The Goddess **** (1958, Kim Stanley, Lloyd Bridges, Steven Hill, Betty Lou Holland, Patty Duke) – Classic Movie Review 11,650

The 1958 American black and white drama film The Goddess stars Kim Stanley, who is wonderful in her film debut in writer Paddy Chayefsky’s powerful indictment of the Hollywood star system, loosely based on the rise of Marilyn Monroe.

Director John Cromwell’s 1958 American black and white drama film The Goddess stars Kim Stanley, Lloyd Bridges, Patty Duke, Steven Hill and Betty Lou Holland.

Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky’s powerful, intelligent indictment of the Hollywood star system is based loosely on the rise of Marilyn Monroe. Chayefsky was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Début-making Kim Stanley is wonderful in the central role, as Emily Ann Faulkner, with fine support from fellow débutante Patty Duke (as her eight-year-old self), Lloyd Bridges (as Dutch Seymour), Steven Hill (as John Tower) and Betty Lou Holland as Emily’s mother Mrs Laureen Faulkner.

The Goddess is a beautifully crafted, fascinating, compelling look at the dark side of Hollywood, with sleek direction by Cromwell. Stage star Stanley should have been a movie goddess herself, but this great actress made hardly any films (with only four other cinema features before her death in 2001). She did however star in Séance on a Wet Afternoon as a result of her performance in this.

The Goddess was filmed in Ellicott City, Maryland, standing in for the childhood home of Emily Ann and is the backdrop for the opening and closing scenes. The interior scenes were filmed at the Gold Medal Studios, the Bronx, New York. Location filming was also done in Hollywood, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills and at the Fox Village Theater, Westwood, California.

Marlon Brando recalled about Kim Stanley: ‘She did not want or take the easy way out in creating a character, in sharing herself, but she often worked with people who did not respect or understand her commitment, and their laziness undercuts her work. You see this most clearly in The Goddess, where a genius, a new Duse, is surrounded by hacks and journeymen.’

The cast are Kim Stanley as Emily Ann Faulkner/ Rita Shawn, Lloyd Bridges as Dutch Seymour, Steven Hill as John Tower, Betty Lou Holland as Mrs Laureen Faulkner, Burt Brinckerhoff as The Boy, Bert Freed as Lester Brackman, Gerald Hiken as George, Elizabeth Wilson as Harding, Joan Copeland as Alice Marie, Joyce Van Patten as Hillary, Joanne Linville as Joanna, Donald Mckee as R M Lucas, John Lawrence as Soldier, Curt Conway as The Writer, Fred Herrick as The Elder, Patty Duke as Emily Ann Faulkner age 8, Linda Soma as Bridesmaid, Kris Flanagan as Himself, Geroge Petrarca as The Minister, Roy Shuman as Soldier, Gail Haworth as Emily’s Daughter, and Werner Klemperer as Supposed Old and Dear Friend.

The Goddess is directed by John Cromwell, runs 105 minutes, is made by Carnegie Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Paddy Chayefsky, is shot in black and white by Arthur J Ornitz, is produced by Milton Perlman, and is scored by Virgil Thomson.

Release date April 17, 1958.

The films of Kim Stanley: The Goddess, Séance on a Wet Afternoon, The Three Sisters (1966), Frances and The Right Stuff.

Stanley did not act later on, but was a teacher in New York City, Los Angeles, and later Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she died of uterine cancer at a nursing home on August 20, 2001 at the age of 76..

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,650

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