... because the plot is about an aging actress in an industry that worships youth who can no longer get parts of any kind, whose friends have abandoned her, and who is so broke she is about to be kicked out of her small apartment - Bette Davis as Margaret Elliot. I guess I'd also mention that her star has fallen so far that she can't even get arrested in this town (Hollywood), but alas she can, as she gets arrested for driving drunk and getting into a one car accident, all while lugging her Oscar around.
Jim Johannsen (Sterling Hayden) bails her out of jail. He does this partly because she gave him a break in his very short movie career before he moved on to a boat building business of his own, partly because he is kind, partly because he is still in love with her although he is noticeably younger than she is. She actually does get a shot at another part - a supporting role playing the part of the much older sister of the actual lead actress. The test was just a formality, but Margaret messes it up by trying to play the middle aged scrub woman role she has as sexy rather than disheveled and dispirited as directed. When she asks to see her screen test she sees how ridiculous it looks and, as a result, has an epiphany. You'll have to watch and find out just what that epiphany is.
This film is supposedly based loosely on the late career of Joan Crawford, although she got parts - and good ones - past the date of the release of this film. Not to be unkind, but Joan Crawford aged quite well where here, Bette Davis actually looks every day of her 44 years. It's interesting to see Sterling Hayden play a strong yet sensitive guy. There is a good role here for Natalie Wood as Davis' adoring teen daughter.
One thing that the film ignores, probably because it had been written several years before, is that by 1952 actors and actresses whose stars were no longer on the ascent or who maybe were never that well known in the first place were getting steady work on television. In fact, both Bette Davis and Joan Crawford started getting regular appearances on television starting in the 1950s.
