Paddy Chayefsky's "The Goddess" from 1958 stars Kim Stanley, one of the great actresses of our time, as a Marilyn Monroe type, a lonely, unloved girl who finds stardom in Hollywood but ultimately self-destructs. It should be noted that the movie predates Monroe's death by four years.
Chayefsky is responsible for such screenplays as "Network," "The Hospital," "Marty," among others, and, frankly, "The Goddess" is one of his weaker works. There is very little in the way of character development - events happen very quickly, skipping over years, hitting the high points, with very little in between. For instance, Emily Ann (Stanley) talks about her nervous breakdown, but we don't see it. She makes reference to past promiscuity while talking to her second husband (Lloyd Bridges), but all we see is an invitation by a studio head to come to his house.
The film is notable for the tour de force performance by Stanley who, despite the gaps in the story, creates a vivid characterization of a desperate, ambitious, easily influenced woman looking for someone to love her. Stanley absorbs all of Emily Ann's changes of mood as well as her temperament. When Emily Ann is recently home from the sanitarium, she receives a visit from a director (Werner Klemperer) and his wife. She's hyperkinetic, a ticking bomb; the next time we see them visit, she's found Jesus and acts calm and centered. One can see here that she must have been a magnificent Blanche DuBois, a role she performed early in her career.
"The Goddess" seems to have been made on a tight budget; it certainly doesn't look like a glossy Hollywood film. Stanley was 40 when she made it, and her role begins when the character is 19. There's no attempt anywhere in the film to make her look younger or like a starlet or a movie star. Yet she makes you believe the whole thing.
It's a pity Stanley didn't make more films, but "The Goddess" gives us an excellent idea of Kim Stanley's magnificence as an actress.
