Film / The Star (1952)

(aka: The Star)

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The Star is a 1952 drama film directed by Stuart Heisler and starring Bette Davis.

Margaret Elliot (Davis) was once a big, Oscar-winning movie star but has seen her career fade as she advances into middle age. Lately things have been going quite badly for her; she's so broke that she has started having to sell off her possessions, she's facing imminent eviction from her humble apartment, and she's still plagued by her grasping, greedy sister and brother-in-law. She is also desperate to conceal her reduced circumstances from her daughter Gretchen (14-year-old Natalie Wood), who lives with Margaret's ex-husband, now a famous director.

Feeling sorry for herself, Margaret takes her Oscar statue and goes off on a drunk-driving joyride that winds up with her getting arrested for DUI. Enter Jim Johannsen (Sterling Hayden), who bails Maggie out of the clink. Jim starred with Maggie in a movie years ago, before the war, but then joined the Navy and after the war wound up going into business and owns a boatyard. Jim, who likes Margaret and still remembers her getting him that film part back in the day, lets Margaret stay with him after she is in fact evicted from her apartment. Romantic sparks fly, but Margaret still dreams of a comeback in the movies.

Bette Davis received one of her ten real-life Best Actress Oscar nominations for her performance.

Tropes:

• The Alcoholic: Margaret nearly becomes one, but her DUI results in her being scared out of drunk driving ever again. It gets her picture in the paper and makes her a social outcast almost immediately.
• Armor-Piercing Response: When Jim asks if Margaret had been hurt during the incident when she screamed at the two judgmental old ladies and quit her job, outing herself as Margaret Eliot, she insists she wasn't hurt, just mad. Jim rightly says, "You don't get mad unless you're hurt" and there is a VERY pregnant pause by Margaret where she looks away, realizing he's right.
• As Herself: Margaret is contrasted with Barbara Lawrence, a beautiful young star on the rise who has just landed a big leading role, a part in a literary adaptation called The Fatal Winter that Margaret once intended to play herself. Barbara Lawrence was a real person, and appears briefly as herself near the end of the film, when she and Margaret are at the same party.
• Berserk Button: Margaret does not like being called a has-been and likes it even less if someone insults her appearance now that she's aging. She can't stand the thought of no longer being an actress, but the Break the Haughty plot takes her down until she lets go of her obsession.
• The Big Damn Kiss: How the movie ends, as Margaret, who apparently has finally accepted that her career is over and put movies behind her, goes home and kisses Jim.
• Blatant Lies: The morning after the DUI, Margaret finally recovers from her hangover and frantically calls her ex-husband's house to tell her daughter Gretchen that her DUI story in the paper is just a lie and she's really researching a role for a jailbird rather than tell her already stressed out child that she got drunk and was arrested for drunk driving.
• Break the Haughty: The entire film is basically breaking Margaret down so she'll stop clinging to her past stardom, as it is actively ruining her life and sabotaging her mental health. All the things that occur teach her that there are other ways to find meaning in life, like falling in love with someone that treasures you and raising a darling daughter that loves you too.
• Brutal Honesty: Jim is firm, but kind to Margaret when she has few friends, and certainly no one willing to go to bat for her now that society considers her a has-been. However, he does finally have to put his foot down and tell her she is self destructing by listening to fears and her ego, not the solid advice of someone that cares for her and wants her to just be happy and mentally healthy. Luckily, Margaret finally realizes his love is more important than her desire to be a star, so she runs home to him with Gretchen to give up Hollywood and find a new life, thanks in part to Jim's brutal honesty about her chances of returning to who she used to be as a star.
• The Bully: Gretchen's stepmother knows Margaret has fallen from stardom and sees fit to taunt her about it, bringing up that she came to possibly borrow money and that she "stole" her husband away.
• Coincidental Broadcast: A formerly silent radio turns itself on in order to broadcast a news report about Margaret's DUI. Jim turns it off.
• Comforting Comforter: Jim's tender side is shown when he gently tucks a hung-over Margaret into his bed.
