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A Star Is Born (1937 film)

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A Star Is Born is a 1937 film about young Esther Victoria Blodgett who comes to Hollywood with dreams of stardom and achieves them only with the help of alcoholic leading man Norman Maine, whose best days are behind him.

Directed by William A. Wellman. Written by Dorothy Parker, Alan Campbell, and Robert Carson, based on a story by William A. Wellman and Robert Carson.
Is the price of stardom a broken heart?  taglines

Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester

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  • Some day you won't laugh at me! I'm going out and have a real life! I'm gonna be somebody!
  • [last lines] Hello, everybody. This is Mrs. Norman Maine.

Norman Maine

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  • Do you mind if I take just one more look?
  • I don't want to sound immodest, but I think I've stripped a gear.
  • [When Esther is accepting her Academy Award] I won one of those once - They don't mean a thing! What I want is a special award for the worst performance of the year. Lord knows I earned it!

Oliver Niles

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  • [to Esther] All the experts seem to think that your type is a little mild for present day's taste. But I'd rather believe that tastes change, like eyebrows. And I think that also like eyebrows, tastes are going back to the natural.
  • Now, I'm going to turn you over to our demon press agent, Libby. Don't let him frighten you. He has a heart of gold... only harder.

Grandmother Lettie

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  • If you've got one drop of my blood in your veins, you won't let Mattie or any of her kind break your heart, you'll go right out there and break it yourself.
  • Tragedy is a test of courage. If you can meet it bravely, it will leave you bigger than it found you. If not than you will have to live all your life as a coward, because no matter where you may run you can never run away from yourself.
  • [to the radio audience] It took me more than 70... more than 60 years to get here, and here I mean to stay!
  • For every dream of yours you make come true, you'll pay the price in heartbreak.

Matt Libby

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  • There are a couple of rats I raised from mice.
  • That's a charming match. A nice girl like Vicki and Public Nuisance Number One.

Other

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  • Casey Burke: His work is beginning to interfere with his drinking.
  • Danny McGuire: The program tonight's gonna be swell. Take this fella Beethoven: I'm a pushover for him. And Chopin - well, he's not so dusty, either.

Dialogue

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Miss Phillips: Still want to go in the movies? You know what your chances are? One in a hundred thousand.
Esther Blodgett: But maybe... I'm that one.
Pop Randall: Mr. McGuire is a big director.
Esther Blodgett: Oh, are you really? Oh, could you possibly use me in a picture, Mr. McGuire? Of course, I haven't had much experience, but I don't think that really matters if you're willing. And I really feel that...
Danny McGuire: Listen, lady. In the first place, I'm not a director; I'm an assistant director. In the second place, if I had any jobs to give away, I'd confer one on myself. And in the third place, you should have stayed back home in the first place.
Norman Maine: Do you think I'm slipping?
Oliver Niles: Can you take it?
Norman Maine: Yeah, go ahead.
Oliver Niles: The tense is wrong. You're not slipping - you've slipped.
Matt Libby: That elopement thing is out; we're gonna have a wedding. Where are we going to have it?
Oliver Niles: The customary place, I believe, is a church.
Matt Libby: Nah! It's been done. This has gotta be something big... The beach! I can visualize it. The bridesmaids in bathing suits; twenty thousand Santa Monica school children spelling out the word "love"... but is it big enough?
Oliver Niles: [at a sanatorium for treatment of alcoholism] Are you comfortable here, Norman?
Norman Maine: Comfortable? It's positively luxurious! They even have iron bars in the windows to keep out the draft.
Aunt Mattie: Of course, no one ever listens to me!
Grandmother Lettie: They do if they're within ten miles of ya.
Norman Maine: What do they do with the actors while you're away?
Matt Libby: Oh, they cut 'em into slices and fry 'em with eggs.

Taglines

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  • Is the price of stardom a broken heart?
  • Fate raised her to fame - and killed the man she loved!

Cast

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