‘Stardust’ was the second part of the film ‘That’ll be the Day’, which had starred seventies teen-idol David Essex and Beatles drummer Ringo Starr.
It’s more or less the story of John Lennon (he is abandoned by his father and then abandons his wife and son and takes up with a French version of Yoko Ono) and Jim Morrison (drug abuse and haircut) mixed into one working class hero rock star who experiences first the pleasure and then the pain of being a living legend until the pain wins, on the plain in Spain.
Attempting to get away from the downside of the rock and roll industry, Jim Maclaine (David Essex) withdraws to his own castle in Spain, which is in reality the castle of La Calahorra, a curious reddish coloured building on a small knoll above the village, highlighted during the film in different aerial shots.
He turns it into his own isolated paradise, even installing a pinball machine in the impressive cloister, a Renaissance colonnaded courtyard with carved marble features, and etching out a carefree existence with the able assistance of some colourful local peasants.
In the end Essex does a Jim Morrison, Joplin, Hendrix and overdoses, although in his case it is on live TV and he is rushed to hospital, pursued by a Televisión Española TV crew, dying before he arrives with the beautiful snow-topped mountains of Sierra Nevada in the background.