• Covers Always Lie: Not completely, but to a slight extent—the movie poster and the poster they use for this film when it streams looks more like Bette Davis in the late forties rather than by 1952, where she had put on more weight, had more wrinkles in her face, and the bags under her iconic eyes were now starting to become more pronounced, so the youthful picture of her on the poster might surprise someone once the film starts and she looks quite a bit older than how she's portrayed on the movie poster.
• Crapsack World: The film does not skimp on how utterly cold, callous, and unforgiving both the public and the movie business is. Margaret was indeed a huge star and a great actress to have won an Oscar and net enough money to finance three films herself, but the second her stardom is gone? Everyone turns their back on her. She only has two friends, Jim and her agent, and her family shuns her since they just depended on her for money. Her DUI makes her a social outcast and prevents any studio from wanting to cast her since it would get them bad press. That said, she does find a little bit of mercy here and there, but sadly, she's so obsessed with returning to stardom that she squanders her very last chance at a role by ignoring her stage directions and the director.
• Cut Himself Shaving: When Margaret notices a cut on Gretchen's cheek Gretchen says she fell out of a tree. She actually got it in a fight with a kid at school who called Margaret a has-been.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Jim. He's the only one that is steadfast there for Margaret the entire time, starting with him bailing her out of jail. He does go through a lot, seeing Margaret get her hopes up again foolishly at least twice instead of listening to reasonable advice, but in the end, his hard work and patience is rewarded when she realizes she is destined to be a has-been that everyone pities if she doesn't let go of her past stardom. She runs home with Gretchen and embraces and kisses him, making it clear she will give up the life to be happy with them as a normal woman, not a star.
• The Dog Bites Back: At first, Margaret tries to bite her tongue and ignore the gossiping old biddies at the store that recognize her, but once they call her a jailbird and say it can't be her "because she's not pretty enough," she snaps and snarls at them for insulting her and admits it is her and that serving awful people like them is indeed beneath her. She may be delusional about her career and a bit of an egotist, but she's still correct—those women had no business gossiping right in front of her within earshot. They couldn't even walk away to speculate.
• Downer Beginning: It's a pretty bad beginning for Margaret; the first shot shows her standing outside an auction of her personal possessions. A visit to see her daughter results in sneering condescension from her ex-husband's new wife, and then her lazy, greedy sister comes by to pester Margaret for money. Finally she gets a DUI.
• Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Jim asks Margaret something she thinks she might be able to do other than act and she says maybe a saleswoman at a high end store, so they make up a fake back story and references and she insists she just looks like the actress, but isn't truly her, so they hire her. Sadly, it's short lived. Two nasty old women come up to the counter and one of them recognizes her. The two women then gossip right in earshot of her, saying if it really is her, then the store is awful for hiring a jailbird, and the other woman then insults her appearance, saying she's not pretty enough to really be Margaret Eliot. The snide remark makes Margaret snap and insult them both, outing herself and quitting in the same breath. She rightfully tells them waiting on horrible people like them is beneath her and storms out.
• Fatal Flaw: Margaret cannot move beyond her fall from stardom, reflecting over her immensely successful past over and over again, refusing to believe the ride is over due to the shallow politics of the time and the public moving on to newer, younger, "prettier" actresses than her. She self-sabotages several times due to her own ego from being a star, but once she stops obsessing over stardom, she realizes how she's squandered her last opportunity and is destined to burn out even further if she keeps clinging to her past stardom. In the end, she chooses the love of a good man and starting a life outside of Hollywood, after realizing that she could avoid that fate by choosing family and love instead.
• Foreshadowing: It's very easy for the audience to tell that Margaret's delusional take on the sullen older sister is not hitting with the new director. His face is pretty much locked into a neutral mask, but you can see how much he hates the performance she gives as she's ignored all stage directions and decided to play it coquettish, hoping to convince him to cast her for the part she really wants that she is now too old and problematic to play. However, it's a bit of Dramatic Irony since Margaret is so delusional she thinks she did an amazing job until the next day when she sees her screen test and realizes she's terrible and ruined her very last chance at a role.
