The Party (film)
Encyclopedia
The Party is a 1968
1968 in film
The year 1968 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 30 - The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts.* November 1 - The MPAA's film rating system is introduced.-Top grossing films :- Awards :...

 comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 by Blake Edwards
Blake Edwards
Blake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...

, starring Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...

 and Claudine Longet
Claudine Longet
Claudine Georgette Longet is a French singer and recording artist who was popular during the 1960s and 1970s. She is also an actress and a dancer.Born in Paris, France, Longet was married to pop singer Andy Williams from 1961 until 1975...

. The film has a very loose structure, and essentially serves as a series of set piece
Setpiece
In film production, a setpiece is a scene or sequence of scenes the execution of which requires serious logistical planning and considerable expenditure of money. The term setpiece is often used more broadly to describe any important dramatic or comedic highpoint in a film or story, particularly...

s for Sellers's improvisational comedy talents. The comedy is based on a fish out of water premise, in which a bungling Indian actor accidentally gets invited to a lavish Hollywood dinner party and "makes terrible mistakes based upon ignorance of Western ways."

The Party is considered a classic comedic cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...

. Edwards biographers Peter Lehman and William Luhr
William Luhr
William Luhr is an American film author and professor. He is the author of such works as Thinking About Movies: Watching, Questioning, Enjoying, World Cinema Since 1945: An Encyclopedic History and Returning to the Scene. He is also currently a professor of English at Saint Peter's College in...

 said, "The Party may very well be one of the most radically experimental film
Experimental film
Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...

s in Hollywood history; in fact it may be the single most radical film since D.W. Griffith's style came to dominate the American cinema." Film historian Saul Austerlitz wrote, "Despite the offensiveness of Sellers's brownface
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...

 routine, The Party is one of his very best films... Taking a page from Tati
Jacques Tati
Jacques Tati was a French filmmaker, working as a comedic actor, writer and director. In a poll conducted by Entertainment Weekly of the Greatest Movie Directors Tati was voted the 46th greatest of all time...

, this is neorealist
Neorealism (art)
In art, neorealism was established by the ex-Camden Town Group painters Charles Ginner and Harold Gilman at the beginning of World War I. They set out to explore the spirit of their age through the shapes and colours of daily life...

 comedy, purposefully lacking a director's guiding eye: look here, look there. The screen is crammed full of activity, and the audience's eyes are left to wander where they may."

Plot

The film opens in the desert, and it is revealed that a film crew
Film crew
Television crew positions are derived from those of film crew positions.A film crew is a group of people hired by a production company for the purpose of producing a film or motion picture. Crew are distinguished from cast, the Actors who appear in front of the camera or provide voices for...

 is filming an ambush scene for a costume epic similar to Gunga Din
Gunga Din (film)
Gunga Din is a 1939 RKO adventure film directed by George Stevens, loosely based on the poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling, combined with elements of his novel Soldiers Three...

. Unknown India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n actor Hrundi V. Bakshi (Sellers) has a small role in which he sounds a bugle
Bugle
Bugle is a brass musical instrument.Bugle may also refer to:* Contrabass bugle, lowest-pitched instrument in the drum and bugle corps hornline* Bugle , common names of flowering plant genus Ajuga...

 to start the attack. Ignoring directions, he continues to play even after being shot dozens of times, and he does not stop even after the director (Herbert Ellis) yells cut. Bakshi continues to hamper the filming, until he accidentally blows up an enormous set
Set construction
Set construction is the process by which a set designer works in collaboration with the director of a production to create the set for a theatrical, film or television production...

, a fort rigged with explosives for an upcoming scene depicting its attack. The director fires Bakshi immediately and calls the studio head, General Fred Clutterbuck (J. Edward McKinley), about the mishap. Clutterbuck writes down Bakshi's name in order to blacklist
Blacklist
A blacklist is a list or register of entities who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to blacklist can mean to deny someone work in a particular field, or to ostracize a person from a certain social circle...

 him, but he inadvertently writes Bakshi's name on the guest list of his upcoming dinner party.

During the opening credits
Opening credits
In a motion picture, television program, or video game, the opening credits are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production. They are now usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in the show. There...

