jc-osms A star is reborn as Judy Garland returns to Hollywood after a four year absence for this headlining role where you can clearly see the woman in her replacing the young girl whose career started so spectacularly in "The Wizard Of Oz" some 15 years earlier. Yes we all know the story about the falling star coming into the orbit of the rising comet but played as convincingly as it is here and with marvellous song production numbers to boot, this really is almost a last hurrah for golden age Hollywood and all it stood for but at the same time it's adult themes of alcoholism and disintegrating marriage point forward to more a modern, sophisticated realism.We're properly introduced to Garland when she sings perhaps the ultimate torch song "The Man Who Got Away", with a powerhouse delivery which still doesn't overpower the song and immediately ensnares the passing ear of Hollywood legend Norman Maine, played with understated and underrated elan by James Mason. Yes, the movie plays Mason's alcoholism less like the disease we nowadays understand it to be today and more like an almost wilful career-choice done almost to attract attention by a fading yesterday man such as Maine.Wonderfully staged and sympathetically directed by George Cukor, Garland's musical numbers are vivacious and heartwarming apart from a hackneyed Vaudevillian medley of over-heard Jolson songs, the best of them for my money probably being Judy putting on a one-woman show for Norman in her own living room.Both leads you feel get right into their roles only very occasionally teetering into florid melodrama. Jack Carson and Ronald Bickford also deserve praise for their supporting turns, the former as Maine's long suffering press agent who eventually has his day and the latter as the supportive, nurturing film producer caught between both camps.Sure the ending is maybe slightly over the top as Maine makes the ultimate sacrifice for his wife but you'd have to be made of stone not to be affected by the final scene with Garland in close-up delivering one of the classic final lines you'll ever hear in any movie.This is a musical good enough to stand as a drama without its songs and with songs good enough to carry any other straight movie with even the flimsiest of story-lines. Put both these aspects together, mix in with convincing performances by the leading actors and a fine soundtrack and you really do have one of the very best musicals, indeed calling it just a musical is to somehow miss the point of a brave, ambitious and greatly rewarding film.

gavin6942 A film star (James Mason) helps a young singer and actress (Judy Garland) find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career on a downward spiral.Judy Garland is known fora couple things. Being the star of "Wizard of Oz". Having a singing and acting career marred by drug problems. And being the mother of Liza Minnelli. This film sort of takes place in that second of three things. While not about the addictions she herself had, it definitely gives her a chance to shine.James Mason has an incredible voice. Eddie Izzard knows that, and so does anyone who sees this movie. It may be a showcase for Garland, but he steals plenty of scenes with that voice alone.

Tad Pole . . . by a craven Hollywood community totally cowed by the Witch Hunters in the voting for the "best picture" Oscar of 1954, as American turncoat super-snitch director Elia Kazan's anti-Labor screed, ON THE WATERFRONT, took a cowardly plurality of votes away from A STAR IS BORN. The latter George Cukor picture is a landmark in Irony, as the real-life primary victim of Tinsel Town's "studio system" at its worst--Judy Garland--is forced into essentially caricaturing her past and future Passion of Frances Ethel Gumm, right down to being convinced by the make-up department that she has a Frankenstein face. Remarkably, Cukor presents James Mason's elderly alcoholic character, "Norman Maine," as STAR's tragic focus. As Gertrude Stein always said, "a drunk is a drunk is a drunk," and at "Norman's" age, the only pathos involved in his passing at sea is that he did not croak SOONER. Ms. Garland herself, expiring at age 47, Philip Seymour Hoffman (46), Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle (46), John Candy (43), Elvis (42), Paul Walker (40), Chris Penn (40), Anna Nicole Smith (39), Corey Haim (38), Sal Mineo (37), Bobby Darin (37), Robert Williams (37), Marilyn Monroe (36), Jayne Mansfield (34), John Belushi (33), Carole Lombard (33), Chris Farley (33), Brittany Murphy (32), Bruce Lee (32), Rudolph Valentino (31), Heath Ledger (28), Brandon Lee (28), Edie Sedgwick (28), Jean Harlow (26), Brad Renfro (25), James Dean (24), River Phoenix (23), Aaliyah (22), Freddie Prinze (22), Heather O'Rourke (12), and countless other actors died young enough to become tragic figures in Real Life; not so "Norman Maine," even in fiction. And, of course, Judy herself filmed STAR exactly halfway between playing OZ's 12-year-old "Dorothy Gale" and passing away herself, which constitutes the biggest "tragedy" of all!

Dave from Ottawa This was an attempt to restore this classic musical romance to its full almost 3 hour length. Unfortunately the 'restored' bits are often still photos taken from the production photo library, with the restored dialogue track playing behind them. Better than nothing, it at least gives the viewer a glimpse of what the total package once contained; a more complete restoration would certainly have been preferable. That said, this is Judy Garland's last great screen musical performance - before pills and stage fright made her too unreliable to center a film around - and it is a wonderful showcase for one of the Hollywood Musical genre's greatest talents. As an actress she had few peers and as a singer none, and this film and especially its staged production numbers create a permanent record of this. Recommended for any fan of the musical genre and essential for any fan of Judy's. Oh and James Mason was in it too...