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Star!
</font><hr><font SIZE="3" FACE="Helvetica,Arial" color="003366"><b>
1968
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<img SRC="images/top.jpg" ALT="Star!" WIDTH="175" HEIGHT="125" BORDER="0" HSPACE="10">
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A lavish musical production based on the life of British music hall and Broadway star Gertrude Lawrence, STAR! was created as a vehicle for Jule <table BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="225" align="left" bgcolor="003366" vspace="10" hspace="10">
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<td ALIGN="center" VALIGN="TOP"><img SRC="images/side.jpg" ALT="Julie Andrews" WIDTH="225" HEIGHT="341" BORDER="0" HSPACE="10" VSPACE="10">
<br clear="all"><h4 ALIGN="CENTER"><font color="ffff00">Julie Andrews</h4>
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</table>Andrews. But had it not been for a reprieve on cable TV in 1993, the film ran the risk of being forever forgotten. <p>
The movie did well in previews, but when it hit the theaters, the audience did not respond. One of the problems could have been the public's lack of familiarity with the film's subject, Gertrude Lawrence. Wise also suggests:<b> <font color="336600">"When you have a hit like WEST SIDE STORY or THE SOUND OF MUSIC, you have big word-of-mouth and a lot of repeat viewers, people who come back several times. STAR! didn't get the word-of-mouth and certainly didn't get the repeat viewers...."*</font></b><p>
The film also had the misfortune of coming out after a popular similar film, FUNNY GIRL. Nevertheless, STAR! is a fine effort, with Wise using his craftsmanship to recreate a bygone era.
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<img SRC="../../images/synopsis.gif" ALT="Synopsis" ALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="72" HEIGHT="10" BORDER="0" HSPACE="2" VSPACE="2">
In the early 1940's Gertrude Lawrence, while starring
in the Broadway musical Lady in the Dark, watches a newsreel
<img SRC="images/poster.gif" ALT="Newspaper Ad" ALIGN="RIGHT" WIDTH="225" HEIGHT="447" BORDER="0" HSPACE="10" VSPACE="10">summary of her career and recalls her past: In 1915 as a young woman, Gertrude leaves her mother's home in Bermondsey and goes to Brixton to join her father, Arthur, and his partner Rose, who are performing at a seedy music hall. Deciding that she also wants a career on the stage, Gertrude eventually lands a chorus job in London in an Andre Charlot revue. There her deliberate attempts to steal the limelight nearly lose her job, but the company's stage manager, Jack Roper, intervenes. Gertrude marries Jack, but his idea of marriage conflicts with her professional ambitions, and they divorce shortly after the birth of their daughter, Pamela. Helped by childhood friend and confidant
Noel Coward, Gertrude stars in Charlot's first New York revue
and receives
instant acclaim. Each success makes it more difficult for her
to choose among
her suitors, however, and she juggles diplomat Sir Anthony Spencer,
American
actor Charles Fraser, and New York stockbroker Ben Mitchell,
without
committing herself to any of them. Similarly, her preoccupation
with her
career has also led to estrangement from her rapidly-maturing
daughter,
Pamela. Eventually, Gertrude's increasingly extravagant lifestyle
leads her
to bankruptcy, and she collapses from overworking to pay off
her sizable
debts. Following an enormous success with Noel Coward in his
Tonight at 8:30, Gertrude goes on to do her first dramatic role
in Susan and God.
After a long run, Gertrude sees Richard Aldrich, a New England
banker whom
she had met earlier while playing Private Lives in London.
Though
initially hostile toward him, Gertrude agrees to appear in Skylark
at
Aldrich's Cape Cod playhouse; and after scoring a personal triumph
in Lady in the Dark Gertrude marries Aldrich.<p> <font SIZE="2" FACE="Helvetica,Arial"><b>From the <i>AFI Catalog of Feature Films</i></b><p>
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<td ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="MIDDLE" BGCOLOR="FFFF00"><center><img SRC="../../images/facts.gif" ALT="Wise Facts" WIDTH="97" HEIGHT="51" BORDER="0" HSPACE="10" VSPACE="10"></center>
<li>The studio tried to recoup their investment by cutting 50 minutes off the film and retitling it, THOSE WERE THE HAPPY TIMES. But it fared the same as the original.
<li>Daniel Massey, who played Noel Coward, was the actual grandson of Coward.
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<img SRC="../../images/credits.gif" ALT="Credits:" WIDTH="56" HEIGHT="9" BORDER="0" HSPACE="2" VSPACE="2" align="top"> 175 min. Robert Wise Productions;
<b><font color="336600">Distributed by:</font></b> Twentieth Century--Fox Film Corp.;
<b><font color="336600">Directed by:</font></b> Robert Wise;
<b><font color="336600">Produced by:</font></b> Saul Chaplin;
<b><font color="336600">Screenplay by:</font></b> William Fairchild;
<b><font color="336600">Edited by:</font></b> William Reynolds;
<b><font color="336600">Director of Photography:</font></b> Ernest Laszlo;
<b><font color="336600">Music by:</font></b> Lennie Hayton;
<b><font color="336600">Production Design by:</font></b> Boris Leven;
<b><font color="336600">Sound by:</font></b> Murray Spivack;
<b><font color="336600">Costumes by:</font></b> Donald Brooks;
<b><font color="336600">Make-up by:</font></b> William Buell;
<b><font color="336600">Hair by:</font></b> Hal Saunders;
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<td ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP"><img SRC="images/reed.gif" ALT="Robert Reed" ALIGN="LEFT" BORDER="0" HSPACE="10" WIDTH="80" HEIGHT="101">
<img SRC="../../images/cast.gif" ALT="Cast" ALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="36" HEIGHT="9" BORDER="0" HSPACE="2" VSPACE="2">
Julie Andrews (Gertrude Lawrence), Richard Crenna
(Richard Aldrich), Michael Craig (Sir Anthony Spencer),
Daniel Massey (Noel Coward), Robert Reed (Charles Fraser), Bruce Forsyth
(Arthur Lawrence), Beryl Reid (Rose), John Collin (Jack
Roper), Alan
Oppenheimer (Andre Charlot), Richard Karlan (David
Holtzman),
Lynley Laurence (Billie Carleton), Garrett Lewis (Jack
Buchanan),
Elizabeth St. Clair (Jeannie Banks), Jenny Agutter (Pamela),
Anthony
Eisley (Ben Mitchell), Jock Livingston (Alexander
Woollcott), J. Pat
O'Malley (Dan), Harvey Jason (Bert), Damian London
(Jerry Paul),
Richard Angarola (Cesare), Matilda Calnan (Dorothy),
Lester Matthews
(Lord Chamberlain), Bernard Fox (Assistant to Lord
Chamberlain),
Murray Matheson (Bankruptcy judge), Robin Hughes (Hyde
Park speaker),
Anna Lee (Hostess), Don Crichton (Gertrude's "Limehouse
Blues" dance partner), Peter Church (Newsreel narrator), Jan
Gernat (Stage manager), Conrad Bain (Salesman at Cartier's),
Cast--The Daffodil
Girls: Jeanette Landis (Eph), Dinah Anne Rogers (Molly),
Barbara
Sandland (Mavis), Ellen Plasschaert (Moo), and
Ann Hubbell
(Beryl)
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<font SIZE="1">1. <i>Robert Wise On His Films</i>, p. 76<br>
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