So bad it's good. The mere fact that Stephen Boyd is cast as a potential Oscar winner should clue you in to how outré this movie is going to be. As an actor who claws his way not only to the top, but to the Academy Awards, Boyd outdoes all of his previously bad performances. There are times when it's difficult to believe he's not playing this thing for laughs. It's the classic story of the ego-maniacal lunatic hitting the big time --- Of course he becomes the apple of various women's eyes (Elke Sommer, Jill St. John, Eleanor Parker) and of course he has his toady (Tony Bennett!) who you know is going to tire of his abuse, but it's great fun to watch nonetheless. NOBODY in the oddball cast escapes unscathed. Boyd is expected to be bad, but real talents like Joseph Cotten, Edie Adams and Ernest Borgnine manage to get caught in the mire. Cotten looks ghoulish as a cranky studio head and the appearances of Adams and Borgnine in a wacky Mexican set episode are real head scratchers. Milton Berle, in one of his occasional forays into straight acting, plays an agent, but stripped of anything funny to do, he's just dull. Broderick Crawford plays a sadistic sheriff in one of the film's early scenes, proving that he'd do just about any role for a paycheck. For some reason, the film is top heavy with character actors who'd actually WON Oscars in the past (along with Crawford and Borgnine, Ed Begley and Walter Brennan also have roles).
It's difficult to believe that the likes of Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra and Merle Oberon (playing themselves) agreed to make cameos...one has to wonder if the Academy threaten to strip them of their membership if they didn't appear in this claptrap. Written, unbelievably, by Harlan Ellison!
It's difficult to believe that the likes of Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra and Merle Oberon (playing themselves) agreed to make cameos...one has to wonder if the Academy threaten to strip them of their membership if they didn't appear in this claptrap. Written, unbelievably, by Harlan Ellison!