The team that created The Sound of Music, Julie Andrews, director Robert Wise and producer Saul Chaplin were golden people in Hollywood after 1966. With the incredible success of The Sound of Music, 20th Century Fox just opened the checkbook up and gave them another mammoth budget for a mammoth musical. The result was Star.
Through no fault of its own, Star flopped badly and Julie would only do one more musical film after this, Darling Lili, which also had a similar fate. Public tastes had changed, musicals were passé and they were darned expensive to make.
Still the lengthy biography in song of one of the best stage stars in the English speaking world Gertrude Lawrence is an entertaining film. You'll get a good first hand knowledge about Lawrence to whom the world of play and make believe on stage came first and foremost. The film itself takes a lot of liberties.
For one her lengthy involvement with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. is left out. In one of her few film appearances, she co-starred with Fairbanks in Mimi which is also one of the few films of her's available on VHS.
For that matter her film career, spotty though it was is completely left out. Probably her best work is in Rembrandt opposite Charles Laughton which is also available. Not available sad to say is her final film, The Glass Menagerie where she played Amanda Wingfield.
Best part of the film is the recreation of the musical numbers that Lawrence made famous by Andrews. Gertrude Lawrence had some of the best songwriters composing for her, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Kurt Weill and of course her lifelong friend, Noel Coward, played here beautifully by Daniel Massey. My favorite though is that old English Music Hall number, Burlington Bertie from Bow. That should be shown as an MTV video for seniors.
Since the film only takes us to 1940 we miss the final triumph of her career as Anna Leonowens in The King and I and its sterling team of songwriters, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, II. Star ends with her a smash hit in Lady in the Dark and newly married to banker/theater producer Richard Aldrich played here by Richard Crenna.
When Gertrude Lawrence died in 1952 the lights of Broadway and Drury Lane in London dimmed in tribute to one of the best performers to grace both sides of the Atlantic.
Star is certainly a star vehicle for Julie Andrews. She gives it her best shot, she certainly can't be blamed for changing times and taste.
Through no fault of its own, Star flopped badly and Julie would only do one more musical film after this, Darling Lili, which also had a similar fate. Public tastes had changed, musicals were passé and they were darned expensive to make.
Still the lengthy biography in song of one of the best stage stars in the English speaking world Gertrude Lawrence is an entertaining film. You'll get a good first hand knowledge about Lawrence to whom the world of play and make believe on stage came first and foremost. The film itself takes a lot of liberties.
For one her lengthy involvement with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. is left out. In one of her few film appearances, she co-starred with Fairbanks in Mimi which is also one of the few films of her's available on VHS.
For that matter her film career, spotty though it was is completely left out. Probably her best work is in Rembrandt opposite Charles Laughton which is also available. Not available sad to say is her final film, The Glass Menagerie where she played Amanda Wingfield.
Best part of the film is the recreation of the musical numbers that Lawrence made famous by Andrews. Gertrude Lawrence had some of the best songwriters composing for her, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Kurt Weill and of course her lifelong friend, Noel Coward, played here beautifully by Daniel Massey. My favorite though is that old English Music Hall number, Burlington Bertie from Bow. That should be shown as an MTV video for seniors.
Since the film only takes us to 1940 we miss the final triumph of her career as Anna Leonowens in The King and I and its sterling team of songwriters, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, II. Star ends with her a smash hit in Lady in the Dark and newly married to banker/theater producer Richard Aldrich played here by Richard Crenna.
When Gertrude Lawrence died in 1952 the lights of Broadway and Drury Lane in London dimmed in tribute to one of the best performers to grace both sides of the Atlantic.
Star is certainly a star vehicle for Julie Andrews. She gives it her best shot, she certainly can't be blamed for changing times and taste.