Themes: Actor's Life, All Washed Up, Down on Their Luck
Main Cast: Bette Davis, Sterling Hayden, Natalie Wood, Warner Anderson, Minor Watson
Release Year: 1952
Country: US
Run Time: 91 minutes
Plot
An actress who once knew the heights of fame is forced to confronts the depths of defeat in this show business drama. Margaret Elliot (Bette Davis) was once one of Hollywood's great stars, but as she edges into her 50's, both her career and her life have reached an unfortunate crossroads. Margaret hasn't worked for several years, her marriage has fallen apart, her former husband has custody of her daughter Gretchen (Natalie Wood), and she's running short of money. Margaret's agent Harry Stone (Warner Anderson) can't get her a part, and isn't willing to lend her the money to pay her bills. When they learn that Margaret is all but penniless, her sister (Fay Baker) and brother-in-law (David Alpert) turn their back on her, and Margaret's landlady (Katherine Warren) is threatening to evict her. Depressed and desperate, Margaret goes on a drinking binge, and ends up in jail on a drunk driving charge. No one comes to her aid but Jim Johannson (Sterling Hayden), an former actor who worked with Margaret years ago and has long been in love with her. Jim urges Margaret to leave Hollywood behind, and offers to care for her if she'll have him, but when Margaret's pleas to Harry finally result in an audition with producer Joe Morrison (Minor Watson), she holds on to the desperate hope she may have one more chance at regaining her stardom. Bette Davis's performance in The Star earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, but she lost to Shirley Booth for Come Back, Little Sheba -- a role that had been first offered to Davis. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Boris Levin - Art Director, Billy Edwards - Costume Designer, Orry-Kelly - Costume Designer, Ann Peck - Costume Designer, Stuart Heisler - Director, Otto Ludwig - Editor, Victor Young - Composer (Music Score), Victor Young - Musical Direction/Supervision, Del Armstrong - Makeup, Ernest Laszlo - Cinematographer, Bert E. Friedlob - Producer, Katherine Albert - Screenwriter, Dale Eunson - Screenwriter
The Star is a 1952 film directed by Stuart Heisler and starring Bette Davis, Sterling Hayden and Natalie Wood. The plot tells the story of a washed up actress who tries anything to restart her career, even at the risk of alienating her husband and daughter. Bette Davis received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Plot
Oscar Award winning star Margaret Elliot (Bette Davis) is a bankrupted actress not accepting her new non-wealth reality. She is so confident she can build herself up again and somehow fix her career. After she gets another big deception striving to get one good role, she gets drunk and goes to jail for this. She gets help from Jim Johannson (Sterling Hayden), a young actor whom she promoted in the past. Jim loves her and, helped by Margaret’s daughter Gretchen (Natalie Wood), tries to make Margaret see that her big screen days as a famous actress are already gone. She manages to get a screen test for a role in a film she’d always wanted to play. She is offered a supporting role which she accepts, trusting that if she plays that character as a sexy young woman she might be able to get the best part, but it didn't work out. At a Hollywood party, she is offered to play a role in a new film about a falling star who can’t face the fact that it’s all over. That new script was dedicated to those actors and actresses all time thinking what they looked like, what kind of an impression they’d make, demanding, bribing, ambitious for power, to stay on top, those who can’t look down… that script brief changed Margaret’s life.
