A Star Is Born: The Making of the 1954 Movie and Its 1983 Restoration (37 page)

While sets were being sketched and costumes designed, Ray Heindorf
and his staff were hard at work arranging and orchestrating the number;
and on Thursday, May 28, Garland began recording the songs and narration. Earlier, on May 17, Sid Luft had scheduled a screening of the incomplete film for several of his friends. Hearing of this, Warner "decided to
ask a few people working at our studio to whom I had promised to show
the picture." These "few people" included Mervyn LeRoy, Raoul Walsh,
Billy Wilder, Elia Kazan, George Stevens, and John Farrow. Warner was
proud of the film, but he also wanted the opinion of other professionals as
to what they liked or didn't like about it. The only person who responded
in writing, evidently, was Kazan, who was preparing an adaptation of John
Steinbeck's best-seller East of Eden, which Warner was trying to persuade
him to film in CinemaScope. Kazan's memo to Warner is interesting in its
insights about the process and the film:

Re: A Star Is Born. I think you were right in using CinemaScope there
... it gains immensely from the wide screen treatment. I am still against it for "Eden." We are going to have to depend entirely for our effect upon
how much human drama and emotion we can get on the screen. This to me
means only one thing: Close-ups.... Cukor, even in the dressing room scene,
which is beautifully played, had to rely upon a close two shot. I feel he
directed the scene, and Garland played it, beautifully. But I felt still that
photographically the old way offers much greater opportunity to get the very
most in effect out of human drama.... In A Star Is Born, it was worth giving
up a little here and there in the human scenes for what you got in the colorful
mass scenes and numbers. We have no numbers ... our drama is one of
interplay between characters.

Kazan wrote a much more honest (and critical) review of the film to his
old friend Moss Hart, in the hospital with a bad back:

I saw Star Is Born, and I thought Cukor had directed it without a sense of
proportion. Everything had been blown up or glamorized. Numbers which
were supposed to be the essence of informality were informal on such a huge
scale! I also thought he had put too much self-pity into the feelings of the
two leads. On the other hand, there is some magnificent work in it and Judy
has superb moments. I think it is a little swamped in its "show" aspects
... [but] it is a most colorful and lively show, with some especially good
scenes.

Hart evidently heard from several people about this screening, for he
wrote to Warner on May 25:

Dear Jack:

I have had a goodly number of reports from people to whom you have
shown the picture-all completely laudatory-but all complaining about the
length-particularly the beginning ... harmful and unnecessary length. So
much so that I am apprehensive that what appears to be a fine picture might
be jeopardized by an ... unwillingness to relinquish some parts for the good
of the whole. Therefore, I wonder if I might offer my services to the extent
of suggesting some cuts. It would have the virtue of me seeing everything
with a completely fresh eye, for certainly you must all have viewed the
picture so many times.... It would be too bad if all our efforts were to be
harmed by ... an unwillingness ... to make ... some necessary deletions
for the good of what appears to be from all the reports a quite wonderful
picture. You once promised me-I think it was a promise-that you would
send me on a print of the finished picture and let me make some suggestions for cuts. Isn't this now possible? ... If this is a presumption on my part,
please put it down to my continuing and abiding interest.

Warner, in a reply dated May 28, quickly tried to allay Hart's fears (and
turn aside his offer, albeit politely):

Dear Moss:

... The real lowdown on the showing of A Star Is Born is ... the picture
was way overlength and since this running, I personally cut out about 1500
feet. This should have been done before but I thought we should leave
everything in for this [showing]. However, after seeing the results of this
particular screening, I made the proper trims. In no way did they interfere
with the quality of the telling of the story.... Before the new number is
completed I can see at least five weeks' work. It is being put together with
intelligence and with an eye to quality as well as entertainment. When
everything is in the film, I will be more than happy to enlist your aid, but
if we take the film away from the Sound and Music Departments and send
it to you, it will be delayed [that much longer]. However, once we get the
picture finished and previewed and find anything wrong on which I think
you can be helpful, I will telephone you.... Between you and me, Moss,
there will be very little to cut in this picture once we get into the story. The
writing, direction and performances of the people themselves are so good
that there is nothing that really can be cut.... I am taking the responsibility
for editing . . . following the very intelligent manner in which George
assembled the film with the editor. . . . When the picture is finally put
together I think it will run three hours and from ten to fifteen minutes.... I cannot tell you in words how I feel about your kind interest in
the entire film. I know all of us will be proud of the outcome and will be
repaid many times over for all the hard work, headaches, heartaches and all
the other aches that go into the making of a film of this size.

