I hate to fly in the face of 99.9 percent of those who consider "A Star Is Born" a masterpiece as well as Miss Garland's greatest performance. There are many fine moments within this film, and though Cukor was already on a slide, he uses Cinemascope beautifully--a rare accomplishment for a non-epic. But no matter what purists insist, the film WAS over-long, Miss Garland WAS too old, too harsh-looking, too inherently savvy to be convincing as a struggling young band-singer. To counter this basic miscasting, Cukor encourages her to bathos rather than pathos. She's a raw nerve from the get-go, and that doesn't work for her character, at least not at first. And are we to believe a girl who belts out "The Man That Got Away" as she does, is not getting anywhere on radio?! The more I see of "ASIB" the more self-indulgent it seems. Everybody plays to the balcony--in China! Although often this over-acting has great power, no matter how obvious the effort. ("Be tragic, no--more tragic!" you can almost hear Cukor saying to his stars, especially to quick-to-go-misty-eyed Judy.) Yes, yes, Judy should have won her Oscar, not only for the best of her acting and singing, scattered through "ASIB" but for the body of work, which was already legendary. I mean, Grace Kelly? What a joke. But Judy was not popular within the industry and her little ways had helped put the film over-budget.
For my money, if you want to see the proper use of Judy's latter-day talents and persona, watch "I Could Go on Singing." Melodramatic and obvious--a soap opera--but playing an ersatz version of herself, she is riveting and appropriate.
For my money, if you want to see the proper use of Judy's latter-day talents and persona, watch "I Could Go on Singing." Melodramatic and obvious--a soap opera--but playing an ersatz version of herself, she is riveting and appropriate.