The Oscar [1966] [DVD]

Stephen Boyd was great as the villainous Messala in Ben-Hur and makes a fair fist of villainy here as actor Frank Fane who has been nominated for an Oscar and sits in the Shrine Auditorium waiting for the envelope to be opened. As he waits the flashback starts, showing how this slimeball walked over countless people and survived a slew of sex scandals to be a major movie star.

It's hugely, trashily enjoyable - sort of like The Bad and the Beautiful meets Harold Robbins - and filled with a lot of in-jokes and bursting with cameos, from Bob Hope (who hosts a real Oscars show), Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Merle Oberon and Edith Head, the legendary costume designer.