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5[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_filmoscar_9.png]]
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7->''"Man, he wanted to swallow Hollywood like a cat with a canary. And he did it! The parts got bigger, and Frankie was hooked! Like a junkie shooting pure quicksilver into his veins, Frankie got turned on by the wildest narcotic known to man: success! The parts got bigger and bigger... Frankie got hungrier and hungrier."''
8-->-- '''Hymie Kelly'''
9
10''The Oscar'' is a 1966 film directed by Creator/RussellRouse adapted by Creator/HarlanEllison from a 1963 novel by Richard Sale. The AllStarCast includes Creator/StephenBoyd, Creator/ElkeSommer, Creator/MiltonBerle, Creator/EleanorParker, Creator/JosephCotten, Creator/JillStJohn, Creator/EdieAdams, Creator/ErnestBorgnine, and Music/TonyBennett.
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12The film centers around Frankie Fane (Boyd), a {{Jerkass}} actor nominated for the [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Best Actor Oscar]]. At the ceremony, his former buddy Hymie Kelly (Bennett) recalls the events that got him there. Once, he had a girlfriend named Laurel (St. John), whom he dumped for Kay (Sommer). With the support of Hymie, he breaks into show business. After getting the Oscar nomination, he becomes an even bigger Jerkass than ever.
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14Usefulnotes/GoldenRaspberryAward founder John Wilson listed this as one of the most entertaining bad movies ever. Parodied on ''Series/{{SCTV}}'' in "The Nobel", about a Jerkass surgeon nominated for the Nobel Prize.
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17!!This work features examples of:
18* AssumedWin: Frankie stands up when presenter Merle Oberon announces "the winner is Frank [[spoiler:Sinatra!]]"[[note]] TruthInTelevision: Creator/FrankCapra dashed up the stage in 1934 to grab the Oscar meant for Frank ''Lloyd''. It didn't help that the presenter, Will Rogers, was a joker who proclaimed "come and get it, Frank!"[[/note]]
19* CurseOfTheAncients: One of the few works where one can see someone use "Birdseed!" as a curse non-ironically.
20* DramaBomb: Hymie reveals to Frankie that Laurel died years ago [[spoiler:miscarrying Frankie's baby. One suspects the plot twist was going to be a botched abortion but there may have been a reluctance to mention abortion in a 1966 film.]]
21* HorribleHollywood: Tries a little too hard to invoke this trope and ends up as {{Narm}}.
22* {{Jerkass}}: Frankie Fane, especially in the novel where he deliberately tries to sabotage his fellow nominees' chances for success.
23* {{Melodrama}}: So much that upon release reviews were considering the movie an unintentional comedy.
24* {{Narrator}}: Hymie tells the story of his ex-buddy Frankie.
25* NonActorVehicle: Tony Bennett, a singer by trade, has a supporting role as Hymie Kelly. This was Bennett's only acting role.
26* OscarBait: A melodrama about Hollywood itself? It's pretty obvious what they were gunning for here.
27* RealAwardFictionalCharacter: Frankie Fane is nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, [[spoiler:only to see the Oscar be awarded to Music/FrankSinatra instead]].
28* TwoDecadesBehind: It's a 1966 movie set in the present day, when the UsefulNotes/NewHollywood was starting to emerge, but its depiction of Hollywood as a tight-knit community of actors, publicists, studio honchos and gossip columnists by day that indulges in swingin' Creator/RatPack-type shenanigans by night feels more like 1946 or so.

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