The Goddess (1958)

A lonely and unloved child (Patty Duke) grows into an afflicted young girl (Kim Stanley) whose craving for love has made her a promiscuous teenager who dreams of going to Hollywood and becoming a movie star. Eventually, she fulfills her fantasies of stardom but happiness and peace of mind still elude her. The director John Cromwell (SINCE YOU WENT AWAY) does what he can with the overcooked Paddy Chayefsky screenplay but to little avail, it's an uphill battle. The dialogue is often pretentiously cringe inducing (though not as bad as his NETWORK). As the neurotic screen queen, Stanley is flawless. Not a false note (though her hysteria at her mother's funeral is a might too obvious) in her performance. But one can't escape the fact that she's miscast and so despite her impeccable performance, she's never quite believable. Stanley is simply too plain and borderline dowdy to be convincing as a Marilyn Monroe sex symbol. Even when playing the pre movie star teen, the 33 year old Stanley looks 40ish. The imposing score is by Virgil Thomson. The cast includes Lloyd Bridges (very good as Stanley's second husband), Steven Hill, Elizabeth Wilson, Betty Lou Holland, Joan Copeland, Joyce Van Patten, Joanne Linville, Bert Freed and Werner Klemperer.