MovieChat Forums > The Star (1952) Discussion > The Part she was offered at the very end

The Part she was offered at the very end


When the young producer sees her at the party at the end when Margaret is walking around with her bottom lip dragging on the ground, he pitches another age appropriate part to her. The chance of a lifetime after humiliating herself with the previous audition! Presumably she learned her lesson that she should now go for character parts rather than ingenue type rolls? Surely she recontacted that producer/director later to accept the role he was pitching her? It seems like the take on this is that she runs back Jeff never to return to acting. I don't understand why everyone seems to be interpreting the end in this way.

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Because she had a "revelation" about herself when she heard the young director's movie pitch so she ran to see Jeff. I see that ending as her choosing to be a wife instead of an actress who accepts age-appropriate roles. I really hated the ending with a passion. I also hated the ending of another Davis' movie, "Dangerous". Both of these endings were morality lessons of sorts, appropriate for that day and age, but from modern perspective they're atrocious. I wonder how people who saw these movies when they first came out felt about their respective endings.

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“Daydreaming subverts the world.” ~ Raoul Vaneigem

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If the audience was meant to interpret that she gave up acting all together, it was a terrible ending and indeed sent a terrible message to middle aged women of that time. In other words, if you can't look young and beautiful, your life is worthless. Just give up, because you will never accomplish anything. Horrible! I'm surprised that Bette Davis put up with that message. It wouldn't have taken much to send out a hint that a woman of a certain age, couldn't have had a happy marriage and a revitalized career. I guess that was unheard of in the 50's!

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