Michael O'Keefe John Cromwell directs Paddy Chayesfsky's story of shame, poverty, fame and fortune. A pretty young Emily Ann Faulkner(Kim Stanley)spends her childhood knowing her mother didn't want her and boys just wanted her for one selfish reason. She grew up daydreaming of movie magazines and on a rainy night she rescued a Hollywood star's son(Steven Hill). John Tower was down and out and spent most of his time with a bottle of booze. That night he was face down on a rain soaked sidewalk, hoping to die and get away from his father's fame.The beautiful Emily did become a star of the silver screen using her body to keep her stardom escalating. When the bright spotlight began to dim, she found drugs, alcohol and sex kept her career on a sluggish wane. Her life became little less bitter than her shameful childhood. What can you do with fame and fortune? This drama is said to be loosely based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. Other players include: Betty Lou Holland, Lloyd Bridges, Gerald Hiken, Joan Copeland, Joyce Van Patten and Werner Klemperer.

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.

Robert Klein I'm ashamed to confess I didn't know the first thing about Kim Stanley when I saw "The Goddess" Now, she is someone who lives within my psyche. To say that she's remarkable seems feeble. She is, something else, something more, unique! Her character through her got into my system and stayed there. The sadness of the story, written by Paddy Chaeffsky no less, harbors something prophetic. I can't quite put my finger in it but this was 1958 and talks about things we really start to understand now. I'm writing this review in 2010. John Cromwell (Of Human Bondage) directed, Steven Hill (Law and Order, Lloyd Bridges (Jeff's and Beau's dad), Patty Duke (The Miracle Worker) lend extraordinary support. For lovers of great acting. You can't afford to miss this extraordinary experience.

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.