8mm Forum: A Star is Born (1937)

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on July 01, 2008, 08:30 PM:

Chips looking for (potentially) a copy of this and my aquiring a copy of this title recently from Joe Taffis (thanks Joe!) has led me to write a review of this title.

Quite frankly, I wasn't expecting much in this film. I got a bargain on this print and I thought I'd give it a watch. I was surprised!

This is the classic rags to riches story of a young woman who desires to leave the ranch (literally) and make her own way off to Hollywood, to become a star.

Her grandma gives her some money to make the trip. This first scene is the one most marred by somewhat corny dialogue, firmly anchored in 1930's sensibilities. Her and her grandma go to the train station together, after grandma has given her a pep talk about "sticking to her guns". (good color in this night scene AND on this print.

She arrives in Hollywood, (nice scenes of assorted classic night spots of Hollywood), and finds a boarding house to stay at, (managed by the always funny Edgar Kennedy). She also meets a fellow boarder by name of Andy Devine (classic side kick actor, think "Stagecoach" (1939) who plays an assistant director who can't get any work.

She goes to all the agencies, and gets nowhere.

Finally, Andy gets her a job as a waitress at a posh Hollywood party. There, she meets a nearly washed up alcoholic actor who instantly falls for her, (played by Fredrich March in another of His classic roles). He gets her a casting call and a screen test.

She gets casted across from him in his latest epic. She gets all the great reviews, and he gets all the ridicule. His star quality is nearly gone, while she skyrockets, he plummets.

Soon, he's out of his contract and slipping fast into hardcore alcoholism. She gets the Oscar; he stumbles in and goes off on a tirade how he's worthy of an Oscar for the worst performance,
( a well played scene ).

Shortly thereafter, he crashes a car and ends up in jail. She pleads with the judge to let him off into her care.

She speaks with the studio head that she is going to give up her career to nurse him back to health. He hears this, (as he's awakened) and can't let her do this. He takes one last look at her, repeating something he said to her when they first met, for he has looked out at the sunset on the beach behind thier house. It's his sunset. She doesn't catch on, when he said that he's going to take a walk on the beach.

He walks out into the surf and swims out into history.

The next day, the newspapers relate his drowning.

She is about to give up on Hollywood, when her grandmother, (who we haven't seen since the beginning) comes to see her, insisting that she doesn't give up on her dreams. She choses not to leave Hollywood, but in a press review, she stands forth proudly to state her name, with the last name of her dead husband that she loved so well.

The End.

This film was a lot better than I was expecting. I have tended to feel that thirties Hollywood films are a little too cheesy and not realistic, but this film surprised me.

There are some very real things to this film, almost a little TOO real. The press agent, who hates the falling star, berates him unmercifully after he has just gotten out of detox, and later openly makes fun of him even after he's just died ...

... and he never even pays for his actions, which is a rarity when you look at Hollywood at the time. If someone was bad or evil, they paid for it by the end of the film.

When she gets out of the funeral, a fan actually has the gaul to snatch, rip off her veil exclaiming "Your better off without him!", making her shreik in agony.

... and then, there's the way that they tackle the way he commits suicide. It's beautiful as well as tragic, and it really caught me off guard. His downward spiral from great star to burnt out alcoholic is very realistically done.

Now, onto the print ...

I will have to look up who manufactured this print, as it doesn't have the original leader on it, (if someone knows, please post.) I can state the quality of the print.

Sharpness

I was first struck by the sharpness of this print. This is about the sharpest classic era print I have seen (I must confess that I haven't seen Derann's classic era prints), The grain is certainly within tolerable levels. It has a very easy focus.

Color

The print that I recieved has faded VERY slightly, but still has a decent amount of color, some scenes are far better than others. There are some close-up's of the woman that are just beautiful, while other scenes almost look very faded, but I think this could be change of reels OR the original negative varied more on some reels than other.

Contrast

The contrast can really very. As a general rule, this has decent contrast, but I must say, compared to Derann's modern prints, it does leave something to be desired. There are some scenes that are definitely too bright, which does mess with the color as well. Others are spot on, however, (the ending and the beach, for instance).

Sound

This is definitely a print that can do with a good sound restoration, (find a restored version on DVD), as the sound pops a good deal and crackles somewhat. I have to give a rather poor grading for the sound. At best, a "C". It is understandable, but poor.

This is definitely a film worth seeing in any format. For those who want relaistic portrayels of Hollywood, this is about the earliest example of such. I can reccomend this film, but beware of technical conditions

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on July 06, 2008, 10:40 AM:

Osi,

Thanks for the great review. I just wanted to point out that this version was actually released in 1937.

Doug

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on July 06, 2008, 03:27 PM:

Ahhh, my mistake. Makes the color all that much more special.

I still do not know what the name of the studio is that produced this on Super 8mm. Anybody know?

Posted by Marshall Crist (Member # 1312) on October 12, 2008, 01:00 PM:

Checked this out from the local library as a kid and loved it. It looked great, so I was surprised when various PD versions started coming out on VHS and they looked awful. At least there's one decent DVD now.

Posted by Jack Cleveland (Member # 4485) on December 05, 2014, 08:35 PM:

Is this title available on low fade stock? I've wanted a good print of this one for a long time.

Posted by Mark Silvester (Member # 929) on December 06, 2014, 06:41 AM:

Good film - how is the job hunting going. Best for Xmas to you and family.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on December 06, 2014, 01:57 PM:

To my best knowledge, this was sadly printed on fadey Eastman stock and I have never seen a good color print out there, only passable color.

My one hope, however, is that some of the classics (for instance, "The African Queen"), did make it onto Super 8 optical sound and if this one did as well, then there is the hope that this title will have great color to this day, but that's an unknown.

Mark, I'm not sure if "finding work" was directed to me, but I have been working all along, but just doing ebay sales and other over the internet work. It doesn't pay a lot, but it keeps what savings we have from being drained down just that much quicker.

It that was your meaning, then thanks for asking. [Smile]

btw, there is an excellent Bluray of this classic film that, for the most part, has very good color and is very sharp!

Posted by Jack Cleveland (Member # 4485) on December 07, 2014, 06:22 AM:

Osi- Same situation in 16mm for this title. Every print I have seen is in some stage of fade. I was hopeful that perhaps this one got better treatment on Super 8. I just bought a 16mm copy of "Nothing Sacred" in Cinecolor. Interesting look, but certainly not stunning IB Technicolor. I have the DVD from Kino. A blu-ray is probably the best I will ever find in any home media format.

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