NFR Project: 'A Star Is Born' (1954)

 

NFR Project: “A Star is Born”

Dir: George Cukor

Scr: Moss Hart

Pho: Sam Leavitt

Ed: Folmar Blangsted

Premiere: Sept. 12, 1954

182/154/178 min.

This film is all about the wonder that is Judy Garland.

The childhood star of The Wizard of Oz was afflicted with illness and substance abuse problems as her career progressed at MGM. She was universally popular, but she was manipulated and abused by those in charge of her career. Gradually, she became incapable of performing. In 1950, her contract with MGM was suspended.

After some rehab and a return to live performance, she and her then-husband and -manager Sid Luft came up with the idea to remake William Wellman’s 1937 melodrama A Star Is Born as a vehicle for her comeback.

This time, the plot of the movie was augmented with a number of musical performances by Garland. This hybrid of musical theater and melodrama proved to be a winner.

Garland plays Esther Blodgett, a struggling performer in L.A. trying to get noticed. She meets Norman Maine (James Mason), a matinee idol with a severe drinking problem. He falls for her and helps her break into the big time. She becomes a big star, with a new name, Vicki Lester – but at the same time, Norman’s career goes to hell in a handbasket. After an attempt at rehab, he finally gives up and kills himself, walking into the ocean. Vicky/Esther appears at a benefit immediately after, proudly identifying herself s “Mrs. Norman Maine.”

Garland suffers exquisitely throughout the film. She loves Norman, but his self-destructive behavior drives her to distraction. Judy does the best acting of her career in the offstage portions of the film, and dazzles during the musical sequences. (Her big number, the “Born In a Trunk” sequence, was filmed after Cukor left the production, and was inserted to beef up her screen time.)

The initial cut of the film was 182 minutes, but the studio cut it down by a half-hour in order to accommodate more showings in theaters. Decades later, much of the footage was restored, giving us a much better sense of story than the original commercial release.

Cukor’s ability to capture the feelings of women onscreen was unmatched, and his visual sense is impeccable. Working in Technicolor and CinemaScope for the first time, he makes it look easy. This is still the definitive version of this classic show-biz story.

The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: A Time Out of War.

NFR Project: 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' (1954)

 

NFR Project: “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”

Dir: Stanley Donen

Scr: Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, Dorothy Kingsley

Pho: George Folsey

Ed: Ralph E. Winters

Premiere: Dec. 20, 1954

102 min.

Ho boy. All right, kids, read Liz Gloyn’s hilarious and accurate assessment of this film at the National Film Registry. It’s right on target.

This film is problematic to say the least. It endorses abduction and (near) statutory rape. It proclaims Man as the Unmoved Mover and Woman as the clay upon which he works. It reinforces every white heterosexual norm in existence. This is an all-white musical for an all-white audience.

The reason it made it onto the Registry is its astonishing dance sequences. The brilliant Stanley Donen, fully primed to film dance after making movies with Gene Kelly, directed the film with largely studio-bound perfection. As no one ever had tried before, he supported the performers with an understanding of how they fit the film space. That, and he was shooting in CinemaScope. He utilizes his expanded canvas to its uttermost, creating lovingly staged ensemble pieces and exuberant solos.

The story is regressive. It is derived from Stephen Vincent Benet’s 1938 short story, “The Sobbin’ Women.” This car-crash musical is set in Oregon in 1850. There are seven Pontipee brothers living in the wilderness together, all with flaming red hair. Their eldest brother Adam (Howard Keel) goes to town to “get” a wife. He finds Milly (Jane Powell) and proposes. That day. She accepts, of course, and back they go to their backwoods home.

There she discovers Adam’s six other brothers. She civilizes them, and brings them to a barn raising. The brothers, providentially, discover six eligible young women who, appropriately pair off with each brother. This enrages the townsfolk, who drive the Pontipees out.

Winter comes, and the men pine for their women. Adam reads to them one of Milly’s books, Plutarch’s Parallel Lives. He comes across the story of the Rape of the Sabine Women by the Romans. The seven decide to sneak into town and kidnap all their special ladies! Like the Romans! Yeah!