, Bakshi receives his invitation in the mail and drives to the party at Clutterbuck's home. Upon arrival at the party, Bakshi tries to rinse dirt off his shoe in a large fountain that flows through the house, but he loses his shoe. He spends about five minutes trying to retrieve it as it floats through the house and gets launched onto a serving platter.

Bakshi has awkward interactions with everyone at the party, including Clutterbuck's dog Cookie. He meets famous Western movie actor "Wyoming Bill" Kelso (Denny Miller), who gives Bakshi an autograph. Bakshi later accidentally shoots Kelso with a toy gun, but Kelso does not see who did it. Bakshi tries to feed a caged macaw
Macaw
Macaws are small to large, often colourful New World parrots. Of the many different Psittacidae genera, six are classified as macaws: Ara, Anodorhynchus, Cyanopsitta, Primolius, Orthopsittaca, and Diopsittaca...

 some bird food from a container marked "Birdie Num Num." He ends up dumping the food everywhere as two guests stare. Bakshi then accidentally activates a panel of electronics that control the intercom
Intercom
An intercom , talkback or doorphone is a stand-alone voice communications system for use within a building or small collection of buildings, functioning independently of the public telephone network. Intercoms are generally mounted permanently in buildings and vehicles...

, a fountain (soaking a guest), and a retractable bar (which Bakshi closes while Clutterbuck is sitting at it). After Kelso hurts Bakshi's hand while shaking it, Bakshi sticks his hand into a bowl of crushed ice containing caviar
Caviar
Caviar, sometimes called black caviar, is a luxury delicacy, consisting of processed, salted, non-fertilized sturgeon roe. The roe can be "fresh" or pasteurized, the latter having much less culinary and economic value....

. While waiting to wash his hand in the bathroom, he meets aspiring actress Michèle Monet (Longet), who came with producer C.S. Divot (Gavin McLeod). Bakshi shakes Divot's hand, and Divot then shakes hands with other guests, passing around the fishy odor, even back to Bakshi after he has washed his hand.

Dinner is served, but at Bakshi's place setting right by the kitchen door, his chair is missing. He gets a very low chair that puts his chin near the table. Several mishaps occur while an increasingly drunk waiter named Levinson (Steven Franken) tries to serve dinner and fights with the other staff. During the main course, Bakshi's roast Cornish game hen
Cornish game hen
In the USA, a Cornish game hen, also sometimes called a Cornish hen, poussin, Rock Cornish hen, or simply Rock Cornish, is a hybrid chicken sold whole. Despite the name, it is not a game bird, but actually a type of domestic chicken. Though the bird is called a "hen", it can be either male or female...

 accidentally catapults off his fork and becomes impaled on a guest's tiara
Tiara
A tiara is a form of crown. There are two possible types of crown that this word can refer to.Traditionally, the word "tiara" refers to a high crown, often with the shape of a cylinder narrowed at its top, made of fabric or leather, and richly ornamented. It was used by the kings and emperors of...

. Bakshi asks Levinson to retrieve his meal, but the woman's wig comes off along with her tiara, as she obliviously engages in conversation. Levinson ends up brawling with other waitstaff, and dinner is disrupted.

Bakshi apologizes to his hosts, then needs to go to the bathroom. He wanders through the house, opening doors and barging in on various servants and guests in embarrassing situations. He ends up in the back yard, where he accidentally sets off the sprinkler
Irrigation sprinkler
Irrigation sprinklers are sprinklers used on farms, golf courses, and yards, to provide water to vegetation and plants in the event of drought. They may also be used for recreation, as a cooling system, or to keep down the amount of airborne dust....

s. At Divot's insistence, Monet gives an impromptu guitar performance of "Nothing to Lose," to impress the guests. Bakshi ends up upstairs, where he takes a toy gun from Clutterbuck's young son. He then uses it to save Monet from Divot's unwanted sexual advances by dislodging Divot's toupee
Toupee
A toupée is a hairpiece or partial wig of natural or synthetic hair worn to cover partial baldness or for theatrical purposes. While toupées and hairpieces are typically associated with male wearers, some women also use hairpieces to lengthen existing hair, or cover partially exposed scalp...

 with the gun. Bakshi finally finds a bathroom, but he breaks the toilet, drops a painting in it, gets toilet paper everywhere, and floods the bathroom. To avoid getting caught, Bakshi sneaks out on the roof and falls into the pool. Monet leaps in to save him, and they force him to drink alcohol to warm up. Bakshi has never had alcohol before, and he struggles to put on a dry red terry cloth jumpsuit
Jumpsuit
Jumpsuit originally referred to the utilitarian one-piece garments used by parachuters/skydivers, but has come to be used as a common term for any one-piece garment with sleeves and legs.-Use:...

