[1] The decision by Warner Bros. in late 1952 to remake A Star Is Born,[2] after the successful 1937 film version, offered a career comeback opportunity for Judy Garland who had been let go by MGM in 1950.
[7] Not wanting to be an ersatz George Gershwin, Arlen stopped playing it and switched to a different melody that was from an unfinished song he had worked on a few years earlier with lyricist Johnny Mercer.
[8] At the time, the song had "elegantly literate" but forgettable lyrics such as: "I've seen Sequoia, it's really very pretty / The art of Goya, and Rockefeller City / But since I saw you, I can't believe my eyes.
"[9] According to an Arlen biography, Gershwin found the new tune compelling, "particularly the insistent movement of the rhythm; he listened a while and suggested as a possible title 'The Man That Got Away'".
"[13] Gershwin achieved that effect by creating short, impactful couplets,[14] often with only two or three stresses per line, to build up a sense of desolation and intense longing as expressed by the lovesick singer, for example: "The night is bitter / The stars have lost their glitter"; "The man that won you / Has run off and undone you"; and "The road gets rougher / It's lonelier and tougher.
Shortly after they composed the film's first two songs, "Gotta Have Me Go with You" and "The Man That Got Away", Gershwin reiterated his request for secrecy when Arlen mentioned he would be driving to Palm Springs for the weekend.
[17] Garland soon guessed the tune's provenance and insisted the three of them retire to the clubhouse where there was a piano for Arlen to play the song properly.
[21]In Moss Hart's script for A Star Is Born, Garland (as Esther Blodgett) sings "a dive song" at the Downbeat Club on Sunset Blvd.
[22] The chairs are up on the tables for floor cleaning, the air is filled with cigarette smoke, and Blodgett—without an audience other than her musician friends (or so she believes, not realizing that movie icon Norman Maine has entered the nightclub)—is encouraged by the pianist to rise from her seat on the piano bench and "take it from the top.
"[23] Her performance of "The Man That Got Away" is arguably the film's most crucial scene because it is the means by which Blodgett persuades Maine (as well as us in the audience) that she possesses "that little something extra": star quality.
So to give it a slightly impressionistic look, I convinced Sam [Leavitt] to let us put a scrim between the musicians and the back bar.
"[30] Due to technical problems with staging, lighting, etc., Garland had to do a total of 27 takes, both partial and complete, over a three-day period.
[31] While "The Man That Got Away" and other early scenes were being filmed, there was a debate among Warner Bros. studio executives about switching from their "WarnerScope" technology to the newer CinemaScope.
Jack Warner and Sid Luft were so impressed with the effect of combining Technicolor with wide-screen CinemaScope, they agreed to restart principal photography on the film, even at a significant loss in time and money.
[34][35] The original takes of the song were added as a special feature on the deluxe DVD edition of A Star Is Born released in 2010.
The track also gave Garland her first appearance on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart (albeit posthumously), debuting at number 41 in the November 9, 2019 issue.