Read A Star Is Born: The Making of the 1954 Movie and Its 1983 Restoration Online
Authors: Ronald Haver
In the same letter, dated September zo, Cukor asked Hart:
What do you think of this bit of business for scene seven? In the Wild West
Show, the star performer is on his horse, stage centre, and the cowgirls ride
by him very rapidly from one side of the stage to the other. He ropes them
as they cross in front of him. It might be amusing to have some attractive
girls on their horses, waiting in the wings to make their entrance. Norman
flirts and carries on with one of them. There might even be a suggestion of his threatening to mount-not the girl-but the horse, and ride on during the act. This could give a sense of danger during the scene with Libby, as though Norman might do something very foolhardy at that moment.
Cukor's constant worrying about the script and suggesting new ideas to Hart may seem a form of badgering, but they were simply his way of straightening out what he felt to be "kinks" in the screenplay. He remarked once:
I rely a great deal on the script, perhaps because I came from the theatre. I have always had a respect almost amounting to reverence for the writer and his contribution.... If it's good, if it works, I stick with it, every comma, every pause. I have ideas about the script, of course, yet I would not call myself a writer ... maybe what [stops me] is the physical writing of the thing. I could never undertake to write a scene.*
I can only have suggestions that work or don't work.... Damn few directors can write ... I have too much respect for good writers to think of taking over that job.
One of the main reasons that Cukor was writing to Hart so often, aside from his concerns about the script, was that preproduction on the film had reached the point where nothing more could be done until the new WarnerScope lenses arrived from Germany. This finally happened on September io, and a series of tests with this "improved" lens showed that it could pass light slightly faster and had a greater depth of field (the distance from front to back in which a scene is in focus). But there were still distortion problems and a distracting horizontal curvature. Cukor and Luft thought the results not much better than with the older lenses, but Warner seemed resolute that they use WarnerScope on A Star Is Born. An impasse had been reached, and no one seemed able to convince Warner that the picture might suffer from using the anamorphic lens.
Cukor by now had almost resigned himself to filming A Star Is Born in WarnerScope and decided that a little homework was in order. The Hollywood premiere of The Robe was set for September 24 at Grauman's Chinese; at Cukor's suggestion, arrangements had been made for a Warner camera crew to cover the opening, in the hope that some of the footage the crowds, the glamour, and the excitement-could be used in A Star Is
Born. "We might get some interesting details," Cukor commented in a
memo to Luft. "I think I might go myself to take a look at things." The
event was every bit as spectacular as the New York opening-everybody
who was anybody in Hollywood at the time was jammed into the theater
to see whether CinemaScope was really "the new dimensional photographic marvel" that the ads and the New York reviews said it was. The
consensus that evening was that it was a milestone of sorts; but Cukor had
some serious reservations: "It is the most terrible shape.... There is hardly
any cutting at all; much of the picture is filmed in long static takes, which
could be good if it were handled properly. The screen is immense, and they
hadn't really worked out what to do with all that space, so the composition
was very awkward, very unimaginative."
The premiere was covered for Warners by cinematographer Winton
Hoch, using the three-strip Technicolor camera and a standard camera
equipped with a WarnerScope lens and Eastman Color film. Seeing this
footage and comparing the two processes finally convinced Warner that
Luft and Cukor were right. The WarnerScope images, even with the
dozens of searchlights that were lining the boulevard for the occasion, were
grainy, muddy, poorly defined, whereas the Technicolor footage was bright,
sharp, and lush. Since much of A Star Is Born took place at night, it was
obvious that photographing the picture with the WarnerScope lenses
would detract from its effectiveness. For all the tests that had been made
with the anamorphic lens, no one had thought to test it under nighttime
conditions.
