The Star is a 1952 American drama film, directed by Stuart Heisler and starring Bette Davis, Sterling Hayden, and Natalie Wood. The plot tells the story of an aging, washed-up actress who is desperate to restart her career. Even though the film was a critical and commercial failure, Bette Davis received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Plot

Oscar-winning star Margaret "Maggie" Elliot (Bette Davis) is a broke actress struggling to accept her new, non-wealthy reality. She is in denial and confident she somehow can relaunch her career to its earlier brilliance. After suffering another big disappointment while vainly striving to get one good role, she gets drunk, is arrested for DUI, and spends a night in jail. She is bailed out by Jim Johannsen (Sterling Hayden), a younger former actor whom she had helped in the past. Jim, now comfortably settled as the owner of a boatyard, admits that he has loved her ever since those days and, with assistance from Margaret's daughter Gretchen (Natalie Wood), tries to help Margaret see that her days as a famous actress are already over. She reluctantly tries to work as a saleswoman in an upscale department store, but gossip from two customers wounds her pride and she runs out. Her old agent manages to get her a screen test for a role in a film she'd always wanted to play. She accepts the screen test for a supporting role, believing that playing the character as a sexy younger woman rather than the middle-aged frump she is regarded by the studio, she might be able to win the more coveted lead role. Her effort does not succeed.