. He finds Monet crying in the next room and consoles her. Divot bursts in and demands Monet leave with him. Monet says no, and Divot cancels her screen test
Screen test
A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film and/or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a camera to see if they are suitable...

 for him the next day. Bakshi convinces her to stay and have a good time with him. They return to the party in borrowed clothes as a Russian dance troupe arrives. The party gets wilder, and Bakshi offers to retract the bar to make room for dancing. He accidentally opens a retractable floor with a pool underneath, causing guests to fall in the pool. Levinson makes more floors retract, and more guests fall in. Clutterbuck's daughter arrives with friends and a baby elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...

 painted with hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...

 slogans. Bakshi takes offense and asks them to wash the elephant. The entire house is soon filled with soap bubbles from the cleaning.

Back at his home, Divot suddenly realizes that Bakshi is the fired actor who blew up the set, and he races back to the party. As the band plays on, Clutterbuck tries to save his suds-covered fine art paintings. The air conditioning blows suds everywhere as the guests dance to hippie music, and Clutterbuck's distraught wife falls into the pool twice. Divot pulls up as police and fire department personnel work to resolve everything. Bakshi apologizes one last time to Clutterbuck as Divot reveals who Bakshi is, but Clutterbuck accidentally chokes a waiter instead of Bakshi. Kelso gives Bakshi an autographed photo and Stetson hat as Bakshi and Monet leave in Bakshi's Morgan
Morgan Motor Company
The Morgan Motor Company is a British motor car manufacturer. The company was founded in 1910 by Harry Frederick Stanley Morgan, generally known as "HFS" and was run by him until he died, aged 77, in 1959. Peter Morgan, son of H.F.S., ran the company until a few years before his death in 2003...

 three-wheeler car. Outside her apartment, Bakshi and Monet appear on the verge of admitting that they love each other, but agree to meet the next week. Bakshi gives Monet the hat, and she says he can come get it any time. Bakshi then drives off as his car backfire
Back-fire
A Back-fire or backfire is an explosion produced by a running internal combustion engine that occurs in the air intake or exhaust system rather than inside the combustion chamber. The same term is used when unburned fuel or hydrocarbons are ignited somewhere in the exhaust system. A visible flame...

s.

Production

The Party was the only non-Pink Panther collaboration between Sellers and Edwards. Producer Walter Mirisch
Walter Mirisch
Walter Mortimer Mirisch is an American film producer. In his long and successful motion picture career, Walter Mirisch has produced some of the industry’s finest and most memorable films...

 knew that Sellers and Edwards were considered liabilities; in his autobiography, Mirisch wrote, "Blake had achieved a reputation as a very expensive director, particularly after The Great Race
The Great Race
The Great Race is a 1965 slapstick comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Natalie Wood, directed by Blake Edwards, written by Blake Edwards and Arthur A. Ross, and with music by Henry Mancini and cinematography by Russell Harlan. The supporting cast includes Peter Falk, Keenan Wynn,...

." Sellers had played another India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n man in his hit film The Millionairess
The Millionairess
The Millionairess is a 1960 British romantic comedy film set in London, directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers...

, and a similar klutz as Inspector Clouseau
Inspector Clouseau
Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau is a fictional character in Blake Edwards' The Pink Panther series. In most of the films, he was played by Peter Sellers, with one film in which he was played by Alan Arkin and one in which he was played by an uncredited Roger Moore...

.

The film's interiors were shot on a set, at the MGM lot. The original script was only 63 pages in length. 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
Jacques Tati
Jacques Tati was a French filmmaker, working as a comedic actor, writer and director. In a poll conducted by Entertainment Weekly of the Greatest Movie Directors Tati was voted the 46th greatest of all time...

