Mad As Hell

Here's a piece in the LA Weekly about the reconstructed 1954 A Star Is Born.

There have been three versions of this A Star Is Born (not including close copies--and there's a fourth in development). I don't consider any of them classics. The Judy Garland version has the most fans, but I don't see it. It's not horrible, but it's too long (even the cut version) and too melodramatic.

Still, we get stuff like this:

Part of the fan devotion stems from the perception that Star was underappreciated in its own time; don't even mention the fact that Garland lost the 1954 Best Actress Oscar unless you want to get an earful. "It's one of the great Oscar atrocities of all time," Feltenstein contends. "It's like Network losing Best Picture to Rocky — it's something so ridiculously stupid that you just can't understand it."

Actually, I think Network is an awful picture. Overwritten (as only Paddy Chayefsky can do) and generally overacted. Rocky, on the other hand, was small but touching, and surprisingly smart. It flirted with cliches, but was earnest enough to overcome them.

Chayefsky actually beat Stallone for best screenplay, which was a mistake. And Peter Finch's screaming in Network beat Stallone mumbling for best actor. (Finch was the first posthumous Osar winner--not sure if that made a difference.) Network won a handful of Oscars, but Rocky got the big one, and that's what counts.