Jeanne Eagels

Jeanne Eagels (Kim Novak) is a Kansas City waitress. After losing a beauty contest, she asks carnival owner Sal Satori (Jeff Chandler) for a job. Her dance in a skimpy costume is called obscene. Sal joins his brother Frank (Joe De Santis) in New York and invites Jeanne to join them at an amusement park on Coney Island. Taking acting lessons instead, the ambitious Jeanne becomes the understudy in a Broadway show and a star when she gets a chance to play the part. A former successful actress named Elsie Desmond (Virginia Grey) wants to make a comeback in a new play, but Jeanne betrays her and takes the play for herself, willing to do anything to advance. Elsie denounces her in the theater before the first performance and then commits suicide. Sal is also disgusted by Jeanne's behavior. She accepts a proposal from a lowlife named John Donahue (Charles Drake), but both descend into alcoholism. Jeanne misses performances and causes fellow actors to lose paychecks. Jeanne's situation deteriorates further when she must pay alimony to John after a divorce. A new play fails because Jeanne, drunk and on pills, collapses on stage. The actors' guild suspends her for 18 months. Unable to work, she returns to Sal's amusement park and is offered a job dancing. Another performer sexually assaults her in a dressing room. Jeanne, her life in ruins, continues to spiral downward and hallucinate. While trying to take the stage one night, she collapses on a staircase and dies.