• The Ghost: We only see Margaret's daughter and the new wife that remarried her ex; the husband does not make an appearance onscreen, as he was off shooting on location when she comes by to possibly borrow money.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Not for a man, but for roles. Margaret is seen multiple times aiming a Death Glare at the posters of Barbara Lawrence aka the new hot actress that took the role she always wanted to play in The Fatal Winter, but is now too old and considered washed up to play.
• Hate Sink: There is no reason what-so-freaking-ever to like Gretchen's stepmother. Good grief. She smugly points out that Margaret has borrowed money from her husband—nevermind that Margaret gave the man the life of a star's spouse and literal thousands of dollars—and then follows her around the room taunting her that she stole her husband by "letting him be a man." She's an insufferable trad wife and just a one-dimensional bully. We can only hope she at least treats Gretchen nicely, but it does sound as if the other children by birth have more comforts than Gretchen does.
  • The two wretched old biddies that recognize Margaret at the high end store and then gossip right behind her, insisting that if it really is her, then the store should be ashamed of hiring a jailbird. It causes her to have a breakdown and shout at them, calling them old bags and quitting her job, storming out to go and pursue the role she thinks she deserves.
  • Her emotionally abusive sister and her leech of a husband are both entitled, rude, and judgmental, serving only to dig the knife in deeper about what little money she has left and there are no roles pending to assure her seeing another dime.
• Heel Realization: Poor Margaret is so caught up in her star persona that she blatantly ignores all the stage directions and changes her makeup to look younger and prettier despite it going against her stage directions and against the director's wishes. She also ignores all his instructions and does it in a way that she thinks will make them reconsider her for the part she's always wanted to play. She gets to the test screening and absolutely falls apart as she sees herself and realizes how stupid, pathetic, and wasteful it was to ignore all the directions and do it her way. She collapses sobbing and her agent has to take her home to convalesce, knowing without even speaking to her studio director nor the film director that she will not get the part due to ignoring all her stage directions.
• Humiliation Conga / Kick the Dog: Good God, the entire first act is just Margaret being kicked when she's down. Her personal items are being auctioned off for pathetic amounts (we overhear people bidding a measly $2 for one of her belongings), she bankrupted herself funding three films that were good but the industry refused to let her distribute them to make all her spent money back, a role that she was once optioned for but is now too old to play is going to a young, beautiful successful actress she keeps seeing over and over again, she's broke and the only possible source of money means crawling back to her arrogant ex-husband and his smug, hateful new wife, and to cap it all off, her horrible sister and husband show up demanding "their monthly check" since she bankrolled her entire family with her movie career and they set her off so badly that she gets drunk and winds up with a DUI, further humiliating her. Then after her only friend bails her out (though it can be argued her agent is her friend too, but he didn't know where she went after she was bailed out), she returns to her place to find her story in the paper made the company that rents her tiny apartment to her change the locks and evict her from lack of payment. God bless the actual landlord that took pity on her and snuck some of her clothing out so she wouldn't have nothing.
• Large Ham: Davis really goes to town during Margaret's big dramatic scenes, hamming it up like a Bette Davis imitator, like when Margaret says "Going, going...gone" at the end of her drunken joyride.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The climax of the movie comes at a party where a screenwriter approaches Margaret and says he has a part for her. He wants her to play a faded former movie star who is in denial and can't deal with the fact that she is not a big star anymore...in other words, exactly the part that Bette Davis is actually playing in the movie. Margaret rejects the screenwriter and goes back to Jim.
• Meaningful Echo: Jim describes Margaret as someone that was on a great sleigh ride that cannot accept that the ride is over. At the time, you see it disturbs her and even makes her lash out at him when he accuses her of not admitting it's over. Then, in the second to last scene, a screenwriter approaches her with a story about a star that's fallen from grace and won't accept her fallen status, describing it as a sleigh ride and she won't admit it's over. Margaret hears the movie pitch and flees the party, realizing that is her fate if she doesn't accept right now that her sleigh ride has ended and it's time to get off.