"Born in a Trunk" went before the cameras as scheduled on June 30, 1954.
Sam Leavitt had moved to loth Century-Fox to photograph Carmen Jones
for Otto Preminger, so the new cameraman was Harold Rossen from
MGM, who had photographed The Wizard of Oz, On the Town, Singin'
in the Rain, and numerous other Technicolor extravaganzas. The first
number filmed was the opening section of "Swanee," for which set decorator George Hopkins came up with the idea of banks and banks of roses behind Garland, as she accepts the plaudits of the audience. They worked
from eight a.m. until six p.m. and continued at this pace for the next week,
filming the songs "Born in a Trunk" and "Black Bottom."

Garland was very candid about her approach to these numbers in an
interview she did at the time of the filming:

It's difficult to be objective about one's performance. You simply cannot
... see yourself as others see you ... especially in making a movie. There's
no audience to play to, only a large crowd of technicians behind a ... camera.
But ... they are a surer guide to achievement than any other. After all, this
is a group that is paid to do a job. They are not there primarily to be
entertained. So, when, after I sang a song on the set . . . some of these
veterans applauded, I knew that it was a spontaneous reaction. I would try
to make the electricians and the cameramen and the others react to the song.
If it was a humorous number, I would try to make them laugh. If it was the
blues, I would try to make them feel in the spirit of the song. Only when
they had shown the emotion the particular song was supposed to evoke did
I feel that I had reached them.... In singing the songs from the picture,
I tried to make each of them an emotional experience.

By the time the first week's work had been finished, it was obvious that
there were not enough hours in the day to accomplish everything that
needed to be done. The costumes that Sharaff had designed for Garland
were being constructed at Western Costume in Hollywood; she had to be
there at least two hours a day for fittings. Barstow was rehearsing the dancers
at night and shooting during the day. Garland was not in performance shape
until early afternoon; she was a night person, and her energy was at its
highest level in the evenings. Moreover, Los Angeles was having one of its
periodic heat waves, and temperatures on the non-air-conditioned Burbank
stages sometimes reached into the nineties. So Luft went to Warner with the
idea that the filming on "Born in a Trunk" be done at night, leaving the days
free for Barstow's work with the dancers, Garland's fittings, recordings, and
other chores connected with the picture, and thus relieving some of the
intense stress that the actress was under. Already she had called in sick on the
loth; she was back the next day, but Warner, fearful of another repetition of
the "Lose That Long Face" experience, readily assented to Luft's novel idea,
even though it added considerably to the cost of the number, what with
overtime, double time, and golden time for everyone involved.

So, beginning on July 15, A Star Is Born entered the final phase of its
production, with filming, under Barstow's direction, continuing until well
after midnight for the next two weeks. Luft, contrary to his previous
custom, was on the sets constantly, supervising Garland, moving things
ahead, and generally seeing to it that the number started on schedule and
that Garland remained happy, even though exhausted. The final night of
shooting, July 28, was given over to retakes of the "Peanut Vendor"
segment; the last of five takes was completed at 2:55 a.m., after which cast,
crew, and a bleary-eyed contingent of invited guests ate cake, drank champagne, and celebrated the end of one of the longest shooting schedules in
modern Hollywood history.

The next day a memo went from Warner to Bill Mueller, head of the
editorial department: "Have your department work overtime Saturday and
Sunday, if necessary, in order to get A Star Is Born dubbed in time for the
preview on Monday."

Cukor had returned from his European vacation and was eager to see
the finished picture with a nonprofessional audience. The first preview was
held in the Los Angeles suburb of Huntington Park on August 2; Cukor,
full of trepidation, wrote to Hart: "I wish the picture were a little shorter.
Neither the human mind nor the human ass can stand three and a half
hours of concentration." But his fears were somewhat put to rest by the
audience reaction, which was frenetic and hysterical. Warner himself, after
the second preview, at one-thirty in the morning, telegraphed Hart (still
in the hospital):

Dear Moss:

Did not wire you last night after first preview at Huntington Park which
was fabulous as wanted to wait until the second preview tonight at Encino
Theatre on Ventura Blvd. to verify the tremendous audience reactions. Just
impossible to find words to tell you how picture went over in both previews.
A star was really born again. With deep affection for the wonderful things
you did beyond the line of duty. My love to Kitty and yourself.

