A GARLAND FOR JUDY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 818, 1 April 1955, Page 7

A GARLAND FOR JUDY

1OT so long ago they said it was curtains, not curtain-calls, for Judy Garland. Now she is back and, according to reports, they are tossing the orchids like hailstones for her performance in the musical film A Star is Born. Judy when young sang her way into the hearts of filmgoers in such light-hearted trifles ag@ the Andy Hardy series, Babes in Arms, The Wtzard of\Oz, and Meet Me in St. Louis. She also made a not-so-popular attempt at a dramatic role in The Clock, In it she acted with surprising sensitivity and showed for the first time that she was more than just another singing ingenue. Then something went wrong. Divorce, and a neryous break-down brought on her withdrawal from films for a long time. The know-alls of Hollywood said that Judy Garland’s bright, particular star had flickered out like Deanna Durbin’s, Shirley Temple’s, Margaret O’Brien’s. However, Judy considered herself far from spent. Summoning her courage she went back to the variety stage she had left as a child. On the largest of themthe London Palladium, New York’s Empire, and in San Francisco, she conquered wherever she went. Then Warner Brothers decided to cast her in A Star is Born, with a screen-play by Moss Hart, which had some curious parallels to Miss Garland’s own story. It tells of screen-struck Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland was christened

Frances Gumm) who is discovered by an older star (James Mason) and _ has her. name changed. Her way up the show-business ladder as he goes down is hard and bitter. She suffers and in the end takes on that peculiar luminous glow of personality which is called starquality. The film, which is in CinemaScope, lasts close to three hours, cost nearly six

million dollars and took a vear instead of the scheduled three months to make. Most of this extra time was taken because, as Jack Warner urbanely said, "Miss Garland is a perfectionist." According to other reports Miss _Garland’s perfectionism did not extend to her own temperament. The songs which Judy Garland sobs, sulks, socks and sighs-as one critic put it, "like a cross between Bessie Smith (the great ‘blues’ singer) and Tara’s harp" -are composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin. They include "The Man That ‘Got Away." "Here’s What I'm Here For" and "Lose That Long Face," an orphan number. One specialty. song which Judy puts over in her

best style is "Born in a Trunk," by Leonard Gershe. This is a portmanteau. act- unpacking, quick change singing, dialogue and impersonation. Representing a trouper’s life, it includes excerpts from "Swanee," "Tl Get By," "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street." "Black Bottom," "You Took Advantage of Me," "The Peanut Vendor," and "Melancholy Baby." Judy also cuts loose with "Someone at Last," a devastating parody of "early Judy Garland."

Apart from all the ballyhoo which strives to put A Star is Born among the greatest films, it would seem to be a film which tries to study seriously the sociological jungle which is Hollywood. Of course, Moss Hart, no hack writer himself, had an excellent framework to build upon. The first A Star is Born, made in 1937 with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, was scripted by the satirist Dorothy Parker. ZB Sunday Showcase will broadcast a programme of musical highlights from A Star is Born at 9.35 p.m. on April 10.