Welcome to "Saturday Night at the Movies".

I'm your host, Glenn Holland.

Tonight's motion picture is the 1954 musical remake of "A Star is Born", directed by George Cukor for Warner Brothers.

The film stars Judy Garland and James Mason, with Jack Carson, Charles Bickford, and Tommy Noonan.

The screenplay was by playwright, Moss Hart, who adapted the Oscar-nominated script for the 1937 film version written by William A. Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker, and Alan Campbell.

The story begins with an all-star motion picture benefit at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

Matinee idol, Norman Maine is slated to appear.

But studio publicists, Matt Libby is worried Maine is off on one of his frequent drunken benders.

The show includes a musical number featuring Esther Blodgett, who is a singer with a well-known orchestra.

An inebriated Norman Maine finally shows and causes havoc backstage.

Before blundering into the middle of the musical number.

Esther manages to save the situation by incorporating Norman's drunken shenanigans into the act and they leave the stage together to a wave of applause.

Norman, chastened and and grateful, invites Esther to dinner and later watches her perform with some of her band mates at an afterhours club.

Impressed by her talent, he encourages her to pursue a career in films and offers to set up a screen test for her.

This leads Esther to quit her job with the orchestra.

But by then, Norman is away filming on location and has no way to get in touch with her.

Esther takes a series of odd jobs while Norman tries to find her again.

When he finally succeeds, she gets her screen test and a chance of career in films.

But at the same time, Norman's own career is threatened, both by his alcoholism, and by the changing nature of the motion picture business.

The 1954 musical version of "A Star is Born" was a remake of the 1937 drama starring Janet Gaynor as Esther Blodgett and Frederick March as Norman Maine.

That version was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress and Actor.

It had a good deal in common with an earlier pre-code film, "What Price Hollywood", starring Constance Bennett and Lowell Sherman, released by RKO Pathe in 1932.

In both stories, a young woman with the ambitions to become a movie star comes to the attention of an alcoholic Hollywood insider, who becomes her mentor.

Her career leads to an Academy Award while his slowly fades.

"What Price Hollywood" was reputedly based on the marriage of actress Colleen Moore to the producer John McCormick.

While the original "A Star is Born" was said to be inspired in part, by Barbara Stanwyck's first marriage to vaudeville comedian and stage actor, Frank Fay.

George Cukor directed "What Price Hollywood" in 1932, and four years later, was asked by David O. Selznick to direct "A Star is Born", But Cukor felt the film was too similar to his earlier version of the story and so turned down the opportunity to direct.

Judy Garland starred with Walter Pidgeon in an adaptation of "A Star is Born" for Lux Radio Theater in December of 1942.

10 years later, she and her third husband, Sid Luft, approached George Cukor to direct a musical adaptation for their company, Transcona Enterprises.

Cukor, intrigued by the idea of working with Garland, filming a script by Moss Hart, and making his first musical and his first Technicolor film, put aside any concerns about repeating himself and accepted the job.

"A Star Is Born" was Judy Garland's first film after MGM ended its long relationship with her in 1950.

She had suffered a breakdown in 1948 during the filming of "The Pirate" with Gene Kelly but recovered and scored a major hit later the same year with Fred Astaire in "Easter Parade".

In 1949, she was again cast with Gene Kelly in "Summer Stock", which took six months to complete, due to Garland's frequent absences from the set.

"Summer Stock" was popular with audiences that the extended shooting schedule led to MGM suffering an $800,000 loss.

After similar problems arose while Garland was again working with Fred Astaire on "Royal Wedding", MGM suspended her contract and replaced her with Jane Powell.

Four years later, Judy Garland made her movie musical comeback in "A Star is Born", with what many critics consider her finest performance.

"A Star is Born" had its world premier on September 29th, 1954, and received stellar reviews.

Most of them singling out Judy Garland's performance for particular praise.

A review in Newsweek said the movie was, "best classified as a thrilling personal triumph for Judy Garland.

As an actress, Miss Garland is more than adequate.

As a mime and comedienne, she is even better.

But as a singer, she can handle anything from torch songs and blues to ballads.

In more ways than one, the picture is hers."

But there were problems from the beginning of the movie's theatrical run.

These were the result of material added to the film specifically to showcase Judy Garland's talents.

After George Cukor finished a rough cut of the film in March, 1954, Sid Luft suggested adding a medley of songs to close out the first part of the picture.

Judy Garland's musical mentor from MGM, Roger Edens, was brought in to supervise what became the 15-minute "Born in a Trunk" sequence that formed part of Esther Blodgett's film within a film.

The sequence in many ways, recalls similar displays of song and dance in MGM musicals, especially Gene Kelly's "Got a Dance" number, from "Singing in the Rain" from 1952, as well as Garland's own performances in other MGM films.

James Mason for one, didn't like the sequence and later said, "It slows the narrative.

Yes, I know that it would make a lovely television special or something like that, but I thought it was out of place at that particular juncture."

George Cukor objected to the addition of the "Born in a Trunk" material as well, since he was afraid the additional length would lead to some of the dramatic scenes, essential to the plot, being cut.

He was right.

The version of "A Star is Born" at its first test screening ran 196 minutes, just over three and a quarter hours.

For the premiere, Cukor trimmed the film to 182 minutes.

And that was the version both critics and the public adored.

But Warner executives and theater owners were concerned that the long running time would limit the number of times a cinema could show the film each day, and so also the amount of money it could make in a given week.

Further cuts were made without input from Cukor.

"A Star is Born" was released to the general public at 154 minutes, just over two and a half hours, with two major musical numbers and crucial dramatic scenes missing.

When he saw the result, George Cukor said it was, "Very painful to watch."

Nonetheless, the film remained a hit with audiences and was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Judy Garland and Best Actor for James Mason.

Garland was a popular favorite for the Oscar, but lost to Grace Kelly for "The Country Girl".

After her loss, Groucho Marx sent Garland a telegram calling the result, "the biggest robbery since Brinks", the multimillion dollar heist in Boston in 1950.

"A Star is Born" took nine months to shoot, largely due to Judy Garland's frequent absences from the set.

It ended up as one of the most expensive Hollywood movies of the time, costing more than $5 million.

It earned over $6 million in its first release, but the film did not recoup its investment, and Warner Brothers ended up losing money.

In 1983, a restored version of "A Star is Born", with a running time of 176 minutes was released.

It included complete versions of the two musical numbers that had been been cut, as well as dialogue from missing dramatic scenes from the original soundtrack.

Unfortunately, several minutes of the film footage to match the soundtrack could not be found, so those scenes had to be represented by still photographs from the studio archives.

There have been two more musical versions of "A Star is Born" since 1954, one starring Barbra Streisand and Chris Christopherson in 1976.

Now, the other starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in 2018.

Both of these versions are about musicians.

So this quintessential Hollywood story no longer has anything to do with the movies at all.

For his part, James Mason always preferred the original non-musical version from 1937.

He said, "Ours was a little thrown out of kilter because it became centered on the activities of a musical performer, who happened to be the less important of the two characters.

However, ours survives.

And ours has become a classic because Judy Garland was such an extraordinary performer.

It's a wonderful film.

And I always watch it when it comes on the telly."

Please join us again next time for another "Saturday Night at the Movies".

I'm Glen Holland.

Good night.