; Bakshi arrives at the party in a Morgan
Morgan Motor Company
The Morgan Motor Company is a British motor car manufacturer. The company was founded in 1910 by Harry Frederick Stanley Morgan, generally known as "HFS" and was run by him until he died, aged 77, in 1959. Peter Morgan, son of H.F.S., ran the company until a few years before his death in 2003...

 three-wheeler similar to Monsieur Hulot
Monsieur Hulot
Monsieur Hulot is a character created and played by French comic Jacques Tati for a series of films in the 1950s and '60s, namely Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot , Mon Oncle , Play Time and Trafic...

's cyclecar
Cyclecar
Cyclecars were small, generally inexpensive cars manufactured mainly between 1910 and the late 1920s.-General description:Cyclecars were propelled by single cylinder, V-twin or more rarely four cylinder engines, often air cooled. Sometimes these had been originally used in motorcycles and other...

 in Monsieur Hulot's Holiday
Monsieur Hulot's Holiday
Les Vacances de M. Hulot Les Vacances de M. Hulot Les Vacances de M. Hulot (released as Monsieur Hulot's Holiday in the UK and US as Mr. Hulot's Holiday, is a comedy film starring and directed by Jacques Tati. It introduced the pipe-smoking, well-meaning but clumsy character of Monsieur Hulot, who...

. The entire film storyline is reminiscent of the Royal Garden restaurant sequence of Playtime
Playtime
Play Time is French director Jacques Tati's fourth major film, and generally considered to be his most daring film. It was shot in 1964 through 1967 and released in 1967. In Play Time, Tati again plays Monsieur Hulot, a character who had appeared in some of his earlier films, including Mon Oncle...

; and the comedic interaction with inanimate objects and gadgets parallels several of Tati's films, especially Mon Oncle
Mon Oncle
Mon Oncle is a 1958 film comedy by French filmmaker Jacques Tati. The first of Tati's films to be released in colour, Mon Oncle won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, a Special Prize at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign...

.

Soundtrack

The score of The Party was composed by Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...

, 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
Meglio Stasera
Meglio Stasera is a 1963 song with music by Henry Mancini, Italian lyrics by Franco Migliacci and English lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was composed for the 1963 film The Pink Panther where it was performed by Fran Jeffries...

," which was a song Mancini composed for the first Pink Panther
The Pink Panther (1963 film)
The Pink Panther is a 1963 American comedy film directed by Blake Edwards and co-written by Edwards and Maurice Richlin, starring David Niven, Peter Sellers, Robert Wagner, Capucine, and Claudia Cardinale...

film. The compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 was originally released on August 20, 1995 by BMG Victor.

Track listing
  1. "The Party" [Vocal] 2:14
  2. "Brunette in Yellow" 2:56
  3. "Nothing to Lose [Instrumental]" 3:18
  4. "Chicken Little Was Right" 2:54
  5. "Candleleight On Crystal" 3:05
  6. "Birdie Num-Num" 2:21
  7. "Nothing To Lose [Vocal]" 2:25
  8. "The Happy Pipers" 2:17
  9. "Party Poop" 2:34
  10. "Elegant" 4:44
  11. "Wiggy" 3:02
  12. "The Party [Instrumental]" 3:12

Cast

The full cast listing (in credit order) is as follows:
  • Peter Sellers
    Peter Sellers
    Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...

     as Hrundi V. Bakshi
  • Claudine Longet
    Claudine Longet
    Claudine Georgette Longet is a French singer and recording artist who was popular during the 1960s and 1970s. She is also an actress and a dancer.Born in Paris, France, Longet was married to pop singer Andy Williams from 1961 until 1975...

     as Michele Monet
  • Natalia Borisova as Ballerina
  • Jean Carson
    Jean Carson
    Jean Carson was an American stage, film and television actress best known for her work on the classic 1960s sitcom The Andy Griffith Show as one of the "fun girls".-Biography:Born to Alexander W...

