A Star Is Born (1937)

On a recent Slate Cultural Gabfest podcast edition film critic Dana Stevens was explaining about how much the original A Star Is Born (1937) directed by William Wellman meant to her in relation to a discussion about the 2018 re-make by Bradley Cooper. I have yet to see the most recent version and I am sure I have seen the Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristoferson version in my youth, but I cannot remember it well. I saw it was available on MUBI (a film streaming site I subscribe to)-so I decided to give it a watch. The rag to riches story trope is very old and this one tacks on the stiff upper lip in the face of tragedy trope to that well-worn storyline. There are some appealing performances especially from the two leads-Janet Gaynor (Ester Blodgett) and Frederick March (Norman Maine). Interestingly enough I just saw an old Yasujiro Shimizu film, Our Neighbor Miss Yae, in which a character is told he looks like Frederick March-which drew a blank at the time. was also happy to see that Dorthy Parker helped write the screen play. It is old school Hollywood escapist entertainment.