CMBA GUILTY PLEASURES BLOGATHON - THE OSCAR

The poster for The Oscar almost says it all. But what it left out is that the film traditionally makes the top ten list of the "Best Bad Movies of All Time." The Oscar is a movie that could only have been made in the 60s (1966 actually). It skewers Hollywood while glorifying its pillars. It's like the Hollywood Wax Museum come alive. Many real Oscar winners and nominees starred in the film, and others had cameo roles - this in the day when such a technique was the last gambit in attracting viewers. The movie destroyed several Hollywood careers in the process, all  while making  for compelling viewing. Not the least of its guilty pleasures is watching for when this train will wreck.

Like many films noir,The Oscar starts at the end, with Stephen Boyd as Frankie Fane confidently waiting to be announced as the winner of an Oscar for Best Actor. His confidence is not only caused by his egotism, but by his prior efforts to rig the system. Spoiler alert - Mirroring a real life Hollywood story, when Frank's name is called out he beams - only to hear that it's Frank Sinatra that won the award.This was indeed based on the real event of Frank Capra thinking he had won the Oscar  in 1934, only to find out that it went to director Frank Loyd (Frank who?).

As the deflated Frankie Fane is shown on the screen, the movie goes into flashback mode. It's the story his onetime friend Hymie Kelly, woodenly played by Tony Bennett, tells of Frankie Fane - clawing, double-dealing, and betraying his way to the top. And in this fun-house hall-of-mirrors of a movie, you can't tell if Stephen Boyd is over-acting as part of his role or if he really was trying desperately to win an Oscar.


There is plenty of guilty pleasure eye-candy - this to make up for a script that is humorously bad but full of great one-liners. And for the hyperactive over-acting of Boyd, contrasted by the deadly acting of Tony Bennett. The latter which didn't even perform as a singer, and after this movie, he never  acted in a film again. The interesting visuals were provided by Jill St. John, playing Fane's stripper girl-friend, and his newer love interest Elke Sommer, who plays budding fashion designer Kay Bergdahl. And it's through Kay's talent scout connection, played by Eleanor Parker, that Fane meets his talent agent, played by Milton Berle. See, Hollywood success really is a game of chance and connections. In this movie at least, no real talent is needed.

Elke Sommer and Tony Bennett

After Boyd, Elke, and Tony go to Hollywood, the real scheming starts. The beautiful Elke Sommer becomes a Hollywood studio costume sketch artist, to no less than Edith Head, who plays herself in the movie. Below is a costume design sketch by Edith Head for Miss Sommer.  

Frankie and Kay are now both on the rise in Hollywood, she by her artistic talent, he by his scheming and double-crossing.

Bedding Eleanor Parker who plays a talent scout helps Frankie Fane move up the ladder. But eventually his schemes and lifestyle catch up with him. As his trajectory points downwards he unexpectedly gets a Best Actor nomination.  He has somehow gotten so good at playing a man without morals that he is about to be rewarded for it. This could be his salvation. And what better way to make that happen than to hire a private detective played by Ernest Borgnine to leak information that will make him a sure thing?

Despite the camp dialogue and script, the costume design by Edith Head is excellent. Studio arts and crafts people always did their jobs to the best of their abilities, no matter how bad a script or the acting was. And with costume design, this is done early in a film's development, long before the final outcome is known. Below is another costume sketch designed by Edith Head.

Elke Sommer as Edith Head's sketch artist is way too cool a concept. Below she is shown in a costume design with her portfolio in hand. The notes on the sketch are Edith's own, although the painting was rendered by her real sketch artist, Richard Hopper.

Here is another costume sketch for Elke as Kay, in a scene by the studio (Paramount's) commissary.

And here we are where we started. It was Merle Oberon playing herself that made the Oscar presentation that Frankie Fane didn't win. Sometimes there is justice in the world.

So why is The Oscar such a great guilty pleasure? I love it for its reflection of the costume design atmosphere during the last hurrah of the old studio system. Costume design personnel are usually caricatured in Hollywood movies, but in this film full of bad characters, Elke's sketch artist plays it straight.  But otherwise such camp and such dishing out on Hollywood ultimately makes it a very entertaining and totally guilty pleasure. It is unfortunately not available on DVD, so make sure you catch it when it appears on TCM, perhaps in a "camp classic" festival.

AND PLEASE SEE THE OTHER CMBA "GUILTY PLEASURES" ENTRIES.

VENUS IN FURS

There's something about fur that completes an outfit like nothing else can. In these days real fur is considered in bad taste. So now the demand for faux fur has increased, and advances in the technology of making simulated fur has gotten to the point where it can accurately replicate mink, fox, leopard or cheetah. These faux furs not only look great but are made so that the fibers have the texture of the real thing. And they not only provide a clear conscious, but you can now buy a faux mink coat for $900 where the real thing can cost $10,000.

In the Golden Age of Hollywood the wearing of furs in movies signified luxury and glamour. This was mimicked in society too, and from the 1930s through the mid 50s, no woman felt she had arrived unless she had a fur coat, stole, or wrap.

Jean Harlow knew how to pose with a fur. Photo from Photofest

Fur made the perfect contrast to the shiny surfaces provided by gowns made with bugle-beads and sequins. This contrast also worked with sheer fabrics, as is shown by Jean Harlow above. There is something primordial about the attraction of fur, it is sensed beyond just the visual.

No one seemed to wear a fur as well as Marlene Dietrich. Above she is shown with Herbert Marshall in Blonde Venus, a title that applied well to her. Dietrich's costumes in the movie   were designed by Travis Banton. Both he and Adrian used the fur wrap and slanted cap to devastating effect. In Adrian's case it was with Garbo and Joan Crawford. Their beautiful faces peeking out from a frame of fur and felt was simply stunning.

Joan Crawford in Paid, 1930.

The beaded gown below shows the perfect contrast of fur with glistening silver bugle beads.
Ginger Rogers wears the Bernard Newman design in Follow the Fleet, 1936.

The image of glamour enhanced by fur was so prevalent that even in the movies a daydream of the glamorous Hollywood life required the wearing of fur. Below Greer Garson has such a fantasy scene in Her Twelve Men, 1954, designed by Helen Rose.

And Marlene, our Blonde Venus, was wearing her furs well into the 50s. She is shown below in No Highway to Heaven in 1951.

       Photofest 

The rich and famous were still wearing furs too. Shown below is a scene from The Rich and Famous, 1981. Candice Bergen wears the complete outfit from the film co-starring Jacqueline Bisset, with costume design by Theoni Aldredge.

       Photofest

And today our fashion runways are again dotted with furs, faux furs to be sure. A model shown below wears a faux fur at the Prada show in Milan this past February. It was one of many faux furs on the fall fashion runways.  The look was purposefully not glamorous. Perhaps this was done to make the furs more approachable for the young.

Faux is better than no.