see a psychiatrist. Rita wants her mother to stay with her permanently, but Laureen insists on returning home to her simple life of attending church, caring for her sick brother, and helping her sister-in-law run the family store. As her mother is leaving, Rita becomes enraged and screams from the doorway that she hates her and wishes her dead. When her mother later dies, Rita has a drunken public breakdown at her grave. The self-destructive Rita now lives under the constant supervision of a stern secretary/ nurse Harding, who has become Rita's mother figure. John Tower tries to reconcile with Rita/ Emily for the sake of their young daughter, whom John has learned to love, thus breaking the cycle of family dysfunction. But Rita is too psychologically damaged. Cast Kim Stanley as Emily Ann Faulkner/Rita Shawn Lloyd Bridges as Dutch Seymour Steven Hill as John Tower Betty Lou Holland as Mrs. Laureen Faulkner Burt Brinckerhoff as The Boy Bert Freed as Lester Brackman Gerald Hiken as George Elizabeth Wilson as Harding Joan Copeland as Alice Marie Joyce Van Patten as Hillary Joanne Linville as Joanna Donald Mckee as R.M. Lucas John Lawrence as Soldier Curt Conway as The Writer Fred Herrick as The Elder Patty Duke as Emily Ann Faulkner, age 8 Linda Soma as Bridesmaid Kris Flanagan as Himself Geroge Petrarca as The Minister Roy Shuman as Soldier Gail Haworth as Emily's Daughter Production The story is said to be based loosely on Marilyn Monroe. According to an article published by Turner Classic Movies, "Some critics have conjectured that The Goddess was based on the career of Ava Gardner, but most think its primary model was Marilyn Monroe, who studied at the Actors Studio at the same time Stanley did." The Goddess was filmed, in part, in Ellicott City, Maryland, which serves as childhood home of Emily Ann and provides the backdrop for the opening and closing scenes. The interior scenes were filmed at the Gold Medal Studios, the Bronx, New York; in addition to Maryland, location filming was also done in Hollywood, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills and at the Fox Village Theater, Westwood, California. Frank Thompson designed the costumes for the film. Reception Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called The Goddess "a shattering, but truly potent, film, in which a lot of characters are groping for the fulfillment they cannot seem to