Director Russell Rouse's over-the-top opus follows the exploits of Frankie Fane (Stephen Boyd, with all the animation of a mechanical bear) as a Hollywood heel hellbent on becoming a star and, as the title implies, there's a "melodramatic" climax at the Academy Awards. It's irresistible trash with an all-star cast -producer Joseph E. Levine's very own "Hollywood Babylon"- and epitomizes the often incorrectly applied expression, "so bad it's good". Naturally, this over-ripe farrago is right up there with the schlockmeister's HARLOW, THE CARPETBAGGERS and WHERE LOVE HAS GONE, twinkling eternally in Bad Movie Heaven, Super-Productions, all.
What a glorious mess- Stephen Boyd is bombastic and way too intense throughout but no one got away unscathed, especially the ladies, all in various states of undress. They shot Eleanor Parker through Vaseline (she had the same lighting Joan Crawford did with shadows hiding her neck) and they should have shot Jill St. John for the appalling histrionics. I never realized what an awful actress Elke Sommer was, either, and the only thing that really bugged me about this howler was Elke's bangs. I'm sure I must have at some point in my life but I can't recall ever seeing that woman's forehead (she probably had the f-word tattooed on it or something). I enjoyed seeing Merle Oberon, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Hedda Hopper, and Edith Head all-too-briefly play themselves and I also spotted James Bacon and Army Archerd (I think, it's been so long) in a crowd of reporters.
I didn't pick up on this when I first saw THE Oscar on TV back in the '70s but the obnoxious, self-deluded movie queen played by a platinum blonde Jean Hale was named "Cheryl Barker", a none-too-subtle swipe at Carroll Baker who was having it out with Paramount producer Joseph E. Levine at the time. There was obviously a lot of bad blood there; Hale's "C. Barker" was made up to look exactly like C. Baker in HARLOW and Jean did a mean (and mean-spirited) imitation of Carroll at a premiere. This "CB" was as over-bearing as Frankie Fane who humiliated her by shouting, "She's NOTHING!" before dumping a salad all over her in front of Hedda Hopper on their studio-arranged "date". Jean Hale/Cheryl Barker is also listed dead last in the closing credits even though her part was larger than a number of others listed above her. At this point, Carroll Baker was at the bottom of the heap in Hollywood; an industry joke, she high-tailed it to Europe where she'd make films for the next fifteen years before returning "home" (in triumph, by the way) for STAR 80. For many reasons -none of which have anything to do with film as an art form- THE Oscar is not to be missed!
What a glorious mess- Stephen Boyd is bombastic and way too intense throughout but no one got away unscathed, especially the ladies, all in various states of undress. They shot Eleanor Parker through Vaseline (she had the same lighting Joan Crawford did with shadows hiding her neck) and they should have shot Jill St. John for the appalling histrionics. I never realized what an awful actress Elke Sommer was, either, and the only thing that really bugged me about this howler was Elke's bangs. I'm sure I must have at some point in my life but I can't recall ever seeing that woman's forehead (she probably had the f-word tattooed on it or something). I enjoyed seeing Merle Oberon, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Hedda Hopper, and Edith Head all-too-briefly play themselves and I also spotted James Bacon and Army Archerd (I think, it's been so long) in a crowd of reporters.
I didn't pick up on this when I first saw THE Oscar on TV back in the '70s but the obnoxious, self-deluded movie queen played by a platinum blonde Jean Hale was named "Cheryl Barker", a none-too-subtle swipe at Carroll Baker who was having it out with Paramount producer Joseph E. Levine at the time. There was obviously a lot of bad blood there; Hale's "C. Barker" was made up to look exactly like C. Baker in HARLOW and Jean did a mean (and mean-spirited) imitation of Carroll at a premiere. This "CB" was as over-bearing as Frankie Fane who humiliated her by shouting, "She's NOTHING!" before dumping a salad all over her in front of Hedda Hopper on their studio-arranged "date". Jean Hale/Cheryl Barker is also listed dead last in the closing credits even though her part was larger than a number of others listed above her. At this point, Carroll Baker was at the bottom of the heap in Hollywood; an industry joke, she high-tailed it to Europe where she'd make films for the next fifteen years before returning "home" (in triumph, by the way) for STAR 80. For many reasons -none of which have anything to do with film as an art form- THE Oscar is not to be missed!