THE STAR (1952)

 

Of all the Bette Davis pictures that I love to watch over and over again, and they are legion, THE STAR is close to the top of the list. Not only does it feature one of Miss Davis's most energetic performances, but it's also the first time she played a movie star on film. She had played a stage actress in three previous films. The first time was in DANGEROUS, for which she won her first Oscar for Best Actress of 1935. Then there was her co-starring role opposite Leslie Howard in IT'S LOVE I'M AFTER in 1937. And, of course, in 1950 she triumphed as Margo Channing in the Best Picture of 1950, ALL ABOUT EVE, which garnered Davis her eighth nomination for Best Actress. 

Bette Davis's convincing emotional portrayal of an aging, struggling Broadway actress in ALL ABOUT EVE encouraged many people to wonder how similar the onscreen Margo and the offscreen Bette might actually be, although to the end of her life she would insist that no such similarity existed. When she took on the role of aging, struggling movie actress Margaret Elliot in THE STAR, there was even more speculation that aging, struggling actress Bette Davis was telling her own story in front of the cameras.

When the film opens, Margaret Elliot is walking down a Hollywood street toward an auction house where her possessions are being sold to pay off her considerable debts. Although she had been a successful, popular Oscar-winning star, Margaret is now unable to get a picture and is running out of money. She lives in a small apartment and her daughter, Gretchen, is staying with her father. a successful actor, and stepmother in a luxurious mansion. Margaret's rent is past due, and she is threatened with eviction. She has been supporting her family for years. After a fight with her sister and brother-in-law over money, Margaret throws them out. In a fit of anger and desperation, she grabs her Academy Award and says, "Come on, Oscar. Let's you and me get drunk!" She ends up running from the police, has an accident, and is arrested for drunk driving. She spends the night in jail, but is bailed out the next morning by Jim Johanssen, a former actor who played opposite Margaret in one of her movies. 

Screen star Margaret Elliot (Bette Davis) confronts her younger self as her possessions are being sold off.

A Hollywood diva spends a night in the slammer.

When Margaret is locked out of her apartment, she goes to stay with Jim, who confesses he's always been in love with her. He tries to convince her that being through in the movie business isn't the end of her life and she should try a different kind of work. He suggests she try working in a department store as a sales lady. She tries it for one day and walks out, going straight to her agent's office. She insists that the agent find her a film role, specifically in The Fatal Winter, a story for which she once had an option. The young woman she wanted to play is now going to aspiring actress Barbara Lawrence. But Margaret is offered the role of the older sister, if she agrees to a screen test. When she arrives for the test and is made up to look old and worn out, she changes her makeup, believing that if she looks and acts like a younger woman, she might get the part of the younger sister after all. Margaret believes that one good picture will put her back on top again.

Margaret (Bette Davis) in her ill-fated screen test.

After seeing the test, Margaret realizes her mistake and is devastated. She goes to her agent's home to find rest and seclusion. But the agent has forgotten that he and his wife are hosting a large party that evening. Margaret wakes up to all the noise and activity and tries to leave the house. Her agent's wife convinces her to stay. A young writer tells Margaret that he has a perfect part for her as an aging movie star who has been living in a Hollywood fantasy world for so long that has given up her birthright: just being a woman. Margaret's eyes are opened to her own sad reality. She runs from the house, picks up her daughter, and goes back to Jim to find true fulfillment as a woman.

Well, at least that's what the film would have us believe! Who knows? Maybe it will work out. After all, Jim is being played by tall, handsome, stalwart Sterling Hayden. His function in the movie is to provide a rock-solid wall of refuge and strength for the frantic, self-absorbed screen queen to cling to when she's finally ready to accept that her career is finished. Hayden was born for roles like Jim Johanssen. The chemistry between Hayden and Davis is such that the audience can accept the possibility that movie goddess Margaret can suddenly find bliss and contentment as a housewife. By all indications, the sex will be terrific. Until it isn't. Then it's quite possible that Margaret will once again grab her Oscar and go out drinking.

Margaret goes to a department store to begin a second career as a sales lady.

Sterling Hayden and Natalie Wood

All cynicism aside, this movie is pure soap opera, so it's OK to have fun when discussing it. The fact that the conclusion of the story is more than a little hard to accept doesn't take anything away from the skilled actors doing their best to pull at your heartstrings and provide you with a satisfying ending for these likable characters. Miss Davis was impressive enough in this film to win her ninth Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Indeed, she has some powerful scenes. My favorite scene is when she is watching her screen test. She goes into the viewing room with total confidence. But when she sees how bad she is in the footage, her reaction to her own bad acting is visceral. She screams at her image: "Shut up! You don't know anything!!" Being forced to watch her terrible performance destroys her. In this scene, Davis is as commanding and gripping as she was in her greatest performances during her years as the top star at Warner Brothers.

Apart from the romantic aspects of the plot, THE STAR had a progressive style and a kind of realism that was becoming more common in the 1950s. We see Margaret working behind the counter of a department store in what appears to be an actual location. She drives drunk down a Hollywood street. She goes into a drug store and steals a bottle of perfume. At the auction house, she stands in front of a bigger-than-life portrait of herself (A George Hurrell glamour shot of Davis.) while the auctioneer says of Margaret: 

"She was your favorite movie star. You stood in line to see her latest picture. She made you laugh. She made you cry. You were secretly in love with her. Show Margaret Elliot you haven't forgotten her."

This was the era when the Hollywood star system was beginning to break down and the film industry was turning inward and becoming more critical of itself. THE STAR belongs in the same category with films like SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950) and THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (1952). One of Davis's competitors for the Oscar in 1952 was none other than Joan Crawford in the excellent Noir SUDDEN FEAR. Supposedly, Crawford was offered the part of Margaet Elliot and turned it down. It's also believed by many that Crawford was the inspiration for the character. Authoress Charlotte Chandler, who wrote biographies of both Davis and Crawford, has said that if Davis had suspected that THE STAR was based on herself, she never would have played the role. But if she knew it was based on Crawford, she would be more than happy to play it! True story or Tinseltown gossip? Does it even matter? The speculation only adds to the fun of watching the movie.

Marital bliss or stardom? Margaret Elliot has a difficult choice to make.

A few years down the road, Sterling Hayden would try to tame Joan Crawford in Nicholas Ray's quirky Western JOHNNY GUITAR (1954). After surviving that ordeal, he took on yet another diva, Barbara Stanwyck, in CRIME OF PASSION (1957). Natalie Wood is third-billed as Margaret's daughter, Gretchen. The young lady was fourteen, and so lovely and natural, she is a joy to behold, stealing every scene she's in. Wood was one of the most talented and effective child actresses of the 1940s, although never reaching major stardom. In THE STAR, we see the promise of a career that will come a few years later when, at seventeen, she has her breakthrough role in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955). Aspiring blonde actress Barbara Lawrence has a nice cameo playing herself.

Stuart Heisler, the director, had been a film editor since 1921 and began directing in 1936. Some of his impressive credits include THE HURRICANE (1937), AMONG THE LIVING (1941), THE GLASS KEY (1942), and STORM WARNING (1951).