The Party | Blu-ray Review

While director Blake Edwards and star Peter Sellers are best known for their several Pink Panther efforts, they also collaborated on one additional wholly unrelated title, The Party (1968). It was their third time working together, with only two of the Panther films preceding it, and arriving the same year that Bud Yorkin attempted an unsuccessful US version of the Clouseau character starring Alan Arkin with Inspector Clouseau. For the most part, this is a film that allows Sellers free reign with his fake persona, though by today’s standards this might play something like an SNL extended skit feature. Though Sellers was a top tier performer, many may likely find his appearance here in ‘brown face’ as a bumbling Indian actor to be off-putting, even if it isn’t pointedly demeaning.

The story is about as simple as the unassuming title. Hrundi V. Bakshi (Sellers) is an Indian actor in Hollywood, recently cast in a production called Son of Gunga Din, a sequel to the Cary Grant classic. It’s evident that Bakshi is a well intentioned klutz, whose bungling on set forces him to be fired. Threatened that he’ll never work in this town again, the producer’s secretary accidentally adds his name to the wrong list, causing Bakshi to be invited to a very swank party, to which he gladly shows up. Once there, he is involved an escalating amounts of social embarrassment, though thankfully a drunken waiter (Steve Franken) tends to cause his own share of discord. In the midst of it all, Bakshi strikes up a flirtation with a French ingénue and burgeoning singer, Michele Monet (Claudine Longet).

A string of running gags, The Party isn’t without a sort of comic charm, built nearly entirely around Seller’s expert characterization skills. It’s not the point to really know anything about him other than the fact that he’s incredibly hapless and well meaning. Several of his scenarios are hyperbolized moments that many of us have experienced at such events, such as a mad dash to use the restroom. Hilariously sweating bullets as he suffers through Michele Monet’s endless song, it’s a level of reliability that transcends the effects of his gimmicky persona.

Sellers excels at intricate moments of physicality, and it’s an odd performance in comparison to his endless returns to the screen as Clouseau, or more bizarre and unforgettable turns in Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove and Lolita. As the other bumbling idiot at the party, Steve Franken’s drunken waiter is an eye sore, one of those highly exaggerated performances that presents drunkenness as akin to a patient at an insane asylum. The more interesting co-star is Claudine Longet, an actress and singer whose career was cut short due to an infamous scandal in which she shot and killed her boyfriend, skiing legend Vladimir Sabich in 1977.

A bungled investigation resulted in a lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide, but the strange facts surrounding the case would make for an excellent film treatment. She had another film in 1968, Massacre Harbor, which was never released in the US. The Party is the last theatrical feature Longet would ever be a part of.

Disc Review

The Party appears in all its vintage glory in this Blu-ray transfer. Set mostly inside the extravagant residence in which the film takes place, it’s easy to get lost focusing on the many visual cues that make up for the bulk of the film’s gags. Kino Lorber has added a few bonus features, including the theatrical trailer and profiles on director Edwards and producers Walter Mirisch and Ken Wales.

Inside The Party Featurette:
Edwards appears with the producers in interview footage to speak about the making of The Party. Edwards discusses his love/hate relationship with Sellers, and the film seemed to serve as revitalization of their working relationship, though Sellers initially disliked filming. All conclude this was the shortest script, at some sixty off pages, that any of them had ever worked on in order to create the most spontaneous experience possible.

The Party Revolution Featurette:
A sixteen minute feature goes into great detail how the title inspired Edwards to help create the advanced notion of video assist so that they could have instant playback of shot footage at their fingerprints. Since there was no script and how to be shot in linear order, it was paramount that the filmmaking team had quick, direct access to establish continuity.

Final Thoughts

An ode to the classic cinema of Keaton and Chaplin, Edwards’ title is a light trifle, The Party a fun exercise for fans of Peter Sellers and Blake Edwards in their only non-Pink Panther union. Unabashedly silly and with Sellers’ ethnic escapade a bit distracting, contemporary audiences may find it a bit dated.

Film: ★★★/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc: ★★★/☆☆☆☆☆