Diagonaldi
Very well executed
Stevecorp
Don't listen to the negative reviews
BoardChiri
Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay
kapelusznik18
***SPOILERS*** Paddy Chayefsky's thinly disguised biography of Hollywood sex symbol Marilyn Monroe and what fame did to her and those close to her. Kim Stanly plays the part of Emily Ann Faulkner a local girl, from rural Maryland, who made it big in tinsel town and in the end paid for it. Working her way up in mostly non speaking parts in mostly B-movies Emily got her big brake after she married former light heavyweight champion of the world Dutch Seynour, Llyod Bridges, who in fact saw more of Emily Ann then anyone in the movie. This was after a failed marriage with son of major movie star John Towers, Steven Hill, whom she had a daughter with and who deserted them both to go overseas to fight fascism in Nazi occupied Europe wishing that he'll never come back alive. It's much later that a sober and reformed Towers does come back to Emily Ann together with the couples 14 year old daughter, Gial Haworth, but by then Emily Ann is so out of it she's in no condition to see her.The film mirrors Marilyn Monroe's career in Hollywood where she became the biggest star in films but paid dearly in the lifestyle she lead off the screen that in the end, that's 4 years after the movie was released, ended up losing her life at the young age of 36. It's the death of Emily Ann's bible thumping mom Laureen, Betty Lou Holland, that really pushed her over the edge. We see Emily Ann slowly self destructs and become addicted to pills and booze to the point where the only thing left in life to her is the movies that she stars in that make money for the studios. We get to see Emily Ann go from a beautiful and talented actress to a bed ridden pill popping wino in less then ten years, 1947-1957, not at all caring what will happen to her in the future.***SPOILERS*** It's a true story in many ways of how fame can destroy the person who has it and Kim Stanley does an amazing job of acting to make that point on the screen. We've seen so many similar cases in and out of Hollywood of people who seem to have the world in their hands and at their feet and then end up dead or institutionalized because of the pressure it, fame, demands of them which they can't handle.
JasparLamarCrabb
It's NOT about the rise of a movie queen, instead Paddy Chayefsky's THE GODDESS is a grueling experience showing the disintegration of a woman into madness. Kim Stanley stars (not always convincingly) as a small-town girl who goes to Hollywoood and becomes a star, all the while being a complete lunatic. Is it the role or is it Stanley? The actress emotes and emotes and acts and acts until the viewer is just completely exhausted. Your stamina will really be tested watching this. Chayefsky's script is alternately touching and laughable. There is a very sad scene in which the title character (played as child by a very young Patty Duke) informs her cat that she's been promoted at school. Unfortunately there's far too many explosions of self-loathing by not only Stanley, but by Stephen Hill and Lloyd Bridges (as her first and second husbands respectively). Hill is saddled with quoting a lot of poets to show us he's "sensitive." There are a few terrific supporting performances; one by Betty Lou Holland as Stanley's religious fanatic mother and one by Elizabeth Wilson as a pushy caregiver. Directed, unimaginatively, by John Cromwell.
swinms
I recently caught this movie on TCM and loved every second of it. Kim's accent gets a bit tiresome but the overall effect is great. Love the scene in which Patty Duke, playing The Goddess as a neglected child, pathetically tells her cat that she got promoted to the next grade in school. This movie contains all of the tried and true "money and fame aren't everything" requisites. I wish Kim Stanley had tried her hand at Tennessee Williams. She has that "Geraldine Page" affectation that Mr. Williams apparently appreciated. I remember her from "Frances". It's too bad she didn't do more movies. The Goddess is a wonderful look at late 50s Hollywood and the inherent danger in getting what you've always wanted.
bkc1019
As a child growing up in Ellicott City, MD. I was fortunate enough to be in this movie as part of the elementary school class. I remember doing the classroom scene and the school dismissal scene, over and over. But as the years passed, I have searched for a VHS copy of "The Goddess". Now that I have found it, I can obtain it for my children and grandchildren. Lloyd Bridges was one of the great actors of our time, but more importantly, a Hollywood role model as a family man. I guess this was the start of my "showbiz bug". Since that time I have been blessed in the entertainment industry. If you watch the movie "Urban Cowboy" and check out the soundtrack credits at the end, you will see a song called "Hello Texas"(recorded by Jimmy Buffett) which I wrote. Thank you "Goddess" for starting in me at a very young age, the love of the audience and the performance.