Cukor, in a long letter to Hart, wrote:

The previews . . . were extraordinary occasions. Judy generates a kind of
hysteria from an audience. This was especially noticeable at the first preview
in Huntington Park. They yipped and screamed and carried on about the musical numbers; they applauded the dressing room scene with Bickford,
well into the number. I was worried that this response was excessive. However, the next night the picture had the same impact on the audience without
the racket. It was at the previews that I saw for the first time the cuts that
Jack Warner had wrought ... I won't go into detail about how heavy a hand
he used-how inept and insensitive-because you might rupture another
disc. He snipped here and there, seemingly without reason. He succeeded
in muddying things up, making scenes pointless and incomprehensible-all
this without losing any footage to speak of. He cut out completely the scene
in the car from the Downbeat Club to Esther's motel. The meaning of her
shampooing her hair and of his hitting golf balls was lost. More serious was
the audience knowing nothing about Esther's background and struggles.
This gave the effect of Norman just being on the make. He succeeded in
making the first reel-which everybody agreed had been very exciting-tame
and conventional. These are just examples of what went on all through the
picture. Afterwards, there were a series of not-too-pleasant encounters. I
must congratulate myself on being very firm with him. Sid and Alperson were
most intelligent and cooperative about this. I refused to be put through all
the effort and strain of re-cutting the picture, and have all that work go for
nothing, because "J.L." considers himself a great cutter. Apparently he
doesn't think it enough that he's a great showman, very rich, a wonderful
guy besides, and a million laughs. He demands that it be acknowledged that
he knows more about the cutting and dubbing than anybody in Burbank.
Actually, I have a high regard for his opinions and reactions as a showman,
if not always for his taste. I pointed out to him that I knew this material
better than he did ... after a lot of wrangling, I won my point. I don't think
I convinced him, but the picture is being cut the way I think it should be.
... As I dictate this, I seem to emerge as quite a boy-talented, courageous,
a two-fisted fighter. I'm not suggesting that all of my original cutting was
perfect. Seeing the picture with an audience revealed certain things to me.
... The audience indicated several places where the picture could be sped
up here and there, and delicate adjustments made, without being ruthless
or heavy-handed. What made my job of persuasion a wee bit more difficult
was everybody saying to Sid and Judy, "Don't cut a single inch of it." This
was absolute nonsense. As of yesterday, we managed to cut out about 12
minutes without in any way hurting the quality of the picture. I had an idea
for a further cut-the proposal scene on the recording stage. Charming and
original as it is, it seems to me now, after the passionate love scene on the
terrace of the nightclub-to be anticlimactic, backtreading, as it were. I
suggested that this scene might be cut but Jack Warner was adamant. To sum it all up, all the errors that we can catch are being corrected. So much
for the Bellyaching Department. . . . My love to you and Kitty,

George

To get the film down to a three-hour-and-two-minute running time,
Cukor and editor Folmar Blangsted, in addition to shortening and tightening much of the footage, deleted the scenes of Maine searching for his keys
after his manservant has hidden them in the glass containing the servant's
false teeth, and of Norman going back to the Shrine Auditorium to try to
find the identity of the girl and finding the name of the orchestra in a
souvenir program. Also removed were scenes of Esther packing up and
leaving the Oleander Arms while being lectured by the landlady; of Esther
auditioning for a job in a seedy downtown Los Angeles bar; and of her
washing her hair and cooking on a hot plate in her rooming house just
before Maine arrives to look for her. "Born in a Trunk" was shortened
slightly by removing the sequence showing the mother's death and the song
"When My Sugar Walks Down the Street." Also cut were the scene on
the beach at Malibu when Norman and Esther plan their home and have
a picnic, with her singing a tender version of "It's a New World," and
Norman's scene with Oliver on the set of the Chinese junk, with Norman
as a swashbuckling pirate. The beginning of the Academy Awards ceremony was shortened considerably, thereby eliminating nearly all of Amanda
Blake's footage. (But not her credit in the main titles-an oversight that
no one thought to catch in the rush to get the film finished for the premiere.
All that's left of Blake are two quick shots, one as she walks off stage, and
another of her seated at the table just behind Garland.)