Thursday Movie Picks #317: The Seven Deadly Sins: Pride

This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. Starting in February, the first Thursday of each month has looked at one of the seven deadly sins, so we're finally up to the last one, pride. At first this was a bit difficult for me, but then I hit on the theme of people who are too proud to admit that their best days are behind them; with that, a couple of classic old films come to mind.

The Star (1952). Bette Davis plays a fading star who, not realizing her best days are behind her, is going broke. She goes on a bender with one of her Academy Awards(!), and after getting arrested for DWI gets bailed out by Sterling Hayden(!!), a boat-builder who was plucked out of obscurity by Davis to co-star in one of her old movies(!!!). Davis insists she's going to make it to the top again, trying for an ingenue role when the studio wants her for something more matronly at best.

The Entertainer (1960). Laurence Olivier is a man working the fading British seaside resorts that the sort of music-hall show he took part in is becoming a bygone era. His wife Brenda de Banzie wants the family to emigrate to Canada and start over; his daughter (Olivier's real-life wife-to-be Joan Plowright) also realizes the dream should be over for Dad. Still, Dad keeps plugging away hoping for a new show with his father (Roger Livesey).

Fat City (1972). Stacy Keach plays a washed-up boxer stuck in the dying city of Stockton, CA, hoping he can at least do something in the boxing world. When he meets young Jeff Bridges at the gym, he decides to become a bit of a mentor to Bridges in the hope that he can at least have some reflected glory. But can anyone ever escape Stockton?