MOVIEmeter
SEE RANK
Up 4,096 this week

A Star Is Born (1954)

7.7
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 7.7/10 from 7,907 users  
Reviews: 112 user | 61 critic

A movie star helps a young singer/actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career into a downward spiral.

Director:

Writers:

(screenplay), , 4 more credits »
Watch Trailer
0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 2369 titles created 4 months ago
 
a list of 1527 titles created 10 months ago
 
a list of 309 titles created 27 May 2011
 
a list of 3595 titles created 1 month ago
 
a list of 100 titles created 4 months ago
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: A Star Is Born (1954)

A Star Is Born (1954) on IMDb 7.7/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of A Star Is Born.
Nominated for 6 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 3 nominations. See more awards »

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Drama | Music | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6/10 X  

A has-been rock star falls in love with a young, up-and-coming songstress.

Director: Frank Pierson
Stars: Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson, Gary Busey
Ziegfeld Girl (1941)
Drama | Musical | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X  

Discovery by Flo Ziegfeld changes a girl's life but not necessarily for the better, as three beautiful women find out when they join the spectacle on Broadway: Susan, the singer who must ... See full summary »

Directors: Robert Z. Leonard, Busby Berkeley
Stars: James Stewart, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr
Yentl (1983)
Drama | Musical | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.2/10 X  

A Jewish girl disguises herself as a boy to enter religious training.

Director: Barbra Streisand
Stars: Barbra Streisand, Mandy Patinkin, Amy Irving
Drama | Musical | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

An umbrella shop girl is separated from her mechanic boyfriend when he is called for military service. Alone, she faces a life altering decision.

Director: Jacques Demy
Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Anne Vernon
Show Boat (1951)
Drama | Family | Musical
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.8/10 X  

The daughter of a riverboat captain falls in love with a charming gambler, but their fairytale romance is threatened when his luck turns sour.

Director: George Sidney
Stars: Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, Howard Keel
Pal Joey (1957)
Drama | Musical | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.8/10 X  

Joey Evans is charming, handsome, funny, talented, and a first class, A-number-one heel. When Joey meets the former chorus girl ("She used to be 'Vera...with the Vanishing Veils'") and now ... See full summary »

Director: George Sidney
Stars: Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak
Carousel (1956)
Drama | Musical
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.8/10 X  

Billy Bigelow has been dead for fifteen years, and now outside the pearly gates, he long waived his right to go back to Earth for a day. But he has heard that there is a problem with his ... See full summary »

Director: Henry King
Stars: Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones, Cameron Mitchell
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Drama | Musical | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.6/10 X  

A poet falls for a beautiful courtesan whom a jealous duke covets in this stylish musical, with music drawn from familiar 20th century sources.

Director: Baz Luhrmann
Stars: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo
San Francisco (1936)
Drama | Musical | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

A Barbary Coast saloonkeeper and a Nob Hill impresario are rivals for the affections of a beautiful singer, both personally and professionally in 1906 San Francisco.

Stars: Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy
Drama | Musical | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7/10 X  

This send-up of ragtime song and dance begins in 1915 San Francisco when society boy Roger Grant decides to pursue popular rather than serious music.

Director: Henry King
Stars: Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche
Street Girl (1929)
Certificate: Passed Drama | Musical | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.4/10 X  

A homeless and destitute violinist joins a combo to bring it success, but has problems with her love life.

Stars: Betty Compson, John Harron, Jack Oakie
Drama | Musical | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.2/10 X  

A vaudeville comic and a pretty young dancer aren't having much luck in their separate careers, so they decide to combine their acts. In order to save money on the road, they get married. ... See full summary »

Directors: John Cromwell, A. Edward Sutherland
Stars: Hal Skelly, Nancy Carroll, Dorothy Revier
Edit

Cast

Complete credited cast:
...
...
...
...
...
Danny McGuire (as Tom Noonan)
Lucy Marlow ...
Lola Lavery
...
Susan Ettinger
Irving Bacon ...
Graves
Hazel Shermet ...
Libby's Secretary
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
...
Glenn Williams
Edit

