It's a matter of taste of course but while Kim Novak could be effective in some roles, and she has her moments here, she's mostly pretty dreadful, indicating all over the place and never being remotely convincing as a great actress, which Eagles was meant to be. She does have a sort of charisma, a lovely figure which is shown off during early dancing scenes, and does okay with some of the breakdowns - but has laughably bad drunk scenes, emotes are too much and is generally out of her league.
I didn't know much about Eagles career apart from the fact she died young and was in Rain on stage. I gather a lot of this is fictionalised, including Jeff Chandler's character - he's a carny operator who was Eagles' first love.
Chandler is more animated than we usually find him, sparked off by a different sort of role. He and Novak are well matched physically, though neither is up to the acting talent of Agnes Moorehead. It's quite and adult, serious tale (there's heroin, per-marital cohabitation and rape), well directed by George Sidney, and despite Novak's limitations I enjoyed it.
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