     as Nanny
  • Marge Champion
    Marge Champion
    Marge Champion is an American dancer, choreographer, and pedagogue. In addition, she also worked in film and appeared in a number of television variety shows.-Early years:...

     as Rosalind Dunphy
  • Al Checco as Bernard Stein
  • Corinne Cole as Janice Kane
  • Dick Crockett
    Dick Crockett
    Dick Crockett , born Richard DeHart Crockett, was an American television and film actor, stunt performer, stunt coordinator, producer, and director....

     as Wells
  • Frances Davis as Maid
  • Danielle De Metz
    Danielle De Metz
    Danielle De Metz is a French actress best known for her numerous guest appearances in television shows throughout the 1960s.De Metz guest starred in such shows as Dr...

     as Stella D'Angelo
  • Herb Ellis
    Herbert Ellis (actor)
    Herbert "Herb" Ellis is an American character actor and writer. He is best known for his collaborations with Jack Webb, and he frequently played people in law enforcement....

     as Director
  • Paul Ferrara as Ronnie Smith
  • Steve Franken as Levinson
  • Kathe Green
    Kathe Green
    Kathe Green is a Californian actress, model and singer. She is the daughter of Johnny Green.-Career:Kathe Green appeared in Blake Edwards´ The Party and then dubbed all of Mark Lester's singing voice in Oliver!. She signed to Deram Records and used a line of poetry bestowed on her by close friend...

     as Molly Clutterbuck
  • Allen Jung as Cook
  • Sharron Kimberly as Princess Helena
  • James Lanphier as Harry
  • Buddy Lester
    Buddy Lester
    Buddy Lester was a veteran actor of dozens of character roles of film and television, who regularly appeared in Jerry Lewis features, including The Patsy, The Ladies Man, The Nutty Professor, Three on a Couch, Smorgasbord, Hardly Working" and The Big Mouth.Lester also portrayed Vince Massler, one...

     as Davey Kane
  • Stephen Liss as Geoffrey Clutterbuck
  • Gavin MacLeod
    Gavin MacLeod
    Gavin MacLeod is an American actor most notable for playing Happy Haines on McHale's Navy, Murray Slaughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Captain Merrill Stubing on The Love Boat...

     as C.S. Divot
  • Jerry Martin
    Jerry Martin
    Jerry Lindsey Martin is a former Major League Baseball outfielder. He is the son of major league pitcher Barney Martin....

     as Bradford
  • Fay McKenzie
    Fay McKenzie
    Fay McKenzie starred in several westerns during the 1940s alongside Gene Autry, and married screenwriter Tom Waldman.McKenzie was the daughter of the actor Robert McKenzie and actress Eva McKenzie.-External links:*...

     as Alice Clutterbuck
  • J. Edward McKinley
    J. Edward McKinley
    J. Edward McKinley was an American character actor. He frequently played authority figures, including lawmen or medical personnel....

     as Fred Clutterbuck
  • Denny Miller
    Denny Miller
    Denny Scott Miller is an American actor, perhaps best known for his guest-starring roles on Gilligan's Island and as Tarzan in the late 1950s....

     as 'Wyoming Bill' Kelso
  • Elianne Nadeau as Wiggy
  • Thomas W. Quine as Congressman Dunphy
  • Timothy Scott as Gore Pontoon
  • Ken Wales as Assistant Director
  • Carol Wayne
    Carol Wayne
    Carol Wayne was an American television and film actress. She was best known for her many appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson as the Matinée Lady.-Early life:...

     as June Warren

  • Donald R. Frost as Drummer
  • Helen Kleeb
    Helen Kleeb
    Helen Kleeb was an American film and television actress. In a career covering nearly fifty years, she may be best-known for her role as "Miss Mamie Baldwin" on CBS's The Waltons .In 1956-57, she guest-starred on CBS's Hey, Jeannie!, starring Jeannie Carson...

     as Secretary
  • George Winters as Cliff Hanger
  • Linda Gaye Scott as Starlet


Vin Scully
Vin Scully
Vincent Edward Scully is an American sportscaster, known primarily as the play-by-play voice of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team on Prime Ticket, KCAL-TV and KABC radio...

 is uncredited onscreen, but his voice can be heard announcing a Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...

game on the kitchen radio.
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