  • Margaret's phrase, "Going...going...gone" is also part of this trope, as it describes her feeling that she can see her career disappearing before her very eyes.
• Narrative Profanity Filter: When the woman in the jail cell with Margaret (implied to be a Streetwalker), realizes that the drunk off her ass woman in front of her is who she says she is, the streetwalker says "I'm a dirty name! It is Margaret Elliot!".
• Nice Guy: Jim is unbelievably kind, patient, and sweet to Margaret, even during her worst moments. He's truly smitten, but the good news is, even though she puts him through a lot, she realizes she cares more for him and her daughter than she does about the end of career and runs into his arms at the end, her daughter in tow, and the three will most likely have a wonderful life together from then on.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • Davis is basically playing a caricature of Joan Crawford, who had a drinking problem and whose career was well past its prime, even as Crawford continued to act like a diva. (Ironically the box-office failure of this film helped send Davis into a career slump just as bad as Crawford's.)
  • A random gag has a character named Ralph Bellows described as an actor who "always played the rich, stuffy second lead." This is a reference to Ralph Bellamy who made a career out of doing just that.
• Pet the Dog: The kindly landlady warns Margaret she's tried to stall her eviction as long as she can and Margaret really is trying all she can to get work, but it's too late. After her horrid sister and her husband antagonize Margaret about "their monthly check," Margaret gets drunk and is caught drunk driving and arrested. The incident goes in the paper and gives her landlord company enough excuse to change the locks and evict her. Thank God, her landlady couldn't stand seeing everyone turn their back on poor Margaret, so she snuck her clothing out of the apartment to at least give the poor woman clothes on her back now that she has nowhere to stay. A teary-eyed Margaret embraces her warmly before they leave for good. It's definitely a 👁 This example contains a YMMV entry. It should be moved to the YMMV tab.
  Tear Jerker scene, but a heartwarming one too as the landlady is one of the only selfless people in the film aside from Jim.
• Plot Hole: The film never explains how Jim knew that Margaret was in jail. The best we can do is maybe infer that overnight, the police or the ladies in the jail got her to talk and in her drunken spell, maybe she mentioned him and someone gave him a call to be the one to bail her out.
• Questionable Casting: In-universe, Margaret's last desperate ploy is to pretty herself up for the part of the dowdy, sullen older sister in The Fatal Winter and play it like a young woman, hoping she'll somehow convince this new director to cast her in the part she's always wanted, not the one they gave her. It of course immediately backfires, as it demonstrates she refuses to respect the director's wishes and pay attention to the script, instead choosing her own ego to do as she likes on set like she used to during her heyday. The director is forced to pass her over for the part, as it exposes that her mentality is so far into denial that she can't be trusted to play the part.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: The movie studio executive Joe that has worked with Margaret in the past is indeed sympathetic to her plight, but he feels that he can't now offer her work after the DUI as it'll cause bad press for the studio. However, he does get a bright idea that should be the happy middle. While he can't cast her in any of the main roles—they tell us right now, the entire scene is just Barbara Lawrence and any other young, beautiful girls—but he can cast her as the older sister in The Fatal Winter since that role isn't huge, but it would fit to her strengths and with her not being the main lead, the audience might be more forgiving towards the studio casting her if the part is a dowdy, sullen older sister instead of a glamorous and upbeat role. They offer it to her and she accepts, but she's sadly still so delusional she thinks she can "pretty it up" and they might reconsider letting her have the part she's always wanted. Sadly, Joe cannot accept it when she plays the role coquettish in her screen test and is forced to pass her over for the part since it's a sign she's too far gone to save her career. However, he doesn't ever behave in a nasty way to her; expressing disappointment, not anger. He gave her a chance and she sadly ruined it, and it was indeed her last chance, so he has to turn her down for the part in the end.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Margaret delivers a well-deserved one to the judgmental gossiping old biddies that talk shit about her while she's within earshot, speculating if it's really her or not and saying if it is her, then the store should be ashamed of hiring a jail bird. Nevermind the fact that felons and just people who've been arrested before hold regular degular retail jobs without issue; they also insult her appearance, insisting that it can't be her because she isn't pretty enough. It is unfortunate Margaret angrily quits when she's broke, but her crashout is completely understandable given the nasty remarks the two women make about her and they're so rude they can't even whisper or walk away while gossiping about her. "Old bags" is the least they deserved to be called, frankly.
