Other Titles • Star! • Loves of a Star! (1968) • Those Were the Happy Times
Synopses for Star! (1968)
1.
For Julie Andrews fans, Star! will be something more than just a legendary albatross around Old Hollywood's neck--after all, Julie is onscreen virtually every minute of this film, singing and dancing and flouncing around in an endless parade of over-the-top costumes. Seeing her tackle a variety of Noel Coward tunes and a nicely understated "Someone to Watch Over Me" is pleasant, but it's easy to see why this three-hour musical failed to click with 1968 audiences. A biopic of the celebrated stage star Gertrude Lawrence (puckish Daniel Massey plays Coward, Lawrence's childhood chum), the movie staggers around between the big production numbers. Its social message--independent Lawrence just needed a man to boss her around--was just as grating in the age of The Graduate as it is now. "Isn't this kind of thing a little out of date?" someone asks the aging Lawrence; Star! provides its own answer. --Robert Horton
2.
A musical biography of British music hall and Broadway star Gertrude Lawrence, STAR! is a convincing and entertaining film, featuring an impressive score. The immensely talented Julie Andrews plays Lawrence, a beautiful, headstrong, and fiercely independent woman who will do anything for her career (including leaving her daughter and husband). Her early adventures in the music hall chorus and her later involvement in British high society are chronicled in this lush film that, though it received several Academy Award nominations, was not appreciated by the public until some 30 years after its original showing, when it was rereleased. One of the most interesting, heartwarming, and perhaps most famous aspects of Lawrence’s story was her lifelong friendship with playwright Nöel Coward (Daniel Massey, the real-life grandson of Coward), which the film accurately portrays. STAR! also shows the lowlights of Lawrence's life, including her strained relationship with her daughter Pamela (Jenny Agutter), her involvement with such men as American actor Charles Fraser (Robert Reed) and English nobleman Sir Anthony Spencer (Michael Craig), and the financial difficulties she amassed from her extravagant lifestyle.
3.
Film based on life of actress Gertrude Lawrence, on- and offstage, takes the opportunity to feature some extravagant musical production numbers. Lots and lots of 'Julie Andrews' , acting, singing and dancing.
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