So Warner reluctantly gave in, and on September 30 Cukor exultantly
wrote to Hart: "THE DYE IS CAST! We start shooting-willy-nilly-
next Monday, October fifth, or very soon thereafter. I'm happy to say, no
WarnerScope or WarnerColor-it's to be done on a large screen (not as
hue-age as CinemaScope) and in Glorious Technicolor ... Everything is
going forward most satisfactorily ... casting, the sets.... As you know,
George Huene is our color co-ordinator. His ideas for the use of color are
thrilling. We're all of us full of hope and confidence and excited. We'll do
our best not to let you down."
In line with Hoyningen-Huene's ideas, Cukor sent a memo to Luft and
the assistant directors saying, "I would like to make it a practice that we
control the color of the clothes worn by the extras and bit players before
we go into each scene. This should be co-ordinated with Mr. Huene." Hoyningen-Huene himself expounded on this later: "Color pictures usually
have too much color. Color should be disciplined and an emotional stimulant. A dramatic presentation selects only those events and characters that
move it forward and keep it within boundaries. Extraneous incidents and
people are left out. We tried to do this in A Star Is Born. Instead of
permitting just any color to get into a scene and react on the consciousness
of the audience, we selected our colors carefully, so that each had something to do with the mood or characterizations. Two basic things were
considered in evolving the color patterns of scenes: (I) the mood, (2) the
color of Judy Garland's costumes. Colors of everything else were designed
in keeping with these rules." In line with this dictum, it was HoyningenHuene's responsibility, in Cukor's words, "to select every bit of material.
... If we need a grey on a wall or a chair, anywhere, he looks it over,
scrutinizes it, and if it's the wrong grey, too blue perhaps, he changes it.
He edits color and nothing escapes him."
To edit color, of course, it must first be tested, and since the color of
Garland's costumes was one of the primary factors in the color scheme, they
all had to be tested, preferably while she was wearing them, as they might
not work with her makeup and her complexion. Here Cukor et al. ran into
their first bit of Garland temperament. She kept postponing the costume
and makeup tests, and time was running short if the scheduled start date
of October 5 was to be met. It may be that she was harried with too many
details piling up on her at the last minute; or perhaps she was not in physical
shape to be testing costumes-she was still dieting, and the somewhat too
rapid weight loss was giving her a haggard look. Garland had always been
sensitive about her looks, ever since she was described by a well-meaning
Louis B. Mayer as "my little hunchback" in the early days of her career.
In view of her lack of confidence in her personal appearance, the idea of
photographic tests may have been nerve-wracking; also, the realization that
the picture was about to go into production may have unnerved her. She
was making her first film in four years-for her own company, true; but still,
the pressure to prove herself all over again to Hollywood and the world must
have been frightening.
Whatever the reasons, Garland kept delaying these all-important tests,
prompting Jack Warner to send a memo to Luft: "I understand that Judy
will not test any wardrobe until Monday or Tuesday. This means that you
will not be able to get the film back from Technicolor until Thursday or
Friday, and if we are going to find ourselves behind the eight ball again ... I am worried about all the delays and nervous tension, and we want to get this picture going."
