
A Star Is Born
1937, Drama, 1h 51m
20 Reviews 2,500+ RatingsYou might also like
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A Star Is Born Photos
Movie Info
Cast & Crew
Esther Victoria Blodgett
Norman Maine
Oliver Niles
Lettie Blodgett
Danny McGuire
Matt Libby
Critic Reviews for A Star Is Born
All Critics (20) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (20)
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Does the industry a marked service. Without missing its comedies or its fascinations of whitewashing its follies and its heartbreaks it contrives to give an essentially authentic and a wholesome portrait.
October 10, 2018 | Full Review… -
this 1937 William Wellman-David O. Selznick production (itself a partial remake of Cukor's 1932 What Price Hollywood?) is extremely watchable, not least because of the Technicolor portrait it paints of art deco Hollywood.
October 3, 2018 | Full Review… -
The highly commendable results are achieved with a minimum of satiric hokum and a maximum of honest story telling.
August 28, 2008 | Full Review… -
Wellman's non-musical version, though starting more sentimentally with Gaynor as a wide-eyed innocent dreaming every girl's dream of stardom... develops a much more caustic edge, maintaining a bitterly critical distance from the dream factory.
February 9, 2006 | Full Review… -
Good entertainment by any standards, including the artistic, and convincing proof that Hollywood need not travel to Ruritania for its plots; there is drama aplenty in its own backyard.
May 20, 2003 | Full Review… -
One of the most humanly revealing pictures of the movie colony that the screen has ever produced.
August 7, 2019 | Full Review…
Audience Reviews for A Star Is Born
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Oct 06, 2018For a film about acting, it is frustrating that we never see how Esther's evolves or Norman's gets worse; besides, this feels completely dated now, shifting focus halfway through from its weak female protagonist to a selfish male and coming off as awfully sexist with its traditional values.Carlos M Super Reviewer
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Apr 07, 2014This oft repeated film started off here with all the guts and determination of a woman who must make it in Hollywood. This remakes the best version.John B Super Reviewer
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Mar 30, 2014The satire is pretty light, but you really wouldn't expect a hard hitting take-down of Hollywood from a Selznick production. Compared with the two remakes that followed, this one is actually the funniest (no doubt due to Dorothy Parker's involvement with the screenplay) and its that coupled with the performances of Gaynor and March that makes the whole thing worthwhile.Alec B Super Reviewer
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Jan 09, 2014The original. 1937. Typical of Hollywood, it's slick and flush with warnings of the dangers and lies of Hollywood while at the same time glamorizing them. Anyway, a wide-eyed gal from the sticks goes to L.A. to make it in the big time only to fall for a star who conversely fading, etc., etc., etc. Why does she make it? Why does he fail? That's not shown, only implied. Janet Gaynor was an unknown quantity to me, though a big star in her time, and she nearly won me over by the film's end, especially the scene where, as a waitress, she auditions for Tinseltown bigwigs, impersonating other well known 1930's stars. But the film belongs to Fredric March who is introduced as unlikable, seldom veers far from that, and yet must maintain our interest so we can not like him some more. Adolf Menjou, yet again, plays the supporting character/deus ex machina throughout unobtrusively. Not bad.Kevin M. W Super Reviewer
A Star Is Born Quotes
Esther Blodgett: | Hello, everybody. This is Mrs. Norman Maine. |
Norman Maine: | Do you think I'm slipping? |
Oliver Niles: | Can you take it? |
Norman Maine: | Yeah, go ahead. |
Oliver Niles: | The tense is wrong. You're not slipping - you've slipped. |
Esther Blodgett: | Some day you won't laugh at me! I'm going out and have a real life! I'm gonna be somebody! |
Casey Burke: | His work is beginning to interfere with his drinking |
Casey Burke: | His work is beginning to interfere with his drinking. |
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