A STAR IS BORN- 1937

A STAR IS BORN

(1937)

this version  is based on the pre-code 1932- version-

what price hollywood

remade in 1954 with judy garland & james mason, 

then again in 1976 with barbara striesand & kris kristofferson.

A Star Is Born 

 1937 American Technicolor romantic drama film produced by David O. Selznick, 

directed by William A. Wellman from a script by 

Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell.

starring Janet Gaynor as an aspiring Hollywood actress, 

and Fredric March as a fading movie star who helps launch her career. 

The supporting cast features Adolphe Menjou, May Robson, Andy Devine,

 Lionel Stander and Owen Moore.

A Star Is Born was filmed from October to December 1936 with an estimated budget of $1,173,639, and premiered in Los Angeles, California on April 20, 1937

 at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

 The film's New York premiere took place two days later at Radio City Music Hall.

It is not known how much Dorothy Parker contributed to the finished script. When she first saw the film, Parker was proud of her contribution and boasted about both the script and the film, but in later life she believed that she had contributed nothing of significance.

Early in their careers, Budd Schulberg (then a script reader for David O. Selznick) and Ring Lardner, Jr. (who was working in Selznick's publicity department) were assigned to write some additional dialogue for the film, a collaboration which produced Janet Gaynor's (and the film's) final words: 

"This is Mrs. Norman Maine." 

The line was used again in the 1954 Warner Bros. musical remake starring Judy Garland and James Mason. George Cukor, who directed the remake, suggested adding the scene in the 1937 film where Menjou offers the fading star a supporting role.

Some film historians believe that the marriage of Barbara Stanwyck and Frank Fay was the film's real-life inspiration. John Bowers has also been identified as inspiration for the Norman Maine character and the dramatic suicide-by-drowning scene near the end of the film (Bowers drowned in November 1936). The film contains several inside jokes, including Gaynor's brief imitations of Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, and Mae West; the "Crawford Smear", referring to Joan Crawford's lipstick; and the revelation that the glamorous Norman Maine's real last name is Hinkle. (Hinkle was the real last name of silent film star Agnes Ayres, and not far removed from Fredric March's real last name, Bickel.)

This film also has some similarity to the earlier film What Price Hollywood? (1932), released by RKO Radio Pictures. The 1932 film's original title was The Truth About Hollywood based on a story by Adela Rogers St. Johns. St. Johns loosely based her plot on the experiences of actress Colleen Moore and her husband, alcoholic producer John McCormick (1893–1961), and the life and death of director Tom Forman, who committed suicide following a nervous breakdown.

Four years after What Price Hollywood? was released, Selznick approached George Cukor and asked him to direct A Star Is Born. Cukor felt the plot was too similar to What Price Hollywood? so he declined. RKO executives considered filing a plagiarism suit against Selznick International Pictures because of the similarities in the story, but eventually chose not to take legal action. Cukor later directed the 1954 musical remake starring Judy Garland.

A common Hollywood myth about the film is that Lana Turner appeared as an extra in one of the scenes in the film. Turner often denied the myth over the years, mentioning that she was discovered several months after the picture had finished production.