Happy Oscar Sunday!
Since the Oscars are going to be awarded on Sunday night, now seems like a good time to remember the 1966 film, The Oscar. My friends and I have a running joke. Whenever I invite anyone to watch a bad movie with me, I never actually say, “Let’s watch this terrible movie.” Instead, I always say, “This is a cult classic.” Let’s just say that The Oscar is a classic among cult classics.
Directed by Russell Rouse, The Oscar tells the story of Frankie Fane (Stephen Boyd) and his friend, Hymie Kelly (Tony Bennett ….. yes, the singer). Frankie uses everyone in the world to become a film star and abandons them all once he becomes famous. Frankie is determined to cement his stardom by winning an Oscar and he’s totally willing to go to all sorts of unethical lengths to win that golden statuette. He even hires a private investigator (Ernest Borgnine, naturally) to leak private information about Frankie and his friends, in the mistaken belief that it will cause the Academy to sympathize with him.
However, Hollywood is not a place for heels! Or, at least, that’s the case in this film. In the scenes below, Frankie first gets told off by his old friend Hymie and then he gets the ultimate comeuppance at the Oscar ceremony itself. Apparently, Frankie failed to consider that he wasn’t the only Frank nominated that year!
You can read my full review of The Oscar here. For now, enjoy the final nine minutes of Frankie Fane’s Oscar campaign.
