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Boring

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Davis (in an Oscar-nominated performance) plays Margaret Elliot as washed out has been actress. She was big once but now can't get a job. She's divorced and penniless but refuses to give up hope for one more acting job. She also has a man who loves her (Sterling Hayden) and is trying to get her to face reality. There's also a scene or two of Margaret with her daughter played by an impossibly young Natalie Wood.It's a depressing movie of course but you can't stop watching. It's short (89 minutes) and moves quickly. It does have a ridiculously false but happy ending that had me getting misty-eyed. This is worth seeing for Davis alone. She's just great. She also gleefully said she modeled her character after Joan Crawford! OUCH!

THE STAR is a blatant star vehicle for Ms. Davis, directed by a B-grade studio hack, Stuart Heisler. After her triumphant turn in ALL ABOUT EVE (1950), the film nabs her the tenth Oscar nomination, a record-setter at that time.It is a scenario ever so familiar for Ms. Davis, she plays Margaret Elliot, an Oscar-winning, but now divorced and over-the-hill actress, she has designs on a comeback, but her broken financial status takes her to the rock bottom in the night of the auction of her belongings, she ends up in jail. Bailed out by Jim Johannsen (Hayden), a former sailor and one-time actor whom she discovered, now is a self-reliant mechanic. Jim has always been an admirer of her, and tries very hard to persuade Margaret to face the music of the ageism showbiz. They spend a tranquil time together, occasionally sail to the sea together with Gretchen (Wood), Margaret's teenage daughter.Margaret dabbles in working as a salesgirl under a pseudonym, but her ordinary life as a commoner doesn't last long, she is a careerist, an egoist, a diva who cannot admit defeat so easily. Her agent gets her a secondary role in a new movie which she has hankering after for a long time. During the casting test, she contradicts the director's request and sexes up her character under the delusion that the producer will change the idea to recast her as the young protagonist after seeing her test reel. It goes without saying that she fails to get the part, eventually, a not-too-late wake-up call prompts her to accept the reality check.The script runs unevenly from triteness (is it that easy for a former Hollywood matinée idol to pretend as another person and work in a department store?) to occasionally well-conceived metaphor (the upmarket Desire Me perfume Vs. its sample bottle with coloured water), but has no guts to lift the lid on the paternalism and prejudice of Tinseltown, both Margaret's agent (Anderson) and the producer (Watson) are depicted with benevolence, as if they shouldn't share any responsibility of what has happened to the types like her. Ms. Davis splendidly wears her heart on the sleeve, it is a juicy part, although Margaret is far from a character in line with her persona, Bette Davis will never quit working just because she can no longer play maiden roles, she will feistily fight back, take the has-been part, ignites the screen and proves her prowess, that's the right thing to do in hindsight, but THE STAR advocates a more patronising option for middle-aged female washed-ups, just to find a man who is willing to put up with such a prima donna and never come back, that's plain unforgivable.

. . . that Barbara Lawrence, one of its top-billed players, doesn't make her brief cameo appearance until there's less than five minutes left in the story. THE STAR is so oddly prophetic that it has Natalie Wood down as a nimble sailor, in no danger of drowning at sea, no matter how many love triangles are weighing her down. In the same vein, THE STAR convinces Bette Davis that she's only fit to play WHATEVER HAPPENED TO-- roles in her future, with an occasional break to dismember Bruce Dern for what he did to MARNIE. THE STAR answers the burning question of who would win the Wooden Acting Showdown between Robert Mitchum and Ms. Davis' co-star here, Sterling Hayden: Sterling gets the gold medal by a landslide. Gloria Swanson may have landed on SUNSET BOULEVARD, but Ms. Davis' "You don't seem to know WHO I AM!!" rant to the police in THE STAR clearly is still enticing for those of today's Reese Witherspoon ilk slumming on Skid Row.

Desperate for money, fading movie queen Bette Davis (as Margaret "Maggie" Elliot) reluctantly auctions off some of her possessions. What she really wants is one good picture; but, Ms. Davis is thought too old for the kind of films audiences attend. When her fresh-faced daughter Natalie Wood (as Gretchen) asks if she's "washed up," mother Davis says she's making a movie in a few weeks. But, there is no film deal. Sadly, Davis picks up her Academy Award and says, "C'mon Oscar, let's you and me get drunk!" "You don't seem to know why I am!" screams a drunken Davis, after reckless driving lands her in jail. She is bailed out by hunky ex-actor Sterling Hayden (as Jim Johannson), an actor she once helped get a movie role. He tries to get Davis back on her feat, and encourages her to take a job as a saleslady in a department store. The two go sailing with little Natalie and look like they are forming a nice family of three. But, Davis wants to make a comeback, and reestablish herself as "The Star" of Hollywood.This film was purportedly prepared for Joan Crawford, who would seem more suited to this particular character. In real life, Davis would have embraced the "older sister" part addressed in the storyline; and, Crawford would have done to the role exactly what Davis' character does. Both actresses knew their routines. There is nothing revelatory here - but Davis, who had the role in her back pocket, is excellent. Her typically fine, and entertaining, work resulted in another "Academy Award" nomination.******* The Star (12/11/52) Stuart Heisler ~ Bette Davis, Sterling Hayden, Natalie Wood, Warner Anderson