• The Rival: It's a one-sided rivalry, but Margaret understandably glares at every poster of Barbara Lawrence that she sees, for she is half her age and took the part she was once optioned for that she always wanted to play. Barbara Lawrence doesn't even interact with her at any point in the film, driving home the point that Margaret's envy is pointless and self-destructive; this woman doesn't even know she exists and is not in competition with her.
• Small Name, Big Ego: In-universe, Margaret is definitely a good actress, as proven by her Oscar win, but she refuses to accept that it's been years since her heyday and she still expects to be treated like a movie star by everyone around her when it's been years since she had a hit role and her career is essentially over. Most of the time, the conflict in the film comes from her being in denial that her career is over, so she engages in unhealthy obsession over trying to get it back in a very Sunset Boulevard sort of way. Luckily, she learns a lesson by the end and doesn't become a pitiful former star with nothing.
• Spoiled Sweet: Gretchen is an absolute darling and is proof that while Margaret is a very flawed woman, she obviously loves and dotes on the kid with all her heart, as she's very sweet (if naive) and easy to like. Jim immediately gets along with her when they meet and becomes her second father figure.
• Take That!: The scene with the two old women gossiping about Margaret right in front of her is easily meant for the shallow members of the public that think they don't have to treat former movie stars like people and can openly insult them working other jobs and think they'll just take it lying down.
• Tempting Fate: After Margaret convinces herself that she can pretty herself up enough to maybe sway the director into giving her Barbara Lawrence's part (nevermind that the character is around 18-19 years old and she's forty), she ignores the director's clear reticence and hesitation and rushes to tell Harry and Jim everything went perfectly. She then proceeds to contact all the papers to claim she has her comeback role and she even gets a new line of credit opened under the studio's name and buys herself extravagant clothes, anticipating that she got the role. Jim then brings her back down to Earth by reminding her she's setting herself up for more heartbreak by assuming she got the part. She starts to express hesitance, but denies it in the end. The next day, sadly, is a very sobering one as she goes to her screen test and realizes she's ruined her very last chance to return to film by ignoring her stage directions and the director's wishes for the part. She ends up humiliated so badly this final time that it breaks her out of her obsessed delusion at long last.
• Title Drop: Margaret insists "I was a star, Harry!", to her agent.
• Wag the Director: In-Universe and with disastrous results. Margaret's agent asks a sympathetic producer for a favor and winds up actually getting Margaret a screen test for a role in The Fatal Winter...but not as the sexy heroine, instead as the bitter, frumpy older sister. Margaret, who still thinks she's a beautiful star and is unwilling to play an unglamorous supporting part, ignores both the stage directions and the direct instructions of the movie's director. She glams up and plays the role as young and coquettish instead of bitter and dowdy as in the script. She loses the part.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: We never see Margaret's snotty sister and her husband again, even though they are the prime reason she got drunk and took her Oscar on the ill-fated drunk drive that lands her in jail and makes her a social pariah.
• White-Dwarf Starlet: The central plot of the movie, as Margaret Elliot is a former huge movie star who simply cannot deal with not being a star anymore.
• Worst News Judgment Ever: Sure, a former A-list movie star getting arrested for DUI is news, but it probably isn't news big enough for an above-the-fold "MOVIE STAR JAILED" headline in gigantic type.
• Your Costume Needs Work: Margaret makes a stab at getting a regular job, and is hired as a cashier in a woman's clothing store. She erupts in rage and quits after one catty matron wonders if she's Margaret Elliot and the other catty matron says no, "Margaret Elliot was much better-looking than her."