A Star Is Born: The Making of the 1954 Movie and Its 1983 Restoration by Ronald Haver

Author:Ronald Haver
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2008-09-08T15:40:00+00:00

Men in dinner coats and women in elaborate evening dress crowd the tables to the farthest corners of the room. A large television screen is in evidence on which is being duplicated the same action as is taking place on the stage. At the moment, the entire room is applauding and a band is playing as Raymond Wallace, a youngish man, but not a youth, mounts the stage from the audience to be greeted by Susan Ettinger, last year's Oscar winner, who shakes hands with him and presents him, this year's male winner, with the Award statuette.

For the part of Miss Ettinger, Cukor had picked a young red-headed newcomer named Amanda Blake. Her part consisted solely of announcing the winner, presenting him the award, listening to his speech, and then exiting with him. It was what was known as a two-line bit. Richard Webb, playing the winner, had done featured roles in several Warner Bros. and Columbia B pictures; Rex Evans, playing the emcee, was a veteran character actor, while Steve Wyman, playing Nigel Peters, who presents Vicki with her Oscar, was a good-looking newcomer whose only previous work had been a tiny part in a Universal Western. With all of them Cukor worked quickly and carefully.

While the action was being worked out and coordinated with the camera crew, the special-effects camera crew was working out an ingenious split-screen effect that would take advantage of the huge expanse of CinemaScope screen in an innovative manner. As Vicki is presented with her award, the main camera would hold on a long shot of the entire room, with Vicki a tiny figure on the stage. On the right side of the screen, however, was the large television screen that Hart indicated, and on this would be repeated the same shot. But as the television camera crew was seen to dolly forward in the action of the scene, the figure on the television screen was enlarged until the entire television screen was filled with a close-up of Esther giving her acceptance speech. It was a unique and effective method of filling the large screen with the spectacle of the scene while simultaneously concentrating on the intimacy of the moment.

Because of the complexities of the sequence, the first shot was not taken until 12:40 p.m., and the shot was retaken seven times; the rest of the day was spent on the crowd's reaction shots. All the while, Mason waited for his scenes to be readied; he left at 4:30 without having worked in front of the camera. It was the same the next day: six shots were taken, none of which involved Norman.

But on the third day, Mason gave one of the most poignant and subtle performances in the entire film. As Vicki is making her acceptance speech, wrote Hart,

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