A Star Is Born (1954)
Actors:
Phil Arnold (actor),
Chick Chandler (actor),
Benny Burt (actor),
Irving Bacon (actor),
Jack Carson (actor),
Paul Bryar (actor),
Rudolph Anders (actor),
Don Beddoe (actor),
Rodney Bell (actor),
Charles Bickford (actor),
James Brown (actor),
Paul Brinegar (actor),
Willis Bouchey (actor),
Marshall Bradford (actor),
Heinie Conklin (actor),
Plot: Norman Maine, a movie star whose career is on the wane, meets showgirl Esther Blodgett when he drunkenly stumbles into her act one night. A friendship develops, then blossoms into romance before tensions increase as Esther's career takes off while Norman's continues to plummet.
Keywords: academy-award, actor, actress, alcoholic, alcoholism, ambition, arrest, audition, award, backstage
Genres:
Drama,
Musical,
Romance,
Taglines: Destiny came at her with a leer! The applause of the world -- and then this! "IT IS SOMETHING TO SEE THIS 'STAR IS BORN'! STUNNING!" N.Y. Times (original ad - mostly caps) "A BRILLIANTLY STAGED, SCORED AND PHOTOGRAPHED FILM WORTH ALL THE EFFORT!" Life Magazine (original ad - mostly caps) "THE ENTIRE PICTURE IS AN UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE! I WAS SORRY IT ENDED!" Ed Sullivan
Quotes:
Esther Blodgett: [seeing Norman drunk] Mr. Maine is feeling no pain!
Esther Blodgett: Hello, everybody. This is Mrs. Norman Maine.
Matt Libby: [after being introduced to Esther] Esther Blodgett? Well, we'll do something about that. Anyway, nice to have you with us.
Oliver Niles: You know Libby you missed a lot not knowing Norman Maine.::Matt Libby: Not knowing him? I spent my life knowing him. I knew what he was going to do before he did it. I knew him backwards.::Oliver Niles: You didn't know him at all. He was quite a guy.
Esther Blodgett: [Norman has finished looking through Esther's scrapbook] You know as much about me as I do myself. But...you see how long it's taken me to get this far. Now, all I need is just a little luck.::Norman Maine: What kind of luck?::Esther Blodgett: Oh, the kind of luck that every girl singer with a band dreams of--one night a big talent scout from a big record company might come in and he'll let me make a record.::Norman Maine: Yes, and then?::Esther Blodgett: Well, the record will become number one on the Hit Parade, it'll be played on the jukeboxes all over the country...and I'll be made [laughs self-deprecatingly at the implausibility] End of dream.::Norman Maine: There's only one thing wrong with that.::Esther Blodgett: I know--it won't happen!::Norman Maine: No, it might happen pretty easily--but the dream isn't big enough.
Esther Blodgett: [Norman has returned to find Esther in a nightclub. Esther walks over to him with a small laugh] Hello, Mr. Maine. You turn up in the strangest places.::Norman Maine: Don't I now?::Esther Blodgett: [stops laughing, suddenly shocked] And you're cold sober.::Norman Maine: Well, you'd better make the most of it!
Norman Maine: Do you ever go fishing? [Esther looks confused] Well, do you like prizefi--have you ever watched a great fighter?::Esther Blodgett: I-I uh--::Norman Maine: I'm trying to tell you how you sing.::Esther Blodgett: Do you mean like a prizefighter or a fish?::Norman Maine: Look...em--[leads her into a kitchen] There are certain pleasures that you get--[realizes that the sound of clanging dishes is intolerable and they depart for the outside] There are certain pleasures you get, little-little jabs of pleasure when a swordfish take a hook, or-or when you see a great fighter get in right for the kill, see? [Esther still looks confused] You don't understand a word I'm saying, do you?::Esther Blodgett: No, not yet. Why don't you try bullfights?
Judge George J. Barnes: Were you Norman Maine the actor?::Norman Maine: Yes.
Matt Libby: This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, with a whimper.