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The stage is amply set up for A Star Is Born, Hollywood is a bustling factory with palatial gates in the eyes of the hopeful blonde from Georgia. (She's played by Marion Davies and, upon spotting Marion Davies the actress on the backlot, shakes her head in knowing disappointment.) Showcasing her emotional repertoire at the casting office goes nowhere, the humble comic (William Haines) helps her get her foot in the door, she launches into her first scene like a grand tragedienne and gets a mighty spritz from a seltzer bottle. "Darn good hokum," a favorite with the audience and with Charlie Chaplin himself, who dashes over for an autograph. Different kinds of waterworks at the High Arts Studio, violins and onions are necessary to get her tear ducts going. "The sob squad" versus the rollicking troupers, phony-baloney aristocrat versus honest jester. "Surely success hasn't gone to the old bean?" King Vidor's warm satire of the dream business, perfectly attuned to Davies' sparkling clowning. "The temperament of Nazimova, the appeal of Garbo, the sweetness of Pickford, and the lure of Pola Negri": Hearing the majestic build-up during an interview, the heroine scrunches her face to resemble a glamorous beaver. (The photographer's flash is all it takes to crumble the façade.) Glimpses of the MGM luncheon, with the starlet sandwiched between a buoyant Douglas Fairbanks and a stony William S. Hart. The lovers are reunited on a set suspiciously reminiscent of The Big Parade, and even Vidor with megaphone in hand can't put an end to their kiss. "The camera's going—you can't quit now." Sturges picks up the defense of slapstick in Sullivan's Travels. With Dell Henderson, Paul Ralli, Tenen Holtz, Harry Gribbon, Sidney Bracey, and Polly Moran. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |