The Love Object
Sharon Austin, an aspiring actress, arrives in New York seeking a break into the legitimate theater. Her refusals to compromise her virtue and integrity in order to make her own breaks are sustained by her relationship with a seemingly sincere young man. Unexpectedly, Sharon is abducted by three men and taken to a remote hunting lodge. Her abductors, with the complicity of Sharon's young man, use psychological and physical torture to force her into posing for pornographic pictures and compromising herself sexually. Finally, threatened with blackmail and the loss of any chance at a career, she agrees. Nude pictures of her appear in the bookstalls of New York's pornographers, and she begins sleeping with repulsive but influential men in the theater business. When Sharon appears in a small role in an off-Broadway production, her genuine talents are noticed by a prominent director. Auditioning for a role in his new play, that of a girl whose problems and conflicts are not unlike her own, Sharon gains insight into what she must do: reject the life forced on her, regardless of consequences. With a new chance in a major production and supported by a growing relationship with the director, Sharon finds that she can be both a success and be faithful to herself.
