Following their 4K UHD/Blu-Ray release of The Misfits and a Billy Wilder boxset (including Some Like It Hot – see here), the Australian boutique label Imprint Films has released another movie linked to Marilyn.
“Writer Paddy Chayefsky (Network) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Goddess (1958), a stunning drama that depicts a Hollywood tragedy from director John Cromwell, starring Kim Stanley (Seance on a Wet Afternoon) and Lloyd Bridges (High Noon, Airplane!).
Allegedly based on the life of Marilyn Monroe, the film follows Emily Ann Faulkner from underprivileged, broken homes in the Boondocks through to Hollywood stardom as ‘Rita Shawn’, told across three distinct acts.
Acclaimed by critics on release, the New York Times called The Goddess ‘a shattering, but truly potent, film’, while the Philadelphia Inquirer said ‘The Goddess surpasses Marty in awareness and depth. Scene after scene, line after line grips the mind and heart, to move or to horrify. Nowhere has the author, his cast or director John Cromwell struck a false or artificial note.'”
This limited edition of 1500 copies is also available from Amazon and Film Treasures in the UK. Apart from the high-definition Blu-Ray presentation, an original theatrical trailer is the only special feature.
Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky had also penned an early Monroe movie, As Young As You Feel (1951.) According to biographer Shaun Considine (Mad as Hell, 1994), Chayefsky later grew close to Marilyn when she saw his play, Middle of the Night, on Broadway in 1955. She wanted to play the female lead onscreen, but ultimately dropped the idea – allegedly on advice from her playwright husband, Arthur Miller.
Chayefsky always denied that The Goddess was a hatchet job on Marilyn, pointing out that the character could be said to resemble any one of the popular actresses from that period. (Ava Gardner was another rumoured inspiration.) However, the biographical parallels are quite striking. Marilyn reportedly threatened legal action, although curiously, her sister-in-law Joan Copeland would play a supporting role. Copeland also appeared in 1959’s adaptation of Middle of the Night, starring Kim Novak in the role initially earmarked for Marilyn.
Actors Studio alumni Kim Stanley – who had originated Marilyn’s Bus Stop role on Broadway – was cast in The Goddess as Rita Shawn. In The Method (2022), Isaac Butler praised Kim’s performance; and in 2023, The Goddess was screened at Film Forum NYC as part of ‘50 From the ’50s‘, a decade’s retrospective curated by film critic Foster Hirsch. And in 2025, a Xeroxed copy of Chayefsky’s first-draft script was sold at Julien’s Auctions alongside promotional materials for the movie.
However, a recent review of the Blu-Ray release is more critical…
“Director John Cromwell has crafted an overwrought melodrama that never allows the viewer to breathe. It’s constantly at a fever pitch … With long speeches filled with exposition that should have been replaced with visuals, Chayefsky’s script is theatrical rather than cinematic, On-screen titles even break down the film into three numbered parts, like acts in a play. We’re told that Emily/Rita has achieved great fame, but we never see how. There are no scenes of her performing, receiving awards, signing autographs, or attending gala premieres—activities usually associated with top stars.
Kim Stanley never convinces as high-school aged Emily. She was 32 at the time and looks it. A scene in a car with an actor who actually looks as if he’s 16 or 17 gives the scene a sense of bizarre imbalance. Maybe on stage with costuming and proper lighting, the illusion might have come off, but the movie camera is unforgiving.
Stanley is directed to play to the rafters. We seldom see her in a quiet, thoughtful scene. The lack of balance, with every scene at the same emotional level, diminishes the impact of them all. There are missed opportunities to show Emily/Rita at her peak, perhaps as a montage to keep the narrative brisk. Director Cromwell fails to take advantage of it.
When we should empathise with Emily, she grates on us … Part of the problem with Chayefsky’s script is that the events occur so rapidly, we don’t have time to digest and react to them. The script covers an event-filled 27 years in glimpses rather than fully developed scenes. Think of the film as a series of snapshots rather than a complete photo album.
The Goddess has elements that suggest the life and career of Marilyn Monroe. Both Emily and Monroe were neglected by unstable single mothers, both married a famous former athlete, both transformed from brunette into a blonde sex symbol, both had similar hairdos, and both suffered from substance abuse and mental breakdowns. These similarities have attracted viewers to the film for decades even though it’s a talky, scattershot overview of a troubled individual. Stanley, Chayefsky, and director Cromwell fail to elicit the intended compassion for the character because we see her only in isolated moments of her life.”
– Dennis Seuling, The Digital Bits
