Plot
Toby Temple, born to a struggling German butcher and his wife in 1920s Detroit, has always wanted to make his strict mother happy. He finds that he has a great talent for mimicry and parody; his mother encourages him to develop this into an entertainment career. After he is forced to leave home for his own safety (having got the daughter of a local policeman pregnant), Toby travels the country for several years as a small-time comedian, performing in cheap, filthy clubs and living frugally, always dreaming of big success and denied by indifferent show-business executives. Finally, aged 27, Toby seduces the crippled owner of a drama school, who introduces him to famous Hollywood agent Clifton Lawrence. Recognizing Toby's talent, Lawrence coaches him for a more upmarket gig, which leads to a Las Vegas hotel act, turning out to be a huge success. Thereafter, Toby rapidly becomes a rich and famous celebrity: doing stand-up tours across America, entertaining American troops in Korea, starring in Hollywood movies, and later in his own TV show. He remains a lonely man, although he surrounds himself with a vast entourage and seduces countless women.
Meanwhile the story moves to Josephine Czinski, daughter of a single Polish seamstress in Odessa, Texas. Josephine suffers from chronic headaches due to complications during her birth and has a deprived childhood. Nonetheless she befriends some of Odessa's rich "oil children," in whose company she acquires her lofty ambitions of movie stardom. Josephine grows to be strikingly beautiful and alluring, the envy of her wealthy friends. At 17, she becomes involved with the town's richest, most eligible bachelor, David Kenyon. However, after promising to marry her, David is then maneuvered into a more politically convenient marriage by his sick and domineering mother; an unpleasant incident in his past further persuades him. A depressed Josephine runs away to Hollywood, changes her name to Jill Castle and seeks her fortune in the film industry. For several years she has very little luck, due mostly to her lack of experience and the surplus of attractive, aspiring actresses in Hollywood. She succeeds in getting only a few bit parts, whilst working a variety of other jobs. At one point, an unscrupulous boyfriend drugs and tricks her into performing in a pornographic film with a Mexican stud. After this, she is forced to accept that movie roles might best be purchased with her body. She submits to many cruel, lecherous men who repay her with small roles in films and advertisements. Still she dreams of becoming a leading lady. However, the older she gets, the less likely this seems.
The plot speeds up when Jill gets a part on "The Toby Temple Show." Toby is smitten with her and pursues her determinedly, despite her treating him with initial indifference (unlike most other women). He arranges a major movie audition for her; when the director reports that Jill simply lacks the charisma for a leading role, she is heartbroken. Confiding her pain to Toby, she finds herself falling for him since he understands exactly how she feels, despite the 20-year age gap. He discovers a feeling for Jill which he has never experienced with any other woman; they make love and decide to marry immediately.
Meanwhile, David Kenyon has finally divorced his unloving, selfish wife and comes looking for Josephine, whom he still loves. He arrives in Hollywood too late, seeing her wedding to Toby Temple in a newspaper.
As Toby's wife, Jill becomes a very dominating presence in Hollywood society and takes revenge on everyone who victimized her. Disliking Toby's agent, Clifton Lawrence, she gets him fired. With their happy marriage to complete his life, Toby goes on to greater showbiz triumphs than ever; his punishing performance schedule begins to wear him out. Finally, while attending the Cannes Film Festival, where Toby is presented with a special award, he collapses from a massive stroke.
Jill is told that her husband is permanently paralyzed. He is unable to walk or speak, and physiotherapy seems ineffective. Refusing to give up on him, Jill dismisses all medical and nursing staff and spends months looking after Toby on her own: feeding, bathing, and dressing him, forcing him into painful exercises. Ultimately, after finding herself too weak to carry on, she is overjoyed when Toby walks again. Thenceforth, he makes a complete and remarkable recovery. When Toby returns to the screen, healthy and funnier than ever, the World rejoices his re-entry and proclaims their love to be the romance of the century. His international comeback tour is an unprecedented sensation, but once again, he pushes himself too hard. At a hotel in Moscow, he suffers a second stroke. This time his paralysis is complete and recovery impossible.
Jill then meets David again and realizes he is her true love; but as the heroic wife of the tragic Toby Temple, she can never divorce him as long as he is alive. Unwittingly, she blurts out her frustration to Toby, who (although he cannot reply) is appalled and incensed by her betrayal. Jill begins to suffer headaches again and horrible nightmares. She becomes frightened of her paralyzed husband, suspecting that, in his helpless state, he has found some eerie psychokinetic power which will enable him to harm her.
In desperation, she murders Toby by drowning him in their swimming pool and successfully convinces everybody except Clifton Lawrence that his death was accidental. Jill joins David in a cruise, intending to marry him. On the ship, however, Clifton traps David into viewing Jill's old porn film. Having racist issues, it enrages him to see Jill with a Mexican in such a state. David batters Clifton, flees, and abandons Jill. Jill is left desolate, bereft of all love. Seeing an apparition of Toby on the sea, she drowns herself and joins him in the afterlife
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