THE OSCAR

THE OSCAR (1966). Director: Russell Rouse.

Frankie Fane (Stephen Boyd) is a low-level garment worker who sort of falls into acting because he "impresses" a lady talent scout named Sophie (Eleanor Parker). Sophie gets him a top agent in "Kappy" Kapstetter (Milton Berle), who manages to convince studio head Kenneth Regan (Joseph Cotten) to sign him to a contract even though Regan senses something off about the guy. Fane becomes a star, but keeps biting the hand that feeds him -- even though some of his remarks to those who helped him have a point. When his career starts slipping badly, he has nightmares of going back to being nobody, and hitches upon a desperate plan to nab an Oscar and put himself back on top. The Oscar does show how undeserving louts can become movie stars simply because somebody has the hots for them -- which has happened more often than anyone imagines. The movie might have had more bite had Fane been someone desperately committed to the art of acting, but this can't be confused with the far superior Career -- it's basically entertaining trash with mostly one-dimensional characters and often hokey dialogue -- and not a few tedious moments. Once Fane begins to slide, however, the pic picks up. The fact is that the narcissistic, ambitious, self-absorbed Fane is all too typical of most Hollywood actors.

Elke Sommer and Boyd

Although miscast as some low-bred tough guy, Boyd is not at all bad as Fane, and has his best moment at the very end of the movie (you almost feel sorry for him). As his pal and procurer, Hymie, Tony Bennett seems amateurish until he has some powerful moments at the climax. Jill St. John gives it a good try, but she hasn't the real acting chops to make the most of her scenes as the girlfriend Fane stole from Hymie. Elke Sommer is okay as Kay Bergdahl, a designer Fane makes a play for and eventually marries, and Berle is at least flavorful as Kappy. Eleanor Parker gives the sauciest performance as Sophie, and makes St. John and Sommer look like a couple of kittens in comparison. But Edie Adams and Ernest Borgnine almost walk off with the movie as a husband and wife who are celebrating their divorce in Mexico when they encounter Fane and Kay and re-enter their lives in an unexpected fashion. Peter Lawford has a small but significant scene where he plays a once-famous actor who is now a headwaiter at a Hollywood restaurant; Lawford is excellent and this is probably the best scene in the movie. There are some celebrity cameos and Hedda Hopper as well. One of the screenwriters was Harlan Elison, who became better known as a science fiction writer.

Verdict: Not exactly Eugene O'Neill but fun. ***.

WICKED WOMAN

WICKED WOMAN (1953). Director/co-writer: Russell Rouse.

"Mexico City. A-Ca-pul-co!"

Statuesque, vivid actress Beverly Michaels was first seen by movie-goers in East Side, West Side as a tough blonde carrying a torch, but wound up in cheap melodramas like this instead of "A" pictures. Billie Nash comes to town [probably from jail], gets a job as a cocktail waitress, and sets her sights on the bartender, Matt (Richard Egan of View from Pompey's Head), who co-owns the bar along with his dipsomaniac wife, Dora (Evelyn Scott). Billie not only has a yen for Matt but craves a trip to Mexico, and convinces Matt to sell the bar behind his wife's back to bankroll the getaway; she impersonates Dora in a lawyer's office. This leads to a extremely tense scene when the buyer comes to the bar when both Billie and the real Dora are on hand -- will one of the customers give it away? Say what you will about Wicked Woman, the picture is suspenseful as hell at times, quite entertaining, and boasts some very good performances, especially from a saucy and superlative Michaels, who snaps out her lines with both sexy authority and a blase callousness. Percy Helton, who has one of his all-time best roles in this [he even gets to have sex with Michaels, albeit mercifully unseen], plays a boarding house neighbor of Billie's who resorts to blackmail to get a date and more. "You're nothing but a repulsive little runt," she tells him, "and if you don't get out of my hair I'm gonna step on you like a bug!" Now, now. Director Rouse was Michaels' husband and co-wrote the screenplay with Clarence Green, The pair also did the screenplay for the far superior classic D.O.A. Scott also played a bar owner on the TV series Peyton Place.

Verdict: Zesty melodrama with good dialogue and some very good performances. ***.