A Star Is Born
Release date: 1937-04-27
Votes: 230
Genres: Drama, Romance
Esther Blodgett is just another starry-eyed farm kid trying to break into the movies. Waitressing at a Hollywood party, she catches the eye of her idol Norman Maine, is sent for a screen test, and before long attains stardom as newly minted Vicki Lester. She and Norman marry, though his career soon dwindles to nothing due to his chronic alcoholism.
Reviews
CinemaSerf
Janet Gaynor was at the top of her game with the almost Dickens' inspired name "Esther Blodgett" - an aspiring actress who moves to Hollywood and happens upon a drunken, self-destructive "Norman Maine" (Fredric March) as she waitresses at a party. His star is definitely on the wain, but he sees something in her and before long she is topping the bill. No singing in this version, which I think makes it a grittier adaptation of the story. Oddly enough, I find that the colour is quite distracting - it would have looked much better in black and white. That said, the dialogue is sharp and the pace likewise and it's an enjoyable watch.
Movie Recommendation
Pygmalion1938-10-06When linguistics professor Henry Higgins boasts that he can pass off Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle as a princess with only six months' training, Colonel George Pickering takes him up on the bet. Eliza moves into Higgins's home and begins her rigorous training after the professor comes to a financial agreement with her dustman father, Alfred. But the plucky young woman is not the only one undergoing a transformation.More...
Perceval1978-10-08The film chronicles Perceval's knighthood, maturation and eventual peerage amongst the Knights of the Round Table, and also contains brief episodes from the story of Gawain and the crucifixion of Christ.More...
A Star Is Born1954-10-01A movie star helps a young singer-actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career into a downward spiral.More...
A Very Natural Thing1974-06-26When David, an ex-monk still in his twenties meets Mark, he falls hard; soon he's asked Mark if they can live together. Things go well for awhile, and then differences in their definition of "commitment" begin to push them apart. Mark wants other sexual adventures, David tries to go along. Can they talk through the crisis in their relationship or is a breakup in the offing? David sees his relationship with Mark as a marriage, so if it ends, can David's heart ever heal?More...
Death Bed: The Bed That Eats1977-10-26At the edge of a grand estate, near a crumbling old mansion lies a strange stone building with just a single room. In the room there lies a bed. Born of demonic power, the bed seeks the flesh, blood and life essence of unwary travelers… Three pretty girls arrive on vacation, searching for a place to spend the night. Instead, they tumble into nightmares – and the cruel, insatiable hunger of the Bed!More...
The Man Who Came to Dinner1941-12-24An acerbic critic wreaks havoc when a hip injury forces him to move in indefinitely with a Midwestern family.More...
Different for Girls1996-10-01Paul and Kim meet when their vehicles collide. Paul is fascinated with the attractive Kim. It turns out that the two were childhood friends in Catholic boys' school, but back then, before the operation, Kim was named Karl.More...
Shall We Dance1937-05-07Ballet star Petrov arranges to cross the Atlantic aboard the same ship as the dancer and musical star he's fallen for but barely knows. By the time the ocean liner reaches New York, a little white lie has churned through the rumour mill and turned into a hot gossip item—that the two celebrities are secretly married.More...
Miss Oyu1951-06-22Shinnosuke is introduced to Shizu as a prospective marriage partner, but he falls in love with her widowed sister Oyu. Convention forbids Oyu to marry because she has to raise her son as the head of her husband's family. Oyu convinces Shinnosuke and Shizu to marry so that she can remain close to Shinnosuke.More...
Hands of the Ripper1971-10-17A series of murders occur that mirror those committed by the Whitechapel Ripper. Through his experiments with psychoanalysis Dr Pritchard discovers a deadly violence in one of his young female patients. As he delves into the recesses of her mind he uncovers that Anna is possessed by her dead father's spirit, willing her to commit acts of gruesome savagery over which she has no control. But the most chilling revelation of all is the identity of her father: Jack the Ripper himself.More...
Street Trash1987-02-22A group of hobos begin melting into multicolored piles of goo after drinking sixty-year-old liquor. At the same time, the psychotic Vietnam War vet who rules the hobo camp snaps and begins killing at random. Two brothers set out to stop the liquor and the killer.More...
Hell and High Water1954-02-01A privately-financed scientist and his colleagues hire an ex-Navy officer to conduct an Alaskan submarine expedition in order to prevent a Red Chinese anti-American plot that may lead to World War III. Mixes deviously plotted schoolboy fiction with submarine spectacle and cold war heroics.More...
Speechless2015-11-23Desmond has a secret he cannot share with anyone. His grades are slipping, rumors are swirling and he feels powerless, especially when he sees his sister being hurt, too. With the support of his father and a new friend, Desmond is able to tell his story of being sexually assaulted and end the cycle of abuse. Desmond regains his power when he uses his voice.More...
Stage Door1937-10-08The ups and downs in the lives and careers of a group of ambitious young actresses and show girls from disparate backgrounds brought together in a theatrical hostel.More...
Way Out West1937-04-16Stan and Ollie try to deliver the deed to a valuable gold mine to the daughter of a dead prospector. Unfortunately, the daughter's evil guardian is determined to have the gold mine for himself and his saloon-singer wife.More...
Lost Horizon1937-03-03British diplomat Robert Conway and a small group of civilians crash-land in the Himalayas, where they are rescued by the inhabitants of the hidden, idyllic valley of Shangri-La. Protected by the mountains from the world outside, where the clouds of World War II are gathering, Shangri-La provides a seductive escape for the world-weary Conway.More...
