Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1962)

BEST PICTURE— "WEST SIDE STORY"— AND SUPPORTING BESTS CHAKIRIS & MORENO Is Oscar Doing His Job? Another Academy Awards show has come and gone, but the question lingers on: Is Oscar really doing his job? There persists among many industryites a grave doubt as to the public relations value of the coastto-coast television-radio program. Surely, the boxoffice gross of the award-winning film is hiked and the bargaining position of the talent winners is improved as a result of the vast publicity attendant upon the Oscar presentations, but the hard-nosed businessmen of the industry are not satisfied that the vast potential of the show as a promotional weapon is adequately capitalized. They contend that the men who run the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences reside in an ivory tower that is too remote from the problems and needs of the industry's money source — the theatres and their patrons. A strong feeling prevails that the captive audience of a reputed 100,000,000 TV viewers were neither entertained by the Hollywood talent assembled for the 34th annual shindig nor sold sufficiently on the joys and pleasures of motion pictures. If any thing, the glittering cast of boxoffice favorites assembled — Rock Hudson, Burt Lancaster, Jack Lemmon, Joanne Woodward, Lee Remick, Rosalind Russell— did little more than go through the motions of announcing a long and rather tedious list of minor award winners, with just an "inside" joke or two to enliven the goings-on. As one disappointed observer put it: "It was such a pitiful waste of golden viewing time (Trendex ratings for the show were at peaks throughout the country). For one thing, whoever said they shortened the time devoted to minor and technical awards was talking through his hat. Why, that's all they had, except for the five songs, until the big prizes were given out in the last half hour. And who wants to sit at home and watch a glamorous movie star stand stiffly and hand over an Oscar to a laboratory technician or a cameraman? Instead of doing away with the skits and musical numbers, they would do far better to beef up that portion at the expense of the lesser awards. They could just as easily be presented at a private affair." Failure to utilize the available talent certainly was a major shortcoming of the Academy, which in past years had come up with some really first-rate numbers featuring marquee lights of the first magnitude. In fact, as one exhibitor suggested: "Instead of eliminating the entertainment, they should have added to it. Why not present song and dance routines with a dramatic rendition of some kind. We've got the best actors in the world, so let's show them off to the best advantage." Perhaps even more conspicuous in their absence were the film clips from the nominees for best picture award. Although it was expected that scenes from each of the top five would be showcased to dramatize the arrival of the big moment, the only clips telecast were two from films up for special effects honors (even these brief livingroom looks seemed to arouse plenty of interest). No reason has been offered for failure to capitalize on the largest trailer audience in history by showing them, via scenes from the best pictures, what lies in store for them at their neighborhood theatres. And, by all the laws of good salesmanship, none should be. Film clips came off handsomely and proved an excellent institutional tool at the I960 Oscar show; there seems no logical excuse for not having used them since. Television columnists generally either (Continual on Pti^e IS) Film BULLETIN April 16 1962 Page 17