The telecast happens Sunday, March 12th. The Oscars. Hollywood Prom Night. The Gay Super Bowl. I love it and I have loved it ever since I was a youngster back home in Los Angeles. The Oscars telecast was always must-see TV in our home.
Some folks like to have Oscar parties pretty much in the same way folks have Super Bowl parties. If you want to put on a movie for your Oscars get-together or watch one that weekend to prepare to see which stars will go home with the 13-inch Golden Boy, I have a few recommendations.
There is A STAR IS BORN. Truly iconic Hollywood scenes are in the original 1937 version with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March. They are repeated in the stellar 1954 remake with music that starred Judy Garland and James Mason. There's the famous scene in which a star is onstage speaking at the Oscars when someone else unexpectedly takes to the stage, disrupts the ceremony and slaps the person speaking. Can you just imagine such a horrible thing happening in a live Oscars broadcast? Judy Garland and James Mason received Oscar nominations for their amazing, heartbreaking performances. Judy was the favorite to win the Oscar -- but she didn't. Hers still stands as one of the best musical/dramatic performances in classic Hollywood movie history.
Now for one on the delightfully and unintentionally campy side. Bette Davis plays a faded Hollywood star who has fallen on such hard financial times that she's auctioning off some of her belongings. When the out-of-work aging actress is approached by her agent, she snaps "Don't touch me with your 10 per cent hands!" The movie is the 1952 release, THE STAR. The overbaked performance that Bette Davis serves up in this 90-minute feature must have inspired future drag artists such as Lypsinka, Miss Coco Peru and Charles Busch.
Margaret Elliott (Bette Davis) is in need of money and a comeback role. My favorite scene comes after she verbally bruises some selfish relatives and then drives drunk through Beverly Hills with her Oscar on the dashboard.
This is nowhere near the quality of her work as the middle-aged Broadway legend, Margo Channing, in 1950's ALL ABOUT EVE. However, Davis still managed to hook herself a Best Actress Oscar nomination for this hunk o' cheese co-starring that hunk o' beef, Sterling Hayden, as the man who loves Maggie.
A must-see for any Oscars weekend is the brilliantly bad, star-packed 1966 drama, THE OSCAR. This is the SNAKES ON A PLANE of Oscar movies. Stephen Boyd plays the ruthless and handsome movie star with a tawdry past who will use anybody to win some Hollywood gold. This movie marked the film acting debut of singer Tony Bennett -- and his final film acting role. Also in the cast are Elke Sommer, Jill St. John, Ernest Borgnine, Joseph Cotten, Eleanor Parker, Edie Adams, Milton Berle and Merle Oberon. Costumes for this all-star deluxe cheese platter were designed by Edith Head.
2006's FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION may not as popular as BEST IN SHOW or WAITING FOR GUFFMAN but this mockumentary co-written and directed by Christopher Guest is highly entertaining and features cast members from those other two mockumentaries. FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION follows the publicity frenzy that sparks when three actors in the same film get Oscar buzz comments. Publicists build on the buzz and it changes the actors.
The highlight is the fabulous performance delivered by Catherine O'Hara as the serious actress Marilyn Hack. Marilyn is not exactly a top star. When she gets some Oscar buzz, she starts to alter herself to fit into an image that shallow Hollywood would like.
Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, Fred Willard, Parker Posey and Christopher Guest are also in the cast. I would have given Catherine O'Hara a real Oscar nomination for her work as Marilyn Hack.
Judy Garland, a 2-time Academy Award nominee (Best Actress for 1954's A STAR IS BORN, Best Supporting Actress for 1961's JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG) never won an Oscar. But the first time she played an Oscar winner was in a satirical number for the 1945 MGM musical comedy revue, ZIEGFELD FOLLIES. The number was intended for Greer Garson, the prestigious MGM Oscar winner who'd received nominations for dramatic biopics. Garson turned it down. Garland took it. Vincente Minnelli directed the musical spoof, Charles Walters choreographed it, the music was written by Kay Thompson and Roger Edens. The number was called "A Great Lady Has an Interview."
Have fun watching the Oscars on March 12th.
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