Luft, as producer, was supposed to be able to control his star, but his star was also his wife. The upshot of Luft's persuasive attempts was that Garland refused to test her costumes until she felt like it, so the start date was pushed back once more, this time to October 12. This latest delay cost the picture the services of cameraman Harry Stradling, who had agreed to do the film based on the September start date and a three-month shooting schedule, after which he would immediately film the Warners epic Helen of Troy in Europe. With A Star Is Born now due to begin in October, Stradling bowed out and was replaced by Winton Hoch, who had already photographed the second-unit footage of the Hollywood premiere of The Robe which was to be used in the opening sequences of A Star Is Born, intercut with material that Cukor would film at the Shrine Auditorium, thereby giving an air of realism to the staged activity. Hoch was one of the pre-eminent Technicolor cameramen, having won three Academy Awards for his color work, most recently for John Ford's The Quiet Man in 1952. A former research chemist with Technicolor and a stickler for by-the-book shooting, he was notorious for refusing to shoot sequences because the conditions weren't "perfect" for Technicolor photography. Cukor probably knew of Hoch's reputation for stubbornness, but he always liked working with gifted professionals and so made no objection when Hoch was added to his staff. Besides, he had other things on his mind. In the week between October 5 and the new start date of October 12, Warner for some reason decided, as Cukor related to Hart, "to make the picture not only on the large screen in Technicolor but in WarnerScope as well. That means that your immortal prose will be played twice. The task looks formidable but ... what is the Warner motto? Love conquers all?" This conceit on the part of Warner lasted only briefly, until it was pointed out to him that it would double both the shooting schedule and the budget; moreover, the studio had only three WarnerScope lenses, two of which were in use on a Guy Madison Western called Rear Guard while the other was scheduled for a Doris Day musical called Lucky Me, due to go into production within the month.*
There was also Albert Warner's reservation, voiced earlier in the month, that he did not think it wise to use something as untried and untested as WarnerScope on a picture that looked to become an expensive
prestige item. The process might work to the advantage of low-budget
Westerns and musicals, but it would not necessarily be advantageous to the
Garland film. As treasurer of the company, Albert Warner still was watching carefully the fantastic public and exhibitor response to CinemaScope,
and he did not want to get into a marketing war with 20th Century-Fox
by trying to introduce another new process that could only place second
in the anamorphic sweepstakes. Indeed, he had tried to talk economic sense
to his younger brother and convince him to take Fox's offer of a license for
CinemaScope, but Jack was adamant about sticking with WarnerScope. He
did, however, finally agree that A Star Is Born should be filmed in widescreen only; so a press release, carefully worded to put the situation in the
best possible light, was issued, stating:
This announcement brought a great sigh of relief from Luft, Cukor, and everyone else involved with the film, and it almost immediately unleashed the whirlwind of activity that would finally put the long-delayed production in front of the Technicolor cameras.
In late July, the latest approved script had been sent to the production offices of Warner veteran T. C. ("Tenny") Wright, eagle-eyed, tight-fisted, and one of Jack Warner's most valued servants. As general studio manager, he would be responsible for seeing that production # 386 was brought in on schedule and on budget-no easy task. In his office, with the unit manager, Robert Heasley, who would be his surrogate, Wright and the
assistant directors broke the script down into a short synopsis of each scene,
describing the set, the cast needed, including bit players and extras, and
their wardrobe. From this breakdown, a shooting schedule was made up,
estimating the number of days each character actually worked, how many
days each would be "carried" (not needed for work but kept on the payroll
for future use), the total number of days needed for the completion of each
character's role, and the amount of time allotted for each set or location.
This shooting schedule was then sent to the various departments involved
in the film, where it was integrated into their overall work load.
The first and most important of these was the art department, where the
thirty sets needed for the picture were in various stages of preparation,
based on the production meetings, conferences with Cukor and the art
director, and Gene Allen's rough sketches. The detailed blueprints drawn
up here were then sent to the construction/crafts building (actually one of
the old glass-enclosed silent stages), where they were built in the order in
which they would be photographed. These sets ranged from the comparatively simple (a tunnel under the Shrine Auditorium) to the more elaborate
(Norman Maine's home, the newlyweds' Malibu beach house, a detailed
reproduction of the famed Cocoanut Grove, and an expanded, glamorized
version of Jack Warner's personal office to be used as Oliver Niles's executive suite). Constructing, painting, and decorating these sets was one of the
costliest items in the picture's budget. Even though sections of older,
existing sets could be used, the costs of new materials, practical plumbing,
plaster, floors, woodwork, iron works, rugs, paintings, furniture, etc. were
enormous. Given Cukor's meticulous attention to detail, HoyningenHuene's unusual ideas for color, and Allen's modernistic interior designs,
the problems of color, texture, wallpapers, paints, lacquers, and varnishes
took on more complication and cost than was usual for a Warners film.