Judy Garland - Apprenticeship as a Hollywood star

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Movie
German title Judy Garland - Apprenticeship as a Hollywood star
Original title Rainbow
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1978
length 97 minutes
Rod
Director Jackie Cooper
script John McGreevey
production Peter Dunne
music Charles Fox
camera Howard Schwartz
cut Jerry Dronsky
occupation

Apprenticeship of a Hollywood star - Judy Garland is an American biopic from the year 1978 . The television film is a literary adaptation of the 1975 biography Rainbow by Christopher Finch .

action

Frances Ethel Gumm, called Baby Frances , has been on stage with her two sisters Jinnie and Janey Gumm as the Gumm Sisters since she was a child . They are accompanied by an ambitious and strict mother while they tour the country. Frances' only loving relationship is with her father Frank Gumm, who runs a movie theater at home in Grand Rapids , Minnesota . It is all the more difficult for her to move to Hollywood with her two sisters because Ethel Gumm believes she can earn more money there. After several appearances that were organized by her mother, she meets her father again after a long sad period when she has a solo appearance at The Trocadero . The father himself wants to be with his daughters and his wife again, so he tries to talk to Ethel. But she only sees the 300 US dollars she earns each month and prefers to prepare for a performance at the Oriental Theater in Chicago with the Gumm Sisters . The manager there is enthusiastic about the Gumm Sisters and only considers the name Gumm to be styleless, which is why he names them Garland Sisters - after the acting critic Robert Garland. And because Frances doesn't like her name anymore, she takes the opportunity to call herself Judy Garland .

Back in Hollywood, she receives the message from her good friend Mickey Rooney that he has signed a contract with MGM , which is why he has now taken care of. Ethel tries the same thing with Judy. They use every opportunity to sing in front of studio bosses and film producers. But she only receives rejections. It feels like an eternity and countless other castings for her before she finally receives an MGM contract for 100 US dollars a week. The joy does not last long, because in addition to intensive singing and music training with her father's friend and composer Roger Edens , her father soon dies of poliomyelitis . But there is no time for grief. She has to keep working. In doing so, she realizes that at the age of 15, she had been on stage for over 12 years and sacrificed her entire childhood.

Meanwhile, she is invited to dinner by studio boss Louis B. Mayer , who asks her to call him Uncle Louie in the future and has nothing else in mind than to protect his investment. He'd love to do a movie with Garland, but she'd have to lose weight. The possibility exists to shoot The Wizard of Oz , which is why he and a few other film producers put pressure on her and her mother to finally lose weight. But Judy Garland does not tolerate the pills prescribed by the doctor, which is why Ethel messes with Mayer to protect her daughter and he then has her expelled from his studio and in future only negotiates with Roger Edens. Shortly thereafter, when news got around that MGM is trying to cast Shirley Temple in the film , Judy Garland is dejected again because it seems like it is again one of those opportunities she worked hard for but never got. Fortunately, 20th Century Fox refuses to borrow Temple, so Garland has finally made it and can play her first film roles. But neither her own trailer nor all the praises around her seem to make her happy. She misses her family and threatens to stop filming. Edens successfully talks to her. He tells her that there are 'good days and bad days' and it is now appropriate to put all these feelings into this one song. And so Judy Garland sings Over the Rainbow in tears .

background

The director Jackie Cooper , who is played as a child star in this film by Johnny Doran , directed the film and interpreted the character of Judy Garland as "the little innocent girl who was pushed into a film career by her ambitious mother, And that was always just taken advantage of and little loved. ”Cooper really dated Judy Garland for a year at the age of 13 and got goose bumps when he had to direct his“ younger version ”on the set.

When producer Fred Silverman switched from ABC to NBC , over 40 pages of the script were cut from the original three-hour film. In one scene, Ethel Gumm says that “it wouldn't be so bad if it had been at least a man.” With that, she was referring to a scene that was cut out of the film. There were rumors - which Cooper said even Judy Garland didn't believe - that Frank Gumm was homosexual.

Cinematographer Howard Schwartz was at the Emmy Awards 1979 with a Emmy for "a Miniseries or a Special Best Cinematography" excellent.

criticism

John J. O'Connor criticized the film despite its "grandiose start" in the New York Times , because what the director "stages cheesy sentimentally" does the acting McArdle (which he regarded as the "greatest problem of the film" because it "Like a reliable robot" play everything that is asked of her) the film to a "story that sits in a worn track." MacArdle is a "block of sure competence", but because she Garland's "unique sound, with." her trembling vulnerability ”to a“ lackluster, colored putty ”, she was“ unfortunately too easy to ignore. ”In contrast, Judy Garland was - in his opinion - a“ eye-catching, magnetic personality one, even if one didn't like her , could not ignore. "

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times said that Jackie Cooper's "breathtaking biography" was "staged with feeling and style."

For the lexicon of international films it is “a nostalgic television film about a star life”, which shows “loss of childhood, separation from the beloved father, compulsion and isolation”.

Soundtrack

  1. " Jingle Bells "
  2. "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" - Harry Carroll
  3. " Puttin 'on the Ritz " - Irving Berlin
  4. "Stormy Weather"
  5. "Judy" - Frankie Vaughan
  6. "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart "- James F. Hanley
  7. "Dinah"
  8. "I'll Get By (As Long As I Have You)" - Fred E. Ahlert and Roy Turk
  9. "Broadway Rhythm Ballet"
  10. "You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)" - James V. Monaco and Joseph McCarthy
  11. " Over the Rainbow " - Harold Arlen and EY Harburg

publication

After the film was first broadcast on November 6, 1978 on NBC, it was first broadcast in Germany on January 10, 1981 on ZDF .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b THIS WEEK ON TELEVISION Sunday, January 10th on Spiegel Online from January 4, 1981, accessed on March 16, 2012
  2. ↑ a b c Kevin Thomas: Coloring Up Judy's 'Rainbow' , Los Angeles Times , November 6, 1978, page F1.
  3. ↑ John J. O'Connor: TV: "Rainbow," Sentimental Story of Judy Garland as Child Star , The New York Times , Nov. 6, 1978, 45.
  4. ↑ Judy Garland - Hollywood Star Apprenticeship in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed March 16, 2012