Saturday, February 2, 2013

1968 - THE PARTY, the non Pink Panther movie

One of the better Blake Edwards/Peter Sellers slapstick films.  Peter Sellers plays an Indian actor making a Gunga Din type of film.  Sellers is in brown makeup and his character is offensive but he is good at it, he was always a great mimic.  Sellers gets invited to a big Hollywood party at a producer's home, and the usual slapstick comedic stuff happens in a Blake Edwards film.


This film was apparently largely improvised with the director of photography Lucien Ballard simultaneously videotaping and shooting The Party on film so they could decide on set what was working and what wasn't.


The Party also starts a French performer named Claudine Longet.  Longet was married to Andy Williams and he usually had her on his television show where she would sing some sort of melancholy ballad looking doe eyed and very bummed out.  She made a mess out of her life after she divorced Williams  The perfect French waif.

Anyway, if you like slapstick The Party isn't too bad, and some of it is actually funny for a Blake Edwards film.  Henry Mancini wrote the score.

99 minutes, written by Blake Edwards, Tom Waldman and Frank Waldman.

No comments: