 frame but is now severely windowboxed in a 4:3 frame.)The previous DVD's only major shortcomings were that there was no commentary, no documentary, not even any kind of introduction to explain why there's a stretch of several minutes and another brief portion later on in the first half of the film with still photos instead of film. And when I heard the title was being revisited on DVD and for its Blu-Ray debut, I was excited at the prospect of finally getting something that was so sorely missed the first time. Instead, Warner Bros. disappoints by once again offering absolutely nothing. I only knew about the still photos because the first time I saw the film was in 1999 when it aired on TCM and Robert Osborne explained why they were used. Were it not for that, I'd have been wondering what was going on, and although that info is easily found on the internet, shouldn't it also be included on the disc so that viewers don't *have* to go searching on the internet to find out?With all of my gripes, this really is a good DVD set, and if you enjoy the film, I can actually recommend the upgrade - especially if you own a Blu-Ray player, as with the film looking this good just in SD, it has to look mind-blowing in HD. (Be warned, though, the bonus features disc that comes with the Blu-Ray is the same DVD as in this set.) It's too bad that Warner Bros. letterboxed widescreen features, utilized a flipper disc for the film, and dropped the ball on any kind of retrospective bonus material, but they have at least included an impressive transfer of the film and some nice bonuses. The premiere footage is still wonderful to watch, and it's nice to see all of these alternate takes and to have the radio production of the story and everything else. Hopefully when Warner Bros. visits this title again, and I'm sure they will, maybe they'll rectify some of the mistakes they made the first two times. Until then, this set will satisfy, even if you're left wanting more in the bonus features department.

So far I have watched the first three versions (this is the first remake) of A Star is Born and I like the first two best. I love Judy Garland.

A fine and classy melodrama directed by a giant of old Hollywood and with just few flaws and many virtues. It looks like a classic but it is not so relying on tears and emphatic moments, rather on splendid and charming musical scenes and quite dramatic and disenchanted confrontation where James Mason definitely prevails over Judy Garland, who is, to me, still too manneristic if compared to Mason (although Judy gives her best performance here)A Star is born is a genuinely dramatic tale of two people united and separated by the changing fortunes that Showbusiness can bring.The blu ray edition is pretty remarkable, rich of extras and with an excellent HD transfer

This is the Judy Garland/James Mason Star is Born. Again picture and sound are excellent. Was a little wary it being a US import and all. Both Bluray and DVD seem to be region free. haven't watched it all yet but the quality seems very good.

A real classic. A tear jerker that shows Judy Garland at her best, while James Mason plays an actor on his way out. Great music and Judy looks and sounds the best ever.

excellent service,excellent product,as usual prompt delivery.thoroughly recommend.lovely clear picture great sound recording.what more could you ask for.and of -course the great judy garland...

The Blu Ray follows the 2 disc DVD Special Edition format but with more extras & a booklet.A "restoration of" & a "making of" segment in the extras would have been icing on the cake.Technical details are: -VideoVideo codec: VC-1Video resolution: 1080pAspect ratio: 2.55:1 Full CinemaScope aspect NOT 1.78:1Original aspect ratio: 2.55:1AudioEnglish: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1French: Dolby Digital 2.0Spanish: Dolby Digital MonoSubtitlesEnglish SDH, French, SpanishEnglish SDH, French, Spanish (less)Discs50GB Blu-ray DiscTwo-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)PackagingDigiBookPlaybackRegion free