The Goddess

Screenplay writer Paddy Chayefsky, and indeed everyone involved with the film, insisted that The Goddess wasn't really all about Marilyn Monroe. Nawww. Kim Stanley plays a neglected young woman living in poverty who aspires to be a movie star. She gets a few roles here and there on looks alone. She marries a washed-up athlete (Lloyd Bridges) who becomes fiercely jealous of her sex appeal. She sleeps her way to the top, then finds that her success is hollow. Regarded in many circles as the pinnacle of dramatic art in 1958, The Goddess is more likely to invoke howls of laughter from today's in-the-know audiences. The most famous bit: Patty Duke, playing Kim Stanley as a child, telling her pet cat that she got promoted in school.