A 1966 flop that’s significant for several reasons. First of all, THE OSCAR represented the last gasp of the Hollywood studio system of old, which in the following year would be transformed irrevocably with the releases of BONNIE AND CLYDE and THE GRADUATE (while in 1969 EASY RIDER would wreak an even more radical transformation).
Secondly, this film represented the last time the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences allowed an Oscar ceremony to be depicted in a dramatic context (with THE OSCAR’s failure having inspired the Academy to permanently disallow that privilege). Finally, THE OSCAR is important because it was the first and only feature script by the late Harlan Ellison to make its way to the screen (it was mentioned in the 1966 Gay Talese article “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” which described a dust-up between Ellison and Frank Sinatra, who cameos in THE OSCAR). There’s also the fact that the film tends to land on numerous “Worst of all Time” listings.
There’s also the fact that the film tends to land on numerous “Worst of all Time” listings.
Ellison’s script, based on a potboiler by Richard Sale, clocked in at a reported 344 pages. It was heavily rewritten by producer Clarence Greene and director Russell Rouse, meaning Ellison can’t take all the blame for the misconceived narrative and famously overripe Ed Woodian dialogue.
A further problem is with the protagonist, a blandly handsome actor named Franke Fane, who, we’re informed early on, hates women and has no morals. Ellison and co. try to make the character’s scumbagery palatable by (in a device borrowed from Bud Schulberg’s classic Hollywood novel WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN?) having a secondary character, Frankie’s much nicer pal Hymie Kelly, stand between Frankie and the audience as narrator. The problem is that Hymie, as played by Tony Bennett (never anyone’s idea of a master thespian), barely registers, with the spotlight given over to what is quite possibly the most contemptible protagonist in movie history.
In yet another failure on the parts of the filmmakers, Frankie appears to have been intended as devilishly charismatic, and had the role been played by Rouse and Ellison’s initial choice Steve McQueen that might well have been the case. Unfortunately the very uncharismatic Stephen Boyd ended up playing the part, and he comes off as merely self-absorbed and obnoxious.
“Sometimes I get the feeling you ought to be chained up with a ring in your nose…”
We see Frankie’s early days as a strip club emcee, talking up his stripper GF and getting into a fracas with a corrupt club owner. Upon moving to New York, he meets Kay (Elke Sommer), a German accented fashion designer with whom he runs off. Frankie also meets a talent scout who signs him with a top Hollywood agent (Milton Berle, who, shockingly, delivers the film’s best performance), and his movie career is off and running. But Frankie can’t keep his innate vileness in check, patronizing prostitutes in place of his wife and purchasing a string of ever more expensive cars and houses.
Inevitably, Frankie’s fortunes take a turn for the worse as audiences stop seeing his movies. He’s just about to sign for a role in a TV pilot—the ultimate sign of loser-dom—when he learns he’s been nominated for an Oscar for his latest movie. This sends Frankie’s assholery into overdrive, with he getting a corrupt detective (Ernest Borgnine) to concoct a tabloid story about the strip club owner fracas that occurred early in the film. Frankie figures that by doing this his fellow nominees will be suspected of planting the story in order to smear him, and he’ll get the sympathy vote. Needless to say, that’s not how things work out.
“put a little chlorophyl in the conversation…”
One of the worst movies of all time? THE OSCAR’s dialogue, which includes morsels like “put a little chlorophyl in the conversation” and “Sometimes I get the feeling you ought to be chained up with a ring in your nose,” would certainly appear to support that claim. So would the direction by film noir veteran Russell Rouse, who had a “talent” for making expensively wrought set design look sitcom-ish, and also the performances, which tend toward the soap opera end of the acting spectrum.
So yes, in summation THE OSCAR is very likely one of the worst movies of all time. It’s a great credit to the American film industry that movies like this one went the way of the dinosaurs, but I’m also glad THE OSCAR is still around.
Vital Statistics
THE OSCAR
Embassy Pictures
Director: Russell Rouse
Producer: Clarence Greene
Screenplay: Harlan Ellison, Russell Rouse, Clarence Greene
(Based on a novel by Richard Sale)
Cinematography: Joseph Ruttenberg
Editing: Chester W. Schaeffer
Cast: Stephen Boyd, Elke Sommer, Milton Berle, Eleanor Parker, Joseph Cotton, Jill St. John, Tony Bennett, Edie Adams, Ernest Borgnine, Ed Begley, Walter Brennan, Broderick Crawford, James Dunn, Edith Head, Hedda Hopper, Peter Lawford, Merle Oberon, Nancy Sinatra, Frank Sinatra