[Quick Summary: To ward off loneliness, a young unloved girl grasps at a career as an up-and-coming Hollywood starlet, but it's never enough.]
Emily Ann Faulkner, who transforms herself into Rita Shawn,just can't understand why no one loves her enough.
I mean, after all, she's made all the "right" decisions for her career:
- Like leaving her child with her ex-husband
- And getting married to a 2nd guy who tells her he'd be a terrible husband
- And sleeping with producers as bribes for parts
But this isn't a story about career vs. personal life.
It's about a woman who angles, schemes, begs, guilts, and STILL can't fathom what is wrong with other people...when the real problem is her.
Chayefsky allows his characters to make decisions, then suffer the consequences each time. It's real life.
There's no pulling the punch, which I see too much in spec scripts.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: It's nice to see characters take the punch.
If they learn from it, they will have earned their victory at the end.
If they don't, then they don't deserve it anyway.
The Goddess (1958)
by Paddy Chayefsky
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