Storyline

Norman Maine, a movie star whose career is on the wane, meets showgirl Esther Blodgett when he drunkenly stumbles into her act one night. A friendship develops, then blossoms into romance before tensions increase as Esther's career takes off while Norman's continues to plummet. Written by Col Needham <col@imdb.com>

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Taglines:

"A BRILLIANTLY STAGED, SCORED AND PHOTOGRAPHED FILM WORTH ALL THE EFFORT!" Life Magazine (original ad - mostly caps) See more »

Genres:

Drama | Musical | Romance

Certificate:

Approved | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

16 October 1954 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Nace una estrella  »

Box Office

Budget:

$5,019,770 (estimated)

Gross:

$4,355,968 (USA)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

| (premiere) | (restored) | (DVD) | (cut)

Sound Mix:

(RCA Sound System) (magnetic prints)| (optical prints)

Color:

(Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was re-edited several times. Premiering at 181 minutes, the studio (Warner Bros.) cut the film by 30 minutes despite the objections of director George Cukor and producer Sidney Luft (Judy Garland's husband). In 1983, all but 5 minutes of the cut footage was found and re-instated, but some footage had to be reconstructed using production stills. See more »

Goofs

When Esther and Norman are in Norman's Lincoln convertible, in the closeups the seats have a blanket over the backrest, but in earlier and later shots only the car's standard upholstery is visible. See more »

Quotes

Matt Libby: This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, with a whimper.
See more »

Connections

Featured in A Century of Cinema (1994) See more »

Soundtracks

"You Took Advantage of Me"
(uncredited)
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
Performed by Judy Garland as part of the "Born in a Trunk" medley
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

 
One of the best musicals ever filmed.
23 August 2006 | by (Vienna, Austria) – See all my reviews

Based on a 1937 movie with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March this version is not only the best version of this tale (there's a pretty bad version from 1976 with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson) but one of the greatest musicals ever filmed. Almost 20 years before Cabaret made movie history with it's grown-up and serious story (and with Garland's daughter Liza Minelli) this film explores already pretty bleak and serious stuff like alcoholism and the manipulative studio system.

It tells the story of Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland), a singer and Norman Maine (James Mason), a famous actor with a serious alcohol problem. He's smitten by her voice and her talent and takes her under his wing. With his help she gets a studio contract and makes quickly the transition from simple girl to an Oscar-winning star. Their happiness seems perfect as they also fall in love and get married. But Norman cannot control his alcoholism forever, soon he starts to drink heavily again, especially after he is fired by the studio. While Esthers (or Vicki Lesters, as she's renamed by the studio) star rises, his sinks into oblivion, which slowly destroys their marriage as well.

The movie never over-dramatize or plays down Normans alcoholism, it's a very realistic and depressing picture we get about this problem. More surprising is the realism and insight we get about how the studios worked when actors were merely contract players, obliged to do what the studio dictated them. Though it never openly criticizes this system, the film definitely shows how little freedom stars had (Change of the name, complete makeover, typecasting). It is also clearly inspired by some real events of that time (just think of Elizabeth Taylors grieve over her husbands death, and the disgusting pictures that were taken on his funeral), which is chilling.

Intense is what you can call Judy Garland and James Mason performances. Both are brilliant and are perfectly matched here. Garland, with all her memories of her time at MGM, gives her best performance ever and one of the best performances of the 50's (this should have secured her the Oscar - alas, as so often it was awarded to Grace Kelly for a lesser performance). James Mason, often overlooked, is her equal, seldom are actors so perfectly matched (and with considerable chemistry too).

The sad thing about this film is the unnecessary and brutal cutting of several scenes after the film was already released and quite successful. Warner Brothers literally butchered the movie, without the restored scenes (as far as those are still available) some developments make no sense. So be sure to get the restored version, not only to get a feeling of what it might have looked like with all the scenes intact, but also to enjoy the rich colors, the beautiful score and cinematography. A real treat!


18 of 23 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
Cutting 'Loose That Long Face' robert7510
What they should have cut ... dmnemaine
When did acting styles change? ltldog2
didn't anybody care how judy LOOKED in this movie? robertinlosangeles
Were the Oscars really like that? ltldog2
Can somebody explain this line? pheigh
Discuss A Star Is Born (1954) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?