The one scene I could remember from seeing "The Goddess" just too many years ago was the "cat scene" where Patty Duke as the lonely, unloved little girl whispers to the cat "I got promoted today".She and her mother have come to visit Uncle George, her mother hoping to dump Emily Ann so she can get away and have some fun - "after all I'm only 26". Twelve years later (1942) she is still there - a religious fanatic and Emily Ann (Stanley) is the town "tramp" who desperately dreams of Hollywood fame. When she and some friends run across a drunk who just happens to be the mixed up son of a Hollywood star, she sees her opportunity but it only leads to frustration as the first part ends with Emily, a young mother, voicing the very words her mother said many years before - that she is not ready to be a mother and she just wants to have fun.
I also was unfamiliar with Kim Stanley but by the end (on viewing it recently) I was wondering who was this superlative actress. Marilyn Monroe may have been the character's inspiration but as played by Miss Stanley that was unimportant. Her extraordinary performance made the role her own and seemed to encapsulate all the hard luck, unloved actresses - Monroe, Garland etc. I do agree Stanley did look a bit old but the magic in her performance was like a sky rocket, especially in the scene where she is describing her inner most dreams to a boy who has only asked her out because he thinks she is "easy" - "but I think Ann Sheridan is a true beauty, don't you think?". He doesn't care, the same as he doesn't care when she is explaining that the only reason she has that "reputation" is because she wants to be liked. Heart breaking stuff!!
That's why I think the film works best in the first half. There was a continuity - the unloved little girl becomes the promiscuous teenager who then marries and becomes her mother all over again. Unlike her mother she does escape to Hollywood and the next part finds her an up and coming starlet contemplating marriage to an over the hill boxer (Lloyd Bridges is very good). The second part falls down a bit, suddenly she is the Goddess, at the top of her profession but already having suffered a severe breakdown and now has her mother living with her. Mother (great performance by Betty Lou Holland) is even more remote and now only has time for God but Emily doesn't care, only knowing that she needs a mother's love and security. When Emily finds religion and her mother leaves, that paves the way for a descent into madness.
A very strong film remembered for Kim Stanley's powerhouse performance.
I also was unfamiliar with Kim Stanley but by the end (on viewing it recently) I was wondering who was this superlative actress. Marilyn Monroe may have been the character's inspiration but as played by Miss Stanley that was unimportant. Her extraordinary performance made the role her own and seemed to encapsulate all the hard luck, unloved actresses - Monroe, Garland etc. I do agree Stanley did look a bit old but the magic in her performance was like a sky rocket, especially in the scene where she is describing her inner most dreams to a boy who has only asked her out because he thinks she is "easy" - "but I think Ann Sheridan is a true beauty, don't you think?". He doesn't care, the same as he doesn't care when she is explaining that the only reason she has that "reputation" is because she wants to be liked. Heart breaking stuff!!
That's why I think the film works best in the first half. There was a continuity - the unloved little girl becomes the promiscuous teenager who then marries and becomes her mother all over again. Unlike her mother she does escape to Hollywood and the next part finds her an up and coming starlet contemplating marriage to an over the hill boxer (Lloyd Bridges is very good). The second part falls down a bit, suddenly she is the Goddess, at the top of her profession but already having suffered a severe breakdown and now has her mother living with her. Mother (great performance by Betty Lou Holland) is even more remote and now only has time for God but Emily doesn't care, only knowing that she needs a mother's love and security. When Emily finds religion and her mother leaves, that paves the way for a descent into madness.
A very strong film remembered for Kim Stanley's powerhouse performance.