So they do. They trigger an avalanche, separating the townsmen from them for the time being. But oh golly! They forgot to kidnap the preacher! The men go live in the barn, the women take the house. Adam goes away to a trapping cabin. Milly finds she is pregnant. She has her and Adam’s child. Adam returns; he and Milly make up. The angry townsfolk arrive. Every girl claims the baby is hers. Everyone gets married immediately. The End.

It’s ridiculous. The misogyny is palpable. And it is executed in the highest MGM tradition, lavishly staged, costumed to a T, overflowing with talent, lit and shot with meticulous care.

The barn-raising sequence is one of the most captivating dance numbers ever filmed. Choreographer Michael Kidd was a genius, and this is his finest work. The brothers, clad in primary colors, woo the girls who are bust dancing with the men of the town. As the music plays, the women are traded back and forth by their opposing partners, in a delirious display of timing and agility. The men compete, bouncing on suspended wooden boards and performing all manner of astonishing feats. Donen keeps the camera low the more to admire the incredible moves of Kidd’s dancers.

Shortly after this, the brothers and the townsmen compete in raising a barn. This leads to an all-out brawl that ends with the complete collapse of the building’s frame as the brothers stand triumphant, untouched, in the center, surrounded by their prone foes. It’s a manly musical. The fight is shot perfectly, quietly escalating in intensity until the screen explodes with flying fists and bodies. It’s aestheticized violence, a comedy of mayhem.

And then there’s axe dance in the snow. The men (or their overdubbers) sing “Lonesome Polecat” while wielding sharp tools. It’s inventive, but it’s kitschy beyond belief, seeing these men cavorting in slow motion in a studio blizzard. Plus they sing, “But a man can’t sleep/When he sleeps with sheep.” Yeah.

So there you have it. Something really strange from the past that wouldn’t fly today. But as a film musical, it’s a dance-lover’s dream.

The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: A Star is Born.

NFR Project: 'Salt of the Earth' (1954)

 

NFR Project: “Salt of the Earth”

Dir: Herbert J. Biberman

Scr: Michael Wilson

Pho: Stanley Meredith, Leonard Stark

Ed: Joan Laird, Ed Spiegel

Premiere: March 14, 1954

94 min.

It’s an extraordinary film, still ahead of its time.

First, read the splendid essay by Stacie Seifrit-Griffin at the National Film Registry. It covers all the points I was to address: therefore, I can only add my impressions to the conversation.

Salt of the Earth is radical in every way. It’s a how-to for strikers. It outlines the challenges and roadblocks that ordinary workers have to face when they want to better their lot collectively. It advocates for women and minorities. It offers the hope of eventual triumph over the negative forces of unrestrained capitalism. And it does so while remaining viable as a film. A project like this could easily become pedantic and lecturing. 

It was the creation of a group of exiled artists. Several people involved in this film were blacklisted as a result of their refusal to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee, including the director, the screenwriter, and several of the actors. They gathered in New Mexico to shoot the story of a miners’ strike, a topic no right-thinking mainstream movie studio would ever think of tackling. It would be one of the few films to be made outside of Hollywood during this period. It was the first and only film to be blacklisted.

In the film, the men who work in the mines strike for better conditions. They are harassed by the police, who are in the pay of the rich industrialist who owns the mine. After they are forbidden to picket the mine’s entrance, their women step in and march for them. The women and children are hauled off to jail, but eventually released.

While the women are organizing, the men are relegated to doing housework, which they find as onerous as mining for zinc. The women declare that they seek liberation and equality.

The emotional center of the film is the new mother Esperanza (Rosaura Revueltas), whose husband (Juan Chacon) is beaten and jailed early on in the strike. She is transformed from a beaten-down housewife into a dynamic labor leader in the course of the film.

Finally, the company evicts Esperanza and her family from their home. From all around come men and women determined to stop the eviction from taking place. The company finally capitulates and decides to settle. The strike is a success.

The film is shot in plain, neorealist style. The actors, most of whom are non-professional, are convincing. No one would repeat this experiment in filmmaking. The principals were harassed for making this film. Their careers went nowhere. They paid the price for speaking truth to power.

The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.