Star!
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Movie Reviews of Star!
Movie Review: STILL A FOOTNOTE TO JULIE ANDREWS' CAREER
Summary: 4 Stars
"Star" is the musicalization of the often "more-colorful-than-reality" life and times of stage sensation, Gertrude Lawrence. In the "star" role we have Julie Andrews, practically perfect heroine of two of the greatest film musicals ever produced - "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music". To executives over at Fox Ms. Andrews must have seemed like "the sure thing" times ten and guaranteed box office dynamite to boot. Unfortunately, for all concerned "Star" was an unqualified disaster. Only part of the reason for this misfire can be blamed on changing tastes in theater goers. The bulk must continue to rest on the fact that "Star" is a thoroughly misguided hodge-podge of dramatic snippets and overblown musical numbers that are more heavy on cash flow and props than artistry and elegance. One, "The Saga of Jenny", amiably sung by Andrews, is painfully garish to watch as Andrews, sheathed in a body hugging black sequin pant suit, cavorts amidst a sea of gaudy red sequined clowns that look more like a pack of devil-rejects from the "Solid Gold" dance try outs. Daniel Massey is mere dead weight as Noel Coward in this weighty musical that is but a footnote to Andrews' otherwise illustrious career.TRANSFER: A bit of a disappointment here. The original road show edition of "Star" had intermission/ent'racte and exit music. These were included on Fox's deluxe laserdisc presentation but are strangely absent here. It seems at once ironic and tragic to realize that the original road show print was either destroyed, stolen or "lost" at Fox until a print miraculously turned up somewhere in Britain. The laserdisc was mastered from that British print and was properly framed in 2:20 aspect ratio. I'm not exactly sure what this DVD has been minted from but the picture elements appear to have been cropped on all four sides and then reframed to maintain the 2:20 ratio. Colors are bold but not quite as punchy as they ought to be. There's considerable edge enhancement throughout. Age related artifacts are remarkably glaring for a film of this vintage. Over all, visually this is just a middle of the road effort from Fox. The audio is 5.1 and provides a genuinely powerful presence during the musical portions of the film but is remarkably one dimensional throughout the rest of the film. Dialogue is not natural sounding at all!
EXTRAS: Some good and some not so good. The original 1968 featurette and a new documentary on the film are both provided to good advantage. But the "stills" galleries are a mess of overlapping images - some so unflattering that Ms. Andrews should have insisted on the original camera negative, if only to burn the prints herself.
BOTTOM LINE: This isn't a great musical, although fans of Julie Andrews will no doubt be delighted to have the film in whatever condition it is offered. But as a DVD this is not one I'd recommend to anyone who doesn't subscribe to that "spoonful of sugar" mentality.
Movie Review: Andrews valiantly attempts Gertie Lawrence
Summary: 4 Stars
STAR! remains Julie Andrews' most ambitious movie, and one which displays her versatility as an actress as well as her musicality as a performer. Directed by Robert Wise, this 3-hour epic was tipped as Julie's greatest film. Instead it became a huge bomb which (coupled with DARLING LILI) set in motion Andrews' box-office decline.
However harsh the criticism, STAR! remains an enjoyable film experience and has a very large and devoted legion of fans. The movie recounts the life of legendary British stage star Gertrude Lawrence. As the movie opens, Gertie is viewing a documentary of her life, and begins to reminisce about her sucesses in the theatre, her romances and failures.
From the tenemants of Clapham to the footlights of London's Charlot Revue and her career-making Broadway debut, STAR! explores it all. Julie Andrews looks stunning in a cavalcade of Donald Brooks costumes. Choreographer Michael Kidd recreates several elaborate musical numbers that the real Lawrence was famous for (including "The Physician" from NYMPH ERRANT, "The Saga of Jenny" from LADY IN THE DARK and "Limehouse Blues" from the Charlot Revue). There are also fine re-creations from prime Lawrence vehicles OH KAY! and PRIVATE LIVES.
If Andrews isn't well-suited to Gertie Lawrence, she gives the audience a good time anyway (at this point in her career, Andrews wasn't yet fully-equipped as an actress to deliver all that Lawrence was). In reality Gertie Lawrence was a paradox of conflicting emotions, capable of the extremes of love and hate. Richard Aldrich's book "Life as Mrs A." (published after her death) paints a sickly-sweet portrait of a woman who was renowned as being a very self-centered and egocentric person. After the book was published, most of Gertie's friends admitted that Aldrich must have written the book while wearing rose-coloured glasses. Lawrence was an incantory presence on stage but her private life was never anything but a shambles.
