Star! (1968)

As the celebrated actress Gertrude Lawrence (Julie Andrews) watches a documentary film on her life and career, she remembers back to how it really was. Directed by Robert Wise (WEST SIDE STORY). In 1968, there was no bigger movie star than Julie Andrews who was adored by both the public and critics alike. Then came STAR! and Andrews' meteoric rise (she'd only been in films for four years) hit a wall. Barbra Streisand and FUNNY GIRL had recently been released and the critics and public had found a new darling. As cinema, FUNNY GIRL wasn't really any better than STAR!. Both were the usual rags to riches biographies which traced talented young ladies rise to the top of the show business ladder and the unhappiness and suffering along the way. But FUNNY GIRL had Streisand and no one had ever seen anything like her on screen before while Andrews' screen lineage went all the way back to Jeanette MacDonald. Actually, Andrews is quite good and I think this is one of her best performances but the narrative is as fresh as a bottle of curdled milk. The screenplay is padded with scenes that don't move the plot forward and the whole documentary approach doesn't do anything for the movie. Some of the elaborate numbers (like Limehouse Blues) just sit there. We can see what made Andrews a star (she's never looked more glamorous) but we don't see what made Lawrence a star. The real stars of the film are Boris Leven's production design and Donald Brooks' costumes, both Oscar nominated. With Daniel Massey as Noel Coward, Richard Crenna, Robert Reed, Jenny Agutter, Beryl Reed, Anthony Eisley, Anna Lee and Alan Oppenheimer.