Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with today’s installment of A Movie A Day.
[For those now joining us, A Movie A Day is my attempt at filling in gaps in my film knowledge. My DVD collection is thousands strong, many of them films I haven’t seen yet, but picked up as I scoured used DVD stores. Each day I’ll pull a previously unseen film from my collection or from my DVR and discuss it here. Each movie will have some sort of connection to the one before it, be it cast or crew member.]
And we’re back after my first weekend off in almost 7 months… and it’s not like I got to spend it relaxing. I begin writing up THE PARTY while waiting for my third of three flights, my final layover after 16 ½ hours of travel which began 3 hours after BNAT ended. I slept sporadically on the incredibly full flight to my secret destination, but am awake enough to begin typing this sucka up.
If you’ve been wondering what’s up, I had to pause the column Friday because of Butt-Numb-A-Thon and this travel. I could have worked around one or the other, but overseas travel prep, BNAT and the pick-ups and dinners with out of town folk all made it impossible for me.
I did get to watch a good amount of the movies in advance, so I can pick this up now and not when I get back from my secret adventure.
THE PARTY marks the third of four flicks in our Peter-Sellers-A-Thon following up BEING THERE and WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT? and also marks a reteaming with his PINK PANTHER director Blake Edwards.
When the film began, I had to stop and check the case to make sure I hadn’t mistakenly put another DVD into the player. Before I could crack the plastic case, a thought was sent from the “Don’t be a fucking moron” section of my brain containing an image of the DVD menu I had just seen seconds ago with THE PARTY featured really big.
The movie opens as an epic war movie, featuring big sweeping army-in-the-desert shots, a gunfight featuring gatling guns and rifles, explosions… Then an Indian man runs up, covered in blood. He’s a trumpeter and has quite clearly been shot. He’s shot again as he bugals triumphantly and slowly falls, still trumpeting. Then he rises again, trumpet still blazing. He’s shot again and sinks, the trumpet trailing away comically… then starting up again.
After a couple of more up and downs, his own army turns around and shoots the shit out of him until he’s on the ground trumpeting in comedic bursts.
Then CUT is called and it’s all revealed to be a movie within a movie and the Indian man is Peter Sellers, playing Hrundi V. Bakshi a young Indian actor who is getting his big shot in this picture. It’s a bit part, but the director likes the idea of the added realism of casting out of India for this role.
Of course, Hrundi is a bungling bunglepants and inadvertently sets off a major explosives gag that is costly enough to derail the picture in a major way. He’s fired, told he’ll never work in this business again and reported to the studio head, who confirms he will blacklist this poor man, making sure to get his name right and everything.
Too bad for him, he mistakenly makes this note on a piece of paper containing the guest list for a big party the exec and his wife are throwing. Hes secretary assumes the name is a late addition and digs up the information on this Hrundi Bakshi, inviting him to this party.
That’s the plot and it all happens in the first 15 minutes. There’s character work to be sure, but the plot is essentially Let’s See What Happens When We Put Peter Sellers Playing A Bumbling Indian Man At An Elite Hollywood Party And Watch Him Go Cah-Ray-Zee!
Luckily, Sellers isn’t the only character at the party. There’s also a scene-stealing alcoholic waiter that fucks up just as bad as Sellers does.
Sellers can play the lovable goof very well and has the Indian accent down. Just like his Chinese accent in movies like MURDER BY DEATH it’s not 100% true to life, a tad exaggerated, but stops short of being offensive. This character isn’t a stereotype, the Indian background only supporting the Fish Out Of Water storyline. He’s not clutzy or goofy because he’s Indian, he’s clutzy and goofy because that’s his character.
But I do think Fisher Stevens completely stole the accent’s rhythm and emphasis for SHORT CIRCUIT.
The Party is filled with every type of person… there’s a tall cowboy actor (supposed to be a John Wayne type, maybe?) who loves the idol worship coming from Hrundi and views him as his little buddy, there’s the grumpy Exec, his hostess wife, the aforementioned alkie waiter, a pretty young French girl who wants to be an actress, guest of the leacherous director who fired Hrundi off of the movie, the Exec’s hippie teenage daughter, her hippie pals, an elephant and tons of bubbles.
Claudine Longet plays the young French actress and she is adorable. Hrundi and her quickly develop a little something something, much to the displeasure of the director who already feels like he knows and dislikes this strange Indian dude from somewhere, but can’t place him.
Just as you’d expect from the Sellers/Edwards team the whole situation grows more and more out of control until an explosive finale, but what I didn’t expect was a genuinely sweet little love story between Sellers and Longet. The final scene between them is incredibly effective… sweet, but not saccharine.
Final Thoughts: The Party is a very cute, very entertaining flick. It might not hold up as an immediate classic like the better Sellers/Edwards PANTHER movies (mostly due to the lack of stand-out side performances… I loved the waiter, but he never reached Herbert Lom-like levels of brilliance), but the end result is a massively enjoyable flick, showcasing a master at the peak of his talent.
Here’s what we have lined up for the next week:
Thursday, December 18th: CASINO ROYALE (1967)
Friday, December 19th: THE STRANGER (1946)
Saturday, December 20th: BROTHER ORCHID (1940)
Sunday, December 21th: THE PETRIFIED FOREST (1936)
Monday, December 22th: MOONTIDE (1942)
Tuesday, December 23th: NOTORIOUS (1946)
Wednesday, December 24th: THE INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS (1958)
That’s the next week. I travel back to the states this weekend, so there might be another interruption to the column, but I’ll do my best to avoid another break. The internet situation here is also sketchy, but I’ll make my best effort to keep it going uninterrupted from this point on. Thanks for sticking with it! See you tomorrow for another Sellers ball of entertainment: CASINO ROYALE!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
