Description
Emily Ann Faulkner is born into poverty in The South, has no father, no friends, and is unloved by her indifferent mother Laureen, who does not want to be tied down by a child. As a teenager, Emily is socially ostracized by the local townspeople, except for the boys who are attracted to her good looks and sexual availability. Emily lets them have sex with her in order to have some brief respite from her loneliness; the rest of the time, she retreats into Hollywood fantasies. During WWII, she meets and marries world-weary G.I. John Tower, who also suffers from his dysfunctional upbringing as the son of a well-known movie actor. Unable to cope with a rocky marriage and unwanted pregnancy, Emily soon escapes to Hollywood, leaving her baby daughter in John's care.
In Hollywood, Emily soon marries Dutch Seymour, a former champion boxer turned Hollywood socialite. She initially enjoys the attention and social status she gets as Dutch's wife, but rejects his idea that they move to St. Louis so he could join his family's business. Anxious to further her career, Emily poses for risque magazine photos and has casting couch affairs, ending her marriage to Dutch. Emily is soon transformed into the glamorous superstar sex goddess, Rita Shawn. Despite her celebrity and wealth, she is still insecure and fears being alone, seeking comfort in drinking and promiscuity.
Rita finally has a nervous breakdown requiring hospitalization, which causes her elderly mother Laureen to finally come to Hollywood for a visit. Rita is thrilled to see her mother and clings to her, trying to impress her. However, Laureen has turned from her past immorality to religious fervor, is unimpressed by Rita's money and success, and mainly seeks to convert her daughter. Rita has very few friends, and the visiting couple she introduces to her mother as her "dearest and oldest friends" privately tell Laureen that they barely know Rita and only met her a short time ago, adding that Rita should 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.
