The Party (film)
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| The Party | |
|---|---|
 original film poster by Jack Davis |
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| Directed by | Blake Edwards |
| Produced by | Blake Edwards |
| Written by | Blake Edwards Frank Waldman Tom Waldman |
| Starring | Peter Sellers Claudine Longet Marge Champion Peter Falk Fay McKenzie Gavin MacLeod |
| Music by | Don Black Henry Mancini |
| Cinematography | Lucien Ballard |
| Editing by | Ralph Winters |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) |  United States April 4, 1968 |
| Running time | 99 min. |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Party (alternative title: "Hollywood Party") is a 1968 comedy written and directed by Blake Edwards, starring Peter Sellers (in what was his only non-Pink Panther collaboration with Edwards) and Claudine Longet. The film has a very loose structure, and essentially serves as a series of set pieces for the comic talents of Sellers. Sellers would play another Indian man in his hit film The Millionairess, and a similar (though self-important, unlike the humble role he plays here) klutz as Inspector Clouseau. The film remains popular among fans of Sellers as one of his most inventive comic roles, much of which was improvised at the time of filming.[1]
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[edit] Plot
The minimal plot involves Sellers playing a well-meaning, but hapless, Indian actor who is accidentally invited to a lavish Hollywood party, causing havoc.
Hrundi V. Bakshi (Sellers) is a seemingly nameless and faceless actor from India brought to Hollywood for a role in a film similar to Gunga Din. Unfortunately, he manages to blow up the set before the cameras are rolling, ruining the entire film. The director (Ellis) is beside himself, fires Bakshi immediately and wants him blacklisted. However, instead of being blacklisted, Bakshi's name is accidentally written on the guest list of the studio boss's party.
Upon arrival, he loses his shoe in the stream that flows through the house and spends a significant amount of time attempting to retrieve it (a scene copied by Amitabh Bachchan in the movie Namak Halaal). As he offers to engage in banter, guests and host look on in puzzled confusion. The only ones at the party to pay him much notice, at first, are Michèle (Longet) and a macaw to whom Bakshi talks gibberish and overfeeds "birdie num nums."
Invites and attendants include a drunken female guest, a drunken waiter (who becomes increasingly more inebriated as the film progresses) and his irritated superior, politicians, various Hollywood luminaries, and a Russian ballet troupe that arrives towards the end of the party.
At the dinner table, the drunken waiter (Steven Franken) serves the guests Caesar salad using his bare hand instead of the proper utensil. During the main course, Bakshi's roast cornish game hen is accidentally catapulted off his fork and becomes impaled on a guest's tiara. He asks the waiter to retrieve his meal, and the clumsy man complies, unaware that the woman's fall-wig has come off along with her tiara, as she is obliviously engaged in conversation.
Bakshi leaves damaged appliances and havoc wherever he wanders. At one point he mistakenly sticks his hand into a bowl of crushed ice that turns out to be the caviar dish; he spends a good amount of time shaking hands with other guests, passing around a fishy odor.
Other party obstacles include a control panel with various switches that activate the intercom, the slide-out bar (which Bakshi closes while the bartender is still busy mixing drinks), various retractable floor panels that extend the size of the indoor-outdoor swimming pool, artwork, a backed-up toilet with bidet, and an electric toilet paper roll.
The would-be hippie children of the Hollywood executives eventually turn up with a baby elephant covered in stereotypical 1960s slogans. The action of the party then moves to the pool, where Bakshi asks that the elephant be restored to a more dignified state. The entire house is soon overrun with soap bubbles as they scrub graffiti off the animal. The police arrive as well. Bakshi offers to drive Michèle home (in his Morgan three-wheeler car) and the film ends with a hint that this is the beginning of a romantic relationship.
[edit] Production
The film's interiors were shot on a set, at the MGM lot. The original script was only 56-60 pages in length. Blake Edwards later said it was the shortest script he ever shot from, and the majority of the content in the film was improvised on set.
The film draws much inspiration from the works of Jacques Tati; Bakshi arrives at the party in a Morgan three-wheeler similar to Monsieur Hulot's cyclecar in Monsieur Hulot's Holiday; the entire film storyline is reminiscent of the Royal Garden restaurant sequence of Playtime; and the comedic interaction with inanimate objects and gadgets parallels several of Tati's films, especially Mon Oncle.[1][2][3]
[edit] Soundtrack
The score of The Party was by Henry Mancini, including the song "Nothing to Lose." Mancini, commenting on audience reactions, noted, "That's what I get for writing a nice song for a comedy. Nobody's going to hear a note of it." During a scene later in the film, the band can be heard playing "It Had Better Be Tonight," which was a song Henry Mancini composed for the first Pink Panther film.
[edit] Miscellany
- It is rumoured that a remake is in the works, with Sacha Baron Cohen set to star as the role of Hrundi.[4]
- The French turntablism crew Birdy Nam Nam took its name from a line of the movie, as did the nightclub Birdee Num Num in Brisbane, Australia.[5]
- "Nothing to Lose" was covered by French electronica artist Dimitri from Paris on his album Sacrebleu.
- Acclaimed Bengali Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray was at one time set to make his American feature debut with Sellers in the lead role for his fantasy film, The Alien. When Ray saw The Party, he was so disgusted by Sellers's performance and the film, he refused to meet Sellers again.[2]
[edit] External links
- The Party at the Internet Movie Database
[edit] References
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