Star cast
An all-star cast (English all-star cast ) is in all kinds of performances a cast of characters exclusively Stars . In drama or film it describes an actor occupation in which all main roles , possibly also all major supporting roles , are exclusively occupied with stars; in ensemble films , the entire ensemble of stars is accordingly recruited. In the music sector, it refers to ensembles such as bands, bands or groups of singers that are composed exclusively of members who are already successful outside of the ensemble - examples are the Traveling Wilburys and The Three Tenors ; see also the English term " supergroup ".
history
In the film genre, the first example of a star cast is people in the hotel from 1932 by MGM . The executive producer Irving Thalberg saw the ideal opportunity to bring five of his top stars to the screen together in the material that portrayed the interwoven fates of various characters in a 24-hour period in a Berlin hotel. In view of the dramatically worsening global economic crisis, which led to massive audience losses, the film industry had to break new ground to lure paying viewers into the cinemas. One possibility for Thalberg was to combine the attraction of several stars and thus increase it. With Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford, he not only brought together two actors from the list of the top ten box office stars, but also gave other leading roles to John Barrymore , Lionel Barrymore and Wallace Beery . Even the most important supporting roles are cast with well-known actors like Lewis Stone . One of the problems with star-studded films was determining the order of billing in which the actors were named . The arguments about this were sometimes livelier than the dramatic stories on screen.
People in the hotel was very successful and the idea was subsequently copied by all film studios. MGM produced two other examples in 1933 with dinner at eight with Marie Dressler , Jean Harlow , Wallace Beery and John Barrymore and Nachtflug , which brought Clark Gable , the Barrymore brothers and Helen Hayes together in front of the screen. Fox countered with carnival hype , which presented Janet Gaynor and Will Rogers , among others . If I had a million, Paramount Pictures offered some variation on the theme, with the producers presenting eight separate, self-contained episodes loosely held together by a frame story. In the present case, an eccentric millionaire randomly bequeathed a million dollars to people he picked from the phone book. Paramount also delivered one of the biggest financial failures of the star-studded productions with the film adaptation of Alice in Wonderland in 1933 . Although all roles from the story were cast with top stars like Gary Cooper and Cary Grant , the audience could not recognize the actors due to their sometimes extremely elaborate masks, which gave them the appearance of the characters from the story, and therefore avoided the film.
In a modified, somewhat simplified form, the system was further developed through films in which the male and female main roles were cast with established stars, so-called co-stars. Such pairings could sometimes be successful over several films. Sun turned William Powell and Myrna Loy together 14 films, Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell were seen 12 times side by side. In the case of particularly large female stars, two male stars were even called in to make a romantic triangle story even more interesting for the fans, such as never getting married the first time in 1934, in which Joan Crawford had to choose between Clark Gable and Robert Montgomery and Libeled Lady from 1936, which with William Powell, Jean Harlow , Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy even presented four stars in a double relationship triangle. The reverse combination was also possible when a male top star stood between two women, like Clark Gable in His Secretary , where Jean Harlow and Myrna Loy argued over Gable and Wife, Doctor and Nurse , who already summarized the entire plot in the title the Warner Baxter did not differ between Loretta Young and Virginia Bruce can decide. Not to be confused with this are the revue films, which were popular during the early sound film era, in which the studios presented their entire star team in more or less loosely connected revue scenes. Examples include Paramount on Parade , The Show of Shows, and The Hollywood Revue of 1929 . The idea became very popular again when the film industry once again brought large, sometimes very cost-intensive films onto the market through international co-productions, the economic success of which was to be secured through the use of many prominent actors.
Current examples of star-studded films include The Expendables , Oceans Eleven , Sin City , Movie 43 and Murder on the Orient Express .
Sources and further reading
- Ronald Haver: David O. Selznick's Hollywood. Random House Value Publishing, ISBN 978-0517476659 .
- Paul McDonald: The Star System: Hollywood's Production of Popular Identities. Wallflower Press, ISBN 978-1903364024 .
- Jeanine Basinger: The Star Machine. Knopf, ISBN 978-1400041305 .
- Jeanine Basinger: A Woman's View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women 1930–1960. Wesleyan, ISBN 978-0819562913 .
- detailed essay with aspects on the topic
Individual evidence
- ↑ all-star cast. In: dict.cc. Retrieved January 9, 2018 .