The Film STAR with Julie Andrews and Daniel Massey

Saw this about a month ago it's available to watch online via Netflix. I love Julie Andrews but I found the film way too long, over produced and quite boring. There are some musical gems here and there and I do own the soundtrack. After seeing it I could totally understand why it tanked at the box office.

I saw STAR the week it opened in LA (still have my $1.oo souvenir movie-book), and it was, indeed, gorgeous to look at on the Fox Wilshire Theatre's HUUUuuuGE screen. The film was hyped like crazy (gotta love Fox), cuz Robert Wise had won that "Sound of Music" Oscar for the '65 season, and his "Sand Pebbles" in '66 was pretty well-received, too. Daniel Massey was Oscar-nominated for his Noel Coward, as were the film's designers, sound folks, songwriters, etc. But '68 was the year of "Oliver!" and that "Funny Girl" thing, and people were mostly freaked-out that Julie Andrews wasn't in a "cute" musical. The musical numbers rank high, though some of the material ("Berlington Bertie from Bow" and "Parisian Pierrot" let's say) isn't the best in the world. And I must say that, to me, "Jenny" is realllly pretty ridiculous, even by "let's put a show in a 'Thee-ay-ter' setting, but make it BIG BIG BIG" standards.

The film was not received well, and Fox freaked. It was out of Roadshow Engagements (that old 2-a day reserved seat thing) in very short order -- and was cut to ribbons. By the time it went to General release, it was about 2 hours and (I think, 15 minutes) and called "THOSE WERE THE HAPPY TIMES". Oy Veh. It didn't do well there, either.

Eventually, with the DVD market and all, they put it back together. I have the DVD, which is probably what you saw on TV, but as I've watched it, I'm not certain that even THIS is the original incarnation. I think it's LONGER than it was!! (I've never understood why a film needs to be LENNNNGTHENED beyond what the Director originally wanted, but oh well.)

They should've made a smaller movie with Maggie Smith as Gertie.
Ah well.

I have that laserdisc. I didn't realize the video was that special.

It says it's "Digitally mastered from the 65mm camera negative and six track magnetic stereo soundtrack, under the supervision of director Robert Wise. Presented in its original widescreen format."

Another reason to hold onto this bulky old laserdisc player...

Are the extras and video interviews also not on the DVD? The interviews are with Julie, Daniel Massey, Richard Crenna, Robert Wise, Saul Chaplin, and Michael Kidd.

The extras include all the trailers and TV commericals and two featurettes: "The Saga of Star" and "Silver Star."

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Here is the artwork for the original (and still available) 2004 DVD release:




DVD Contents:
Features:
Full-Length Audio Commentary by Director Robert Wise
"Star! The Sound of a Legend" Original Production Featurette
"Silver Star" 25th Anniversary Featurette
Julie Andrews and Daniel Massey Screen Test
Still Galleries
Trailers
TV Spots
Video:
Widescreen 2.20:1 Color (Anamorphic)
Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.0 [CC]
Subtitles:
English, Spanish

Here are the contents of the 1990s laserdisc release:
LaserDisc Special Features:
Complete Original Roadshow Version of STAR!
Presented in its Original Widescreen Format
Digitally Mastered from the 65mm camera negative & Six Track Magnetic Stereo Soundtrack, Supervision of Director Robert Wise.
New Video Interviews and Running Audio Commentary
Featuring Julie Andrews, Daniel Massey, Richard Crenna, Robert Wise, Saul Chapman, Michael Kidd, and Many Other Creative Talents from Both Sides of the Camera
Original Promotional Footage
Television Commercials & Behind-the-Scenes Production Featurette
Original Audio Material
Promotional Recording
Interviews with Julie Andrews from the Film Set
Radio Programs
Commercials
The Hollywood Premiere
Theatrical Trailers

yes the Jenny number is huge and overblown, but I believe a good portion of it was filmed on stage at the Cort, I do know that the number was rehearsed onstage there. The Cort was also used for My Ship, and I believe it was the Lycuem for Someone to Watch Over Me.

I love the look and style and feel of this film. All the big, lavish, widescreen, surround-sound splendor. And I like individual numbers. And Julie Andrews and particularly Daniel Massey, who is wonderful.

But overall, the movie just drags on and on. It seems endless, and I can rarely sit through the whole thing. I either watch it in sections or just turn it off. It's like slogging through mud after a while.

My big confession is that I feel the same way about the "restored" version of A Star Is Born. Although not quite as ponderous as "Star," it's just TOO MUCH MOVIE in the end. I think the plots would be better served with tighter editing, but, more importantly, screenplays that propelled the action at a faster pace.

(I should add that I don't hate long movies. Lawrence of Arabia and Gone With the Wind are both near the top of my "best" list, and I wouldn't cut a single frame of either.)

It's not the physical duration so much as the sense of everything moving so slowly and being so drawn-out.

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It may have been shot in a theatre, but there's no way that number could be done live 8 times a week, even today (let alone in 1941). Come on, the lady jumps from a ladder, blows up a bunch of dwarfs, slides down a 50 foot high rope through a ring of fire, and still holds a high C at the end for 20 seconds. I love it, but it's utter fantasy.

Someone needs to tell that to Julie Taymor.

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Someone needs to tell that to Julie Taymor.

I haven't seen that show since last December - is Reeve Carney now doing his own stunts and hitting high Cs? He's come a long way...

Ummmm... mine was a joke, too, Girlina.

*headdesk* X2

But is Reeve really knocking over dwarfs?

I've never seen Star! - but due to comments here, I wandered over to YouTube and watched the Jenny number. wow. I mean, I knew that SOB was "inspired" by Star! and Darling Lili - but Edwards must have detested Star!

Well, discounting that the "Jenny" number could never happen in the theatre — which is true of many Hollywood musical numbers that are supposed to be taking place on stage — I think that the bigger problem is that Gertrude Lawrence was furious that Danny Kaye was possibly going to steal the show simply because he had a big number before hers.

She was famous for upstaging people. She was famous for always needing to be the center of attention. Singing was never her greatest strength.

So when thought about from that point of view, the number seems to undercut her whole character.

Also, the number loses the whole point that the movie sets up. Aldrich takes her to a club in Harlem, she suddenly realizes how to do the number, and then . . . she doesn't do it that way at all because the number is so insanely busy that she doesn't even have the opportunity to bring to it what she presumably saw in the Harlem club. There's nothing remotely low-down or jazzy or sexy or anything about her performance.

I think it's a kind of deadly movie. A badly written screenplay that simply isn't convincing on its own terms (forgetting about whether it's true to Lawrence's real life) and overproduced musical numbers that have no period feel. Full of situations and dialogue that I just don't buy for a second.

Julie does her best, but Maggie Smith would have made more sense to play Gertrude Lawrence in a biopic. It would have had to be made with a smaller budget, but that would have been all for the good.

But the biggest problem is the screenplay.

Too bad the movie doesn't touch on Gertie's bisexuality.