"Rose's Last Summer" may be no great shakes with its improbable plot, but in casting Mary Astor in the central role of actress Rose French, former glamour queen of Hollywood, things are more watchable for a change. Undergoing treatment for severe alcoholism, a downtrodden Rose chooses to toast her sudden good fortune with her closest friend, Frank Clyde (Lin McCarthy, later seen in "The Specialists"), but says little about her new job as a 'housekeeper' before paying her landlady a month in advance. Soon both Clyde and Rose's ex-husband (Jack Livesey) hear about her death, found alone in the garden of San Francisco socialite Willet Goodfield (Hardie Albright), whose father made millions on the 'Sweet Marie' doll, the coroner's report confirming Rose died instantly of natural causes with an enlarged heart. Willet and his wife Ethel (Dorothy Green) have been caring for his invalid mother in this rented house, while Clyde's examination of Rose's most recent cardiogram reveals a heart in good shape. Both men decide to look into the background of old man Goodfield and find his inspiration for the valued doll. Unbilled are Richard Reeves as a startled truck driver (a role he would repeat in "Late Date"), while Arthur Peterson (The Major on SOAP) enjoys an eccentric bit as the suspicious Goodfield attorney. The viewer can see where this is going long before the protagonists do, but Mary Astor's star presence is a reminder of Hollywood's tendency to discard even the greatest performers, with echoes not only of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" but also Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Blvd."