Surrounding Andrews is a solid cast including Daniel Massey as Gertie's beloved best friend Noel Coward (Massey was Coward's Godson in real life), Michael Craig plays Sir Anthony Spencer (an amalgam of several men in Gertie's life). Richard Crenna plays Richard Aldrich. The film also features prime turns from Beryl Reid, Robert Reed, Bruce Forsyth, Alan Oppenheimer, Elizabeth St. Clair, Garrett Lewis, Don Crichton and Jenny Agutter.
The DVD presents the film in pleasing 16:9 anamorphic (including the Overture). The dual-layer double-sided disc includes an audio commentary by Robert Wise with select cast and crew, various trailers, Julie Andrews/Daniel Massey screentests and a reunion featurette.
A classic gem worthy of rediscovery.
Movie Review: The "Real" Gertrude Lawrence Story
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a dazzling piece of entertainment; a superb show business biography and one of the last grand movie musicals.
The film's musical numbers, as staged by Michael Kidd, are fabulous.
The three-hour motion picture, directed by Robert Wise, stars Julie Andrews as Gertrude Lawrence, a great star of the musical theater during the 1920s-early 1950s. Among the legendary shows in which Ms. Lawrence appeared were PRIVATE LIVES, LADY IN THE DARK, OH, KAY!, SUSAN AND GOD and, near the end of her life, she was the original Anna in THE KING AND I, co-starring Yul Brynner.
STAR! is not your typical whitewashed musical bio. It has a hard edge. Ms. Lawrence is portrayed as a woman who, with the exception of best friend Noel Coward (nicely portrayed by Daniel Massey in a role that garnered him an Oscar nomination), had trouble maintaining close relationships, even with her own daughter. She had numerous men in her life, often drank to excess, underwent bankruptcy and, with a star's superego, was not always the nicest person to be around.
A major box-office disappointment when it was first released, probably because movie audiences were not familiar with Gertrude Lawrence, STAR! underwent several alterations (i.e. major cuts, revised ad campaign and even a new title, THOSE WERE THE HAPPY TIMES) in 20th Century Fox's futile effort to turn the film's financial fortunes around. It was, ultimately, pulled from release and remained virtually unseen for many years.
Now restored to it's original "roadshow" version, the DVD features audio commentary by Wise, a 25th Anniversary featurette, plus other extras.
© Michael B. Druxman
Movie Review: As long as it is, it's not long enough!
Summary: 4 Stars
Star! is basically a pretty terrific movie. Unfortunately it was released as a roadshow, a term which I have no doubt means nothing to anyone younger than I. Roadshows were longer-form films shown at advanced ticket prices and featuring an intermission for a bathroom break and a resupply of popcorn. To get the extra ticket money from moviegoers, roadshows had to offer something more than length, like epic vistas with thousands of extras (Lawrence of Arabia, Cleopatra), or lots of stars and lots of publicity (Around the World in 80 Days), or film versions of Broadway smashes (My Fair Lady). Ideally the studios would release fewer than one a year, but Star! opened against another roadshow - Funny Girl. I've always felt that Fox made a huge mistake in timing with Star!, and then after the box office failure the film disappeared for a long time. I first saw it on premium cable in October of 1993. Taken strictly as a biography of Gertrude Lawrence it does her few favors and would have been more interesting if it, one, showed more of her mistreatment by Hollywood (her stage successes going to "film" actresses, her lack of an Oscar for Glass Menagerie), and two, dealt more with her relationship with her daughter. But - the film is filled with the musical numbers associated with Lawrence and they are performed by Julie Andrews! So while a longer flm with more attention to detail would have pleased me, I'm sure adding more music would have pleased others. Let's have a DVD that allows us to see all the sequences not used!Movie Review: DVD of "Star!": Kudos to Fox for the Supplements
Summary: 4 Stars
Fox has done a very impressive job with the DVD of "Star!" Nearly all of the extensive supplements from the laser disc edition have been included (plus screen test footage, which was not included in the laser edition). Although the considerable amount of text and photos can be a chore to page through, it's worth the effort---such as a bio of Gertrude Lawrence, an overview of the "roadshow" era of film distribution, analysis of the film's production, followed by the disappointing box office reception (and recuts, including a re-release of the film---one hour shorter than the original roadshow version---under a different title).The film is presented in its original roadshow version, although the intermission/entracte and exit music are missing (they were included on the laser disc version). The video and audio are fine but not reference quality and the print used shows its age in spots (not that Fox had much to work from; the roadshow print had been presumed lost for years until a copy surfaced in England).
"Star!" has its flaws but it remains a terrific showcase for Andrews' talents (the "Burlington Bertie" number is one of her best). It's a must-have for her fans. Fox is to be commended for resisting the movie-only route and providing so much background material for an old film that isn't considered to be a classic and was a major box office failure. The story behind "Star!" is a good one; this is one special edition where the supplements are definitely worth a look.