Chris Feil's weekly look at music in the movies will be revisiting all of the musical remakes of A Star is Born in coming weeks. Here is 1954 and Judy Garland...
Musicals are known for their required suspension of disbelief, the fact that we must buy into a reality where people simply burst into song. But the legacy of A Star is Born has its own kind of suspension of disbelief: the notion that whatever legendary songstress that leads each version is some undiscovered talent. George Cukor’s 1954 version (the first to properly musicalize the story birthed in William A. Wellman’s 1937 original) requires the greatest leap. But there are few cinematic superstars in history as immediately convincing in their gifts as Judy Garland.
Casting such a powerhouse as a woefully undiscovered talent is absurd on paper, as if the film exists in some fantasy land where maybe she’s never opened her mouth or humans have ceased to have ears. Our buy-in to the conceit of the plot has to be as momentous as her implacable voice...
Of course at the time of its release, this was also positioned as a comeback of sorts for Garland, so the film carries some weight of rediscovery, an essential artist back in peak form. No wonder it’s not really a battle for authenticity - we want to buy whatever Garland is selling.
But it goes without saying that the star makes it believable. Her performance as Vicki Lester is a glorious mix of diminished confidence, ever expanding self-perception, and an uncontrollable tide of feeling that overcomes her timidness. This characterization is inextricable from Garland’s singing style, the uncommon musical performance where the songs feel like an extension or continuance of the rest of the performance rather than separate. And this is most evident when she sings the torchiest of torch songs, “The Man That Got Away”.
Here the now Esther, future Vicki is a melancholy soul of contradictory longings, burdened by trepidation while begging for something past her own grasp. As she sings of what she’s already lost, here is where she gains her fate: Norman Maine watching from afar, as if her song is a vision of their fateful future. Something in her is afraid to dream bigger, as Maine will note, but that soaring musical ability within her is a force even she can’t contain. It’s a quintessential, deceptively complicated performance from the legend that captivates throughout the decades, creating for us (and even the camera) a tunnel vision into the singularity that is Judy Garland.
It’s striking how quickly the film gives us its best song and somewhat offhandedly, though our and Vicki’s relationship evolves throughout the film as it underscores the following 2+ hours and Maine continues to reveal his troublesome nature. But the rest of its musical sequences allow us to delight in the wide range of Garland’s vocal prowess: her depths of sadness in “It’s A New World”, her rousing uplift in “Lose That Long Face”, or sweetness we can get lost in the nuance of like “Here’s What I’m Here For”.
But if “The Man That Got Away” is the finest present under A Star is Born’s tree, then its centerpiece “Born in a Trunk” smorgasbord is the biggest. Here is where we can feel the film’s enthusiasm for the reemergence of Garland, a near-fifteen minute musical medley extravaganza that allows her to throw all of her unwavering charms at the screen for a marathon session of musical glee. “A star is re-born” is cliche, but still rewardingly accurate to those who still find triumph in this return to form decades after the fact.
All Soundtracking installments can be found here!