The Star (1952)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Stuart Heisler

Writers:

Dale Eunson (screenplay) and
Katherine Albert (screenplay)

Release Date:

11 December 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The story of a woman...who thought she was a star so high in the sky no man could touch her!

Plot:

A washed-up movie queen finds romance, but still desires a come-back.

Plot Keywords:

Career | Hollywood | Shipyard | Screen Test | Oscar

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Bette Davis	...	Margaret Elliot
Sterling Hayden	...	Jim Johannson aka Barry Lester
Natalie Wood	...	Gretchen
Warner Anderson	...	Harry Stone
Minor Watson	...	Joe Morrison
June Travis	...	Phyllis Stone
Paul Frees	...	Richard Stanley
Robert Warrick	...	R.J., Aging Actor at Party
Barbara Lawrence	...	Herself
Fay Baker	...	Margaret's sister
Herb Vigran	...	Roy

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved | UK:A (original rating) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Bert E. Friedlob Productions

Trivia:

Fox starlet Barbara Lawrence's presence is felt even though her actual screen time is brief. Besides her fleeting cameo appearance, she is referred to at least five other times as the young nemesis to Bette Davis' aging star. She is mentioned as an up-and-coming prospect by an agent, a drunken Davis drives by her house in a mock tour of stars' homes, her image appears in a drugstore ad that confronts Davis, Davis stops to stare at a huge portrait of Lawrence before entering her prospective producer's office, and she spitefully uses Lawrence's vacant dressing room to change alter her make-up before her screen test. For added Hollywood verisimilitude, references are made to other contemporaneous Fox stars including Victor Mature, Debra Paget, Mitzi Gaynor, and Jeanne Crain. Curiously there is a reference to an actor named Ralph Bellows, who's playing the rich, stuffy second lead. This is an obvious reference to the screen persona of Ralph Bellamy, who was not under contract to Fox at the time.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Margaret goes to work in a department store, she descends an escalator and all sorts of electrical cables from the film production can be seen on the floor beneath.

Quotes:

Margaret Elliott: If you're a star you don't stop being a star.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Stardust: The Bette Davis Story (2006) (TV)

Over The Top...What A View!

This is Bette Davis in all her tempestuous, splendid fury and indignation. As Oscar-winning actress Margaret Elliot, she is now given the go by from her own studio in favor of younger Hollywood fillies like Barbara Lawrence who is thrown at the viewer like a new car off the assembly line.

Margaret Elliot is down to cases,bankrupt, with no prospects and is suffering the ignominy of seeing her former household possessions being sold on the auction block to satisfy her creditors,with rock bottom bids at that. Even her relatives are still putting the bite on her for monthly touches she can no longer provide, resulting in an explosive scene which only Miss Davis could deliver.

One of the most searing moments occurs when Margaret takes her "Oscar"(even more unsettling knowing that statuette is,indeed, one of Miss Davis's Best Actress awards) on a drunken odyssey through residential Hollywood. Behind the wheel,she grazes fenders, screams like a wounded banshee at motorists who happen to be driving on the same road as she is and lashes out verbally in front of the house where Barbara Lawrence resides. Her subsequent incarceration for DUI is as demoralizing as the clearly visible toilet inside the cell photographed in publicity stills.

'The Star' has a seedy look to it, which is desirable for this flick as we get a glimpse of Hollywood's underbelly during the early 1950's. One can almost imagine rows of palm trees rooted in used coffee cans with the scent of chicory mixed with cigarette butts. Even Miss Davis's wardrobe is downright frumpy, straight off the Woolworth's rack. Only when she does her screen test for an possible bit part in a movie does she try to project herself as a sexy tart with disastrous results.

The only jarring note to this movie is the appearance of Natalie Wood as Margaret Elliot's teenage daughter. She is bubbling with youthful enthusiasm, quite startling against this cynical, world weary backdrop. Sterling Hayden provides the obligatory beefcake and an ample shoulder for Margaret to cry on.

'The Star' radiates like the hood ornament on the Cadillac Margaret Elliot drives on approval before the studio dashes her dreams yet again and the repo man chases after yet another falling 'Star'.

Rate this *** out of **** stars.