Microhabitat2018-03-15Miso lives from day to day by housekeeping. Cigarettes and whiskey are the two things that get her through the day. As cigarette prices and rent start to rise, Miso decides to give up her house for cigarettes and whiskey, leading her to couch surf with old friends while reconsidering her place in life.More...
Victim1961-08-01A web of blackmail and murder attracts the attention of a barrister with a seemingly idyllic life, threatening to derail his career on the path of success.More...
The Children of the Marshland1999-03-03The film is set in Marais, a quiet region along the banks of Loire river in 1918. Riton is afflicted with a bad-tempered wife and three unruly children. Garris lives alone with his recollections of World War I trenches. Their daily life consists of seasonal work and visits from their two pals: Tane, the local train conductor and Amédée, a dreamer and voracious reader of classics.More...
Senso1954-03-25A troubled and neurotic Italian Countess betrays her entire country for a self-destructive love affair with an Austrian Lieutenant.More...
Similar Movies
The Theory of Everyth...
2014-11-07The Theory of Everything is the extraordinary story of one of the world’s greatest living minds, the renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who falls deeply in love with fellow Cambridge student Jane Wilde.Maybe... Maybe Not
1994-10-05The heterosexual man Axel is thrown out of his girlfriends home for cheating and ends up moving in with a gay man. Axel learns the advantages of living with gay men even though they are attracted to him and when his girlfriend wants him back he must make a tough decision.Breakfast at Tiffany'...
1961-10-06Holly Golightly is an eccentric New York City playgirl determined to marry a Brazilian millionaire. But when young writer Paul Varjak moves into her apartment building, her past threatens to get in their way.Ali: Fear Eats the So...
1974-03-05Emmi Kurowski, a cleaning lady, is lonely in her old age. Her husband died years ago, and her grown children offer little companionship. One night she goes to a bar frequented by Arab immigrants and strikes up a friendship with middle-aged mechanic Ali. Their relationship soon develops into something more, and Emmi's family and neighbors criticize their spontaneous marriage. Soon Emmi and Ali are forced to confront their own insecurities about their future.The Godfather
1972-03-14Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.The Godfather Part II...
1974-12-20In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.King Kong
2005-12-12In 1933 New York, an overly ambitious movie producer coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape who is immediately smitten with the leading lady.Italian for Beginners...
2000-12-07Several lonely hearts in a semi-provincial suburb of a town in Denmark use a beginner's course in Italian as the platform to meet the romance of their lives. The film, which unspools the connections and family drama shared between the students, complies with several aesthetic principles of Dogme 95 movement.Bad Education
2004-03-19An examination on the effect of Franco-era religious schooling and sexual abuse on the lives of two longtime friends.Forrest Gump
1994-06-23A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has achieved, his one true love eludes him.What Just Happened
2008-10-17During the course of an ordinary week in Hollywood, movie producer Ben must navigate his way through shark-infested waters as he struggles to complete his latest projects. A demanding studio boss demands extensive changes to a movie starring Sean Penn, while another chief won't greenlight a project unless star Bruce Willis shaves his beard. Meanwhile, Ben tries to reconcile with his wife and maintain a relationship with his young daughter.The River Wild
1994-09-30Gail and Tom Hartman are struggling to stay together and decide to take a white-water rafting holiday adventure in Montana for their son Roarke's 10th birthday, only to meet up with a pair of mysterious men whose desperation grows, turning their vacation into a nightmare.Derailed
2005-11-11When two married business executives having an affair are blackmailed by a violent criminal, they are forced to turn the tables on him to save their families.Three
2005-11-16After a yachting accident, a millionaire and his wife are shipwrecked on a desert island along with their former deckhand, Manuel.Kill the Poor
2003-05-09When a marriage of convenience becomes the real thing, Joe moves his pregnant French wife to a tenement building on New York's Lower East Side. The street is like a war zone with none of the nostalgic appeal that Joe remembers from tales of his immigrant grandparents arriving in the same neighborhood with a new life. This is the urban frontier filled with comic mixture of gentrifies, homeboys, dealers and local residents simply bent on staying a floatConvoy
1978-06-27Trucker Rubber Duck and his buddies Pig Pen, Widow Woman and Spider Mike use their CB radios to warn one another of the presence of cops. But conniving Sheriff Wallace is hip to the truckers' tactics, and begins tricking the drivers through his own CB broadcasts. Facing constant harassment from the law, Rubber Duck and his pals use their radios to coordinate a vast convoy and rule the road.Avenue Montaigne
2006-02-15A young woman arrives in Paris where she finds a job as a waitress in bar next on Avenue Montaigne that caters to the surrounding theaters and the wealthy inhabitants of the area. She will meet a pianist, a famous actress and a great art collector, and become acquainted with the "luxurious" world her grandmother has told her about since her childhood.Tout Va Bien
1972-04-28A strike at a French sausage factory contributes to the estrangement of a married filmmaker and his reporter wife.This Boy's Life
1993-04-09When a son and mother move to Seattle in hopes for a better life, the mother meets a seemingly polite man. Things go south when the man turns out to be abusive, endangering their lives. As the mother struggles to maintain hope in an impossible situation, the son has plans to escape.You Kill Me
2007-02-09While drying out on the West Coast, an alcoholic hit man befriends a tart-tongued woman who might just come in handy when it's time for him to return to Buffalo and settle some old scores.