A Star Is Born

Esther Blodgett is a young woman from a farming family with ambitions of making it in Hollywood. While working as a waitress at a party, she is noticed by Norman Maine, a film star she has long admired, and he arranges for her to take a screen test. She is soon transformed into the celebrated actress Vicki Lester, and she and Norman marry. As her fame grows, his own career declines, a slide tied to his drinking, and the strain between their two trajectories shapes the marriage.

William A. Wellman directed this 1937 drama, the sixth of the sixteen films he directed in chronological order, following Stingaree and preceding Nothing Sacred. David O. Selznick produced and wrote the screenplay with Ben Hecht and Dorothy Parker, and Selznick International Pictures made it on a budget of one million dollars. Janet Gaynor plays Esther, with Fredric March as Norman Maine, Adolphe Menjou as Oliver Niles, May Robson, Andy Devine and Lionel Stander among the credited cast of forty-one.

Released in April 1937 and running 111 minutes, the film returned two million dollars at the worldwide box office. It holds a 7.3 rating on IMDb from around 12,000 votes and a 7.2 on TMDB from roughly 244 votes, while its critics' rating stands at 7.7 from 24 reviews.