The Star (1952 film)

The Star is a 1952 film directed by Stuart Heisler and starring Bette Davis, Sterling Hayden and Natalie Wood. The plot tells the story of a washed up actress who is desperate to restart her career. Even though film was a critical and commercial failure, Bette Davis received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Plot

Oscar Award winning star Margaret "Maggie" Elliot (Bette Davis) is a bankrupt actress unwilling to accept her new non-wealthy reality. She is in denial, and confident she can build herself up again and somehow fix her career. After she gets another big deception striving to get that last one good role, she gets drunk, is arrested for DUI, and spends a night in jail. She is bailed out by Jim Johannsen (Sterling Hayden), a young former actor whom she helped in the past. Jim loves her and, helped by Margaret’s daughter Gretchen (Natalie Wood), tries to make Margaret see that her big screen days as a famous actress are already over. She manages to get a screen test for a role in a film she’d always wanted to play. She is offered a screen test for a supporting role which she accepts, trusting that if she plays that character as a sexy young woman she might be able to get the best part, but it does not work out.