The first version of this film in 1932 (What Price Hollywood) was 88 minutes long, the 1937 version was 111 minutes long, but this Warner Brothers 1954 version clocks in at over two and a half hours! The story is basically the same as the 1937 version - Heavily drinking and often absentee on the set movie star Norman Maine (James Mason) discovers, promotes, and falls in love with Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland),renamed to Vicki Lester by the studio. Norman and Vicki get married, Vicki's star rises, Norman's star falls to the point that people call him Mr. Lester. They completely forget who he is. He turns more and more to the bottle. Complications ensue. Except this time, since Judy Garland plays Vicki, there are lots of production numbers featuring her singing, with Vicki being a singing actress. So the original story has to fit in between numbers, because this is not an MGM musical. The songs are not part of the story and I don't think they are even that memorable.

Warner Brothers was never really a studio that specialized in musicals, although they did have their hits throughout their history. This was just not one of them in my humble and probably unpopular opinion. I think that Garland and James Mason as Norman Maine and Vicki Lester are good together. I believe them as a couple. But just at age 32, time and addiction have taken a toll on Garland's appearance where I just don't buy her as the fresh young face.

And there are a couple of weird turns the film takes. For example, Jack Warner never said a nice thing about L. B. Mayer or MGM in his life. The two studios took digs at one another's productions over the years. Yet at one point Judy as Vicki is supposed to be working on "An American In Paris" and she is basically giving it a plug in the dialogue of the script. The film had been released three years ago at MGM. What exactly was Jack Warner doing? There has to be a story there.

Jack Carson gives fine support as the publicity agent who throughout his career so far has played the jerk, but you get a subtle taste of meanness here in his performance that is quite authentic. He'll perfect that meanness three years later in "The Tattered Dress". Charles Bickford is the studio head who is stuck between the money guys back east and his personal attachment to his stars. Bickford is a guy who really evolved over the years - cut loose from MGM in the early 30s he went from being a lead in B films to being a fine supporting player in A list films, then transitioned to television.

I'm sure lots of people will disagree, but I just found myself looking at my watch during most of the musical numbers, waiting for the dramatic portion to start playing out again.

Marked by a pervasive sense of melancholy, the 1954 musical version of the familiar Hollywood warhorse will forever be remembered as Judy Garland's most acclaimed work in films. Even though she would go on to a handful of films in the early 1960's, this was her last leading role in a major Hollywood production, an ironic point since she plays an emerging movie star on the rise. True, she doesn't look her best in the film, but her fulsome talent is on full, heart-wrenching display as Esther Blodgett, an obscure but thriving band singer who becomes movie star Vicki Lester thanks to Norman Maine, an alcoholic has-been movie star in career free-fall. Their love story and the opposing trajectories of their careers are tracked meticulously by Moss Hart's shrewdly observed screenplay and George Cukor's sensitive direction.

The double-sided 2000 DVD provides the 176-minute restored version, which is just five minutes less than what was shown at the original premiere. Until 1983, the half-hour of footage excised after the premiere was thought lost, but film historian Ron Haver found much of it and supervised an extraordinary restoration effort that includes a necessary albeit brief use of production stills to match up with the complete soundtrack. Even with such technicalities, the resulting film is even more of a landmark musical drama, emotionally resonant in spite of certain pacing issues with the storyline. Cukor's approach is probably more leisurely than the relatively hard-boiled material requires since he includes so many establishing and lengthy shots, but his direction shows his legendary sensitivity toward actors.

While he comes across a bit too robust as a fading matinée idol, James Mason vigorously captures Norman's scornful pride and self-pity. He may lack Fredric March's innate sense of vulnerability in the original, but Mason makes the character's inner torment more palpable. As for Garland, she brings so much of her own history to Esther/Vicki that her scenes feel alive with her vibrant, masochistic personality. She is aided immeasurably by the masterful songs of Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin, most significantly her torchy rendition of "The Man That Got Away", as perfect a musical movie moment as has been ever produced. While her work in the fifteen-minute "Born in the Trunk" sequence is impressive, it is really later in the film when she soars, in particular, when she segues from the tap-happy "Lose That Long Face" into a breakdown scene in her dressing room with sympathetic studio head Oliver Niles portrayed with his typically stentorian fervor by Charles Bickford.

The print condition and sound quality on the DVD are superb. There are also some fascinating extras on the B-side starting with three alternative takes on "The Man That Got Away", each distinctive in presentation with costume and lighting changes, a must for Garland fans. Also included is a very brief deleted number within the "Born in the Trunk" sequence", "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street". Three vintage pieces have been gathered - a brief newsreel piece of the premiere, a four-minute clip of the Coconut Grove premiere party held after the premiere, and most interestingly, a half-hour kinescope akin to the current-day red carpet pre-shows with an amazing parade of period stars expressing little more than good wishes on their way to the theater. Lastly, the theatrical trailers for all three versions of "A Star Is Born" are also included.

"A Star Is Born" (1954) uses the same storyline of the 1937 version, i.e., the story of the rise of a new star and the fall of the old one, who is her beloved alcoholic man that discovered and promoted her career. However, the 176 minutes of this 1954 restored version is tiresome in some moments with dated songs in 2019 but it is still a great movie. Judy Garland and James Mason have great performances and the beautiful use of Technicolor make this film an unforgettable classic. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Nasce uma Estrela" ("A Star Is Born")