Friday | September 29, 2006 9:15 pm

A Star is Born

Screening on Film

Directed by William A. Wellman.
With Janet Gaynor, Fredric March, Adolphe Menjou.
US, 1937, 35mm, black & white, 107 min.
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After leaving Fox, Gaynor starred in David O. Selznick’s gimlet-eyed melodrama about the Hollywood movie colony. A Star is Born traces the rise of an aspiring actress (Gaynor) to the heights of fame and fortune, while also charting the obverse trajectory of her matinée idol husband (Fredric March), whose own career nosedives as hers soars to even greater success. Nominated for numerous Academy Awards—including one for Gaynor’s subtle, sympathetic lead performance—A Star is Born became the biggest box-office hit of the year and provided Gaynor with her most famous line—and one of the most memorable last lines in movie history—“This is Mrs. Norman Maine.”