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What makes it different from others?

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

After watching Kim Stanley give an absolutely great performance in "Seance On A Wet Afternoon", I wondered if that was a one time great performance! I recently watched "The Goddess", and I got my answer: another great performance by Kim Stanley, and so I now conclude that Kim Stanley was a great actress, and, by the way, in looks and acting style, she reminded me of another great actress: Geraldine Page! In this movie, she portrayed a Marilyn Monroe type woman who sought stardom in Hollywood, but paid a heavy price for it! The supporting cast was good! I rather liked Steven Hill's excellent performance as her first husband; likewise, Lloyd Bridges excellent performance as her second husband! Also worth mentioning was Betty Lou Holland's excellent performance as her mother! An interesting movie worth watching for Kim Stanley's great performance!

Names like Paddy Chayefsky and Kim Stanley still carry some weight -- and, in this film, they have to. It's not a terrible movie, but it is a weird little film, not the least because Kim Stanley is so completely and utterly miscast. And yet, her performance has stirring moments and the film does have a dark energy, in its early portions, that's dispersed in many vaguely wrong directions as the film winds towards its predictable conclusion.Stanley's miscasting begins with the physical --- she was much too old for the role, even for the later parts of the film, so in the sequences where she's supposed to be a teenager it is really laughable. Sad to say, she's also simply not attractive enough to be cast as a movie star. People on this board may be comparing her to Bette Davis, but at 40 Bette still had some sexy spark. With Stanley, there's no real screen chemistry. I found myself often thinking that Betty Lou Holland, as her mother, was more attractive in her "old age" makeup than Stanley was in her "young age" makeup. There is some movie magic that can be employed in cases like this, but the producers apparently skimped.....They also forgot to cast a compelling male in the film -- Lloyd Bridges tries awful hard here and it's probably best to just leave it at that. Steven Hill is just a stick of wood, just horrible to watch in this film.The film came out just a few years before everybody saw what was so wrong with Marilyn Monroe, on whom the film is so clearly based. There's also a bit of Jane Mansfield in there too, perhaps. In the sense that this came out in the late 50s, instead of the early 60s (when Carroll Baker made a mini-career out of these kinds of roles), it's a prescient film. But it's not a powerful film, because none of the secondary characters are able to match up to Stanley's screen time. It's a confused and confusing movie -- I thought occasionally Chayefsky was reaching for dark humor, in the sense perhaps of Tennessee Williams' contemporary "Baby Doll" with the aforementioned Carroll Baker, but if he was reaching for this then he forgot to tell director John Cromwell, whose work here is just as remote and studied as it was on any of his big Fox productions with Tyrone Power and people like that.

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.

In "Broadway: The Golden Age", Rick Mckay's wonderful documentary, Kim Stanley receives tremendous praise from all the great actors of that time as being especially influential. With the publication of her biography there seems to be a renewed interest in her life and career. Unfortunately very little is left in the way of documentation of her talents. She came to movies after a career on Broadway and a number of live television plays. But her film career was not to be, owing to the many personal problems she suffered from, which seemingly burnt her out. "The Goddess" was her first film and it remains the most complete testament to her talents. As such, it really is a must for anyone who appreciates the art of acting. The title role allows for a huge range, from hopeful teenager to jaded Hollywood star. Although clearly too old to play a teenager and definitely no screen beauty worthy of the title "goddess", Stanley pulls it off with the sheer force of her acting. Her portrayal of the breakdown of the actress is devastating. It's particularly disturbing in the light of the similarity of what would become her very own fate. Paddy Chayevsky paints a bleak picture of the Hollywood Star system as he would later do with network television in "Network". Although well written, it's not an especially astute script lacking in both scope and depth. There is good support form Betty Lou Holland and Lloyd Bridges, but the only reason to seek this one out remains Kim Stanley.