How to described STAR! in a few words? An ill-conceived non-musical musical.
The biggest problem with STAR! and the reason it never caught on is because it's not a musical, a la THE SOUND OF MUSIC (SOM) or even THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, but a long-winded drama about a not very appealing musical star of the early century. Remove all the musical numbers in STAR! and it wouldn't make any difference to the disjointed story-line.
The project was basically an ill-conceived star-vehicle for Julie Andrews, who, with her SOM director, Robert Wise, wanted to recreate the success and magic they achieved with that classic musical. It's ill-conceived because the musical bits are not integral to the storyline. The songs themselves have nothing to do with Gertrude Lawrence herself. People don't start bursting into musical numbers, like most popular musicals. The only time Andrews sang was when she was on stage or at a party, which makes for a very static and dull non-musical musical. No mountains to sing on.
Another reason why STAR! was badly thought-out was the idea of doing a musical about Gertrude Lawrence, who wasn't a very nice person. I'm sure they tried to make her as appealing as possible and yet she still came across as someone who was extremely selfish, fickle, a little stupid (regarding her finances). Gertrude is a far cry from the lovable Maria and I'm sure people who enjoyed Andrews in SOM were understandably turned off by the unpleasant character she played in STAR! There wasn't enough beautiful window-dressing or scenery (the worse example of gratuitous scenery just for the sake of scenery is the whole moment on the French Riviera), or there weren't enough elaborate musical numbers to hide this plain fact.
Also, combine this ill-conceived project with the multiple narration techniques the director used here, such as small b&w flashbacks of Gertrude Lawrence's life; Gertrude looking at and reviewing those b&w flashback reels; and the main narration itself (as episodic and disjointed as it already was) and you have one over-directed and very long film, padded out with an endless number of musical numbers which have nothing to do with its central character, who's a moderately unpleasant musical star .
As ill-conceived as it was, there are still a lot of good things about STAR!. The cinematography is amazing (they don't shoot films like this anymore). Some of the musical numbers are fun, even if they mostly add nothing to the main story. And Andrews and Daniel Massey are excellent in their difficult roles. I really love the moment when the two act in a stage play. It's the best scene in the whole film.
But in hindsight, it's not surprising the movie was such a big flop.
The biggest problem with STAR! and the reason it never caught on is because it's not a musical, a la THE SOUND OF MUSIC (SOM) or even THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, but a long-winded drama about a not very appealing musical star of the early century. Remove all the musical numbers in STAR! and it wouldn't make any difference to the disjointed story-line.
The project was basically an ill-conceived star-vehicle for Julie Andrews, who, with her SOM director, Robert Wise, wanted to recreate the success and magic they achieved with that classic musical. It's ill-conceived because the musical bits are not integral to the storyline. The songs themselves have nothing to do with Gertrude Lawrence herself. People don't start bursting into musical numbers, like most popular musicals. The only time Andrews sang was when she was on stage or at a party, which makes for a very static and dull non-musical musical. No mountains to sing on.
Another reason why STAR! was badly thought-out was the idea of doing a musical about Gertrude Lawrence, who wasn't a very nice person. I'm sure they tried to make her as appealing as possible and yet she still came across as someone who was extremely selfish, fickle, a little stupid (regarding her finances). Gertrude is a far cry from the lovable Maria and I'm sure people who enjoyed Andrews in SOM were understandably turned off by the unpleasant character she played in STAR! There wasn't enough beautiful window-dressing or scenery (the worse example of gratuitous scenery just for the sake of scenery is the whole moment on the French Riviera), or there weren't enough elaborate musical numbers to hide this plain fact.
Also, combine this ill-conceived project with the multiple narration techniques the director used here, such as small b&w flashbacks of Gertrude Lawrence's life; Gertrude looking at and reviewing those b&w flashback reels; and the main narration itself (as episodic and disjointed as it already was) and you have one over-directed and very long film, padded out with an endless number of musical numbers which have nothing to do with its central character, who's a moderately unpleasant musical star .
As ill-conceived as it was, there are still a lot of good things about STAR!. The cinematography is amazing (they don't shoot films like this anymore). Some of the musical numbers are fun, even if they mostly add nothing to the main story. And Andrews and Daniel Massey are excellent in their difficult roles. I really love the moment when the two act in a stage play. It's the best scene in the whole film.
But in hindsight, it's not surprising the movie was such a big flop.