Trivia / A Star Is Born (1954)

• Acclaimed Flop: Despite being a pop culture sensation and Judy Garland nearly winning the Academy Award for Best Actress, the film actually lost money and left Judy broke.
• Actor-Shared Background: "Born in a Trunk" is practically a run-through of Judy Garland's career up to that point.
• Career Resurrection: The film marked Judy Garland's triumphant return to films after a long absence. Despite the acclaim she got, her next film appearance wouldn't be for another five years in Judgment at Nuremberg, which was also highly acclaimed.
• Creative Differences: Hugh Martin, who was hired as vocal arranger, stormed off the set after a row with Judy Garland over her interpretation of "The Man That Got Away". Garland's mentor and MGM vocal arranger Roger Edens replaced him.
• Creator Backlash: While James Mason loved the film, he disliked "Born in a Trunk":
  It slows the narrative. Yes, I know that it would make a lovely television special or something like that, but I thought it was out of place at that particular juncture.
• Cut Song:
  • "Lose That Long Face", which Vicki would have sung twice - once after Norman humiliates her at the Academy Awards and once during her breakdown in her dressing room.
  • "Here's What I'm Here For", which would have been used when Norman proposes to Vicki.
• Deleted Role: Amanda Blake is listed in the credits but she was in the scenes that were cut.
• Deleted Scene: Warner Bros. cut several significant scenes from the theatrical release. The movie was a huge hit, but they perceived the three hour run time as losing them money - because it limited how many people could see it in a day - so they shortened it down. Even to this day it is still missing some scenes.
• Enforced Method Acting: George Cukor pushed Judy Garland so hard before an emotional scene that she threw up before the first take. He then made her do it over and over again until it was just right. After the final take, she was sobbing uncontrollably. He then went up to her and congratulated her, saying "Judy, Marjorie Main couldn't have done that any better!"
• Executive Meddling: The first test screening the following month ran 196 minutes, and despite ecstatic feedback from the audience, George Cukor and editor Folmar Blangsted trimmed it to 182 minutes for its New York premiere in October. The reviews were excellent, but Warner executives, concerned the running time would limit the number of daily showings, made drastic cuts without Cukor, who had departed for India to scout locations for 'Bhowani Junction'. At its final running time of 154 minutes, the film lost two major musical numbers and crucial dramatic scenes, and Cukor called it "very painful" to watch.
• Friendship on the Set: Judy Garland and James Mason became such good friends that Liza Minnelli asked him to deliver her eulogy.
• Life Imitates Art:
  • James Mason later became The Mentor to actor Sam Neill.
  • The moment where Esther's widow's veil is ripped from her face by a fan at a funeral, was imitated in real life in 1958. During the graveside service for her husband Mike Todd (who had died in a plane crash), Elizabeth Taylor was traumatized when one of her fans thoughtlessly tore the widow's veil from Taylor's face.
• Missing Episode: The film's original runtime at its post-premiere in August 1954 was 196 minutes, but after its second post-premiere the next day, two scenes totalling 15 minutes were cut; a number called "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street" dropped from the "Born in the Trunk" sequence (it originally followed "I'll Get By") and a scene of Vicki and Norman picnicking on the beach. A further 27 minutes were cut after the world premiere the following month, and although some of the cut footage has been recovered, the most complete version existing today is still only 176 minutes long, and many scenes between Norman promising Esther a screen test and actually tracking her down to take her in for the screen test exist only as a soundtrack accompanied by production stills and brief clips of live footage, including Esther quitting her gig with the band and then working as a carhop and a TV commercial singer; Norman being driven away drunk for a location shoot at sea, spotting Esther in the TV commercial, asking her old landlady where she went, and finding her at her new boarding house; and a brief sequence of Esther getting out of Norman's car to be sick on the way to her first film premiere.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: That Humphrey Bogart is the voice of the drunk man requesting "Melancholy Baby" in the cafe.
• Reality Subtext: Judy Garland was struggling with drug addiction and alcoholism, trying to launch a comeback. Very ironic that she played the newcomer getting mentored by a drugged out has-been.
• Recycled Set: The set for the musical number "Lose That Long Face" was created by taking New Orleans building facades left over from A Streetcar Named Desire and spray painting them white.
• Troubled Production:
  • The first major delays were technical. George Cukor had started making the film in WarnerScope, a wide-screen process Warner Bros.. had designed to compete with CinemaScope. But even studio management knew the process wasn't perfected. Albert Warner, who supervised the studio's technical side, was negotiating for the use of CinemaScope as the film started shooting. After two weeks of filming, he asked that they test the process, so "The Man That Got Away" number was shot in two versions, one in WarnerScope and one in CinemaScope. It was obvious the latter version was superior, so they had to start the film over, at a cost of $300,000. They also had to redo the number to make better use of the new screen size. As a result, the film fell behind schedule a total of eighteen days.
  • At first the limitations of working in CinemaScope presented an obstacle to Cukor. There was a whole set of rules about what would and would not work in the new system. The so-called experts advised against certain camera moves, certain colours, tight close-ups and too much quick cutting. Finally he and his two consultants on the film, production designer Gene Allen and colour consultant George Hoyningen-Huene, decided to ignore the rules and make up new ones as they went along. As a result, this was one of the first films to make truly creative use of the CinemaScope process.
  • Although Judy Garland was on her best behavior for the beginning of shooting, she soon slipped into her old routine. She would call in sick, have to leave set early and claim she was too tired to work. One day was postponed because she didn't like her costume. She also took two weeks off to try and kick her drug habit. Production dragged on for nine months in total.
  • For the last two weeks of production, during which the "Born in a Trunk" number was completed, Jack L. Warner approved a night-time shooting schedule to better accommodate Garland's "body clock." This added still more to the budget, as the unions required extra payments for evening work.
• What Could Have Been:
  • There were many candidates for the role of Norman Maine:
    • Marlon Brando was the first choice for the role. He responded that he was in the prime of his career, and if they wanted someone to play an alcoholic has-been, they should ask his Julius Caesar co-star James Mason.
    • Judy Garland really wanted Frank Sinatra as her co-star, but he was deemed "Box Office poison" at the time. (The film was being made right before Sinatra's Career Resurrection after winning an Oscar for From Here to Eternity.)
    • Montgomery Clift also turned the role down because the subject matter hit too close to home for him.
    • George Cukor wanted Cary Grant and went so far as to read the entire script with him. Grant, while agreeing it was the role of a lifetime, was more interested in traveling with wife Betsy Drake, and steadfastly refused the role. He also was concerned about Garland's reputation for unreliability; Cukor never forgave Cary for declining the role. Cukor also suggested Humphrey Bogart, but Warner rejected him, as well as Laurence Olivier.
    • Richard Burton was offered the role, but he was busy filming The Robe.
    • Other candidates included Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, Henry Fonda, Glenn Ford, Ray Milland, Gregory Peck, Tyrone Power, James Stewart and Robert Taylor.
  • William Powell turned down the role of Oliver Niles.

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