The Party (1968) Online

I always find it strange that people think a comedy should have you rolling in your chair… not so! There are movies that one gets a warm, funny feeling inside and that one appreciates the subtleties of the acting and set ups. Often a laugh a minute movie is forgotten quickly, but those movies that simmer and let the humor seep out slowly often linger in the mind.

The Party is a movie shot in the sixties with all the hang-ups and social undertones that were abundant then. I laughed myself silly then and today I still laugh with the benefit of hindsight and years of social and cultural change.

Peter Sellers' performance is on a level par with Chaplin; a rare achievement for any actor.

What can you say about Peter Sellers? From the Goon Show, through the Ealing comedies, the Pink Panther films, up to Being There, he was consistently brilliant! Kubrick knew it, Blake Edwards knew it, and this movie does a lot to prove it to everyone else. Instead of making his stereotype just a vehicle for laughs, he brings out the pathos and beauty inherent in alienation..instead of using scripted antique gags as an invitation to walk through the role, he transcends each tired joke with impeccable timing and facial expressions. Even the silly sixties situations don't ruin the comedy here, as they did in Alice B. Toklas. In my opinion, this one is timeless, and should be seen by anyone who has a sense of humor.

This film has to be regarded as a hilarious one-man-act by Peter Sellers. I saw it on its first run UK cinema release in 1969 and I've seen it at least a dozen times since. I would gladly watch it another dozen times; it always makes me laugh. The supporting cast perform adequately but Peter Sellers does all the work. He is simply one of the all-time greatest masters of great comedy timing. I was surprised to read so many negative comments on this site in association with this film. I can only surmise that they have come from a younger generation who have had their sense of humour surgically removed due to a force fed diet of unamusing US sitcoms. If you can't laugh at this film you must be birdie-num-num!

`The Party' is one of the few comedies that I can watch repeatedly and still enjoy, to a great extent due to the charm of the character Peter Sellers creates. Hrundi V. Bakshi urgently needs to be appropriate and polite (he absolutely CANNOT be impolite), but his natural curiosity and unfamiliarity with his surroundings wreak havoc. He's really quite an admirable fellow, though. He's unfailingly considerate and reasonable, but brave and resourceful when coming to the aid of another, as in the case of producer C.S. Divot's (Gavin MacLeod) exploitation of Michelle Monet (Claudine Longet). I find it hard to accept the notion that the characterization is racist, as some contend, unless you consider the very act of a white person playing an Indian in dark makeup racist. It can't be denied that many westerners find the accent amusing (see Baboo in `Seinfeld,' or Apu in `The Simpsons'). Still, Sellers' characterization of Bakshi is no stereotype, and I don't feel that his portrayal brings discredit to anyone.

That aside, this is one damned funny film! As `anonymous' from Chicago has pointed out below, there are interesting aspects there for your consideration, if you choose to look for them. More than just a series of pratfalls and sight gags, `The Party' is a multi-faceted creation, as is its central character. If you haven't seen it, pour yourself a heaping bowl of birdie num-nums and give it a look. It's on DVD now, collectors.

I need only add that I am not your sugar.

The Party offers a remarkably skillful blend of humor and critique. I'd like to offer a somewhat serious but very informal observation of this very clever, funny movie. We've got a non-Westerner (Hrundi Bakshi, played by Peter Sellers) trying desperately to fit into American culture. We've also got a young French woman (Michele Monet, played by Claudine Longet), who is also trying to fit in. Neither of them like or understand what they see. Hrundi seems incompetent, but when he's not bending to American society we recognize that he's really intelligent, intuitive, funny, and caring.

As Hrundi wends his way through the hosts' gigantic house, he observes the pitfalls of the American way: drugs, alcoholism, greed, deceit, vanity, materialism, sexism, and racism, to name a few. He also observes societal constraints. Michele sees these things too, and she is also the target of sexism and even, perhaps, of misogyny (her date tries to force himself on her and, later, demands that she leave with him or lose any chance of a film career). They interact with people who think they know who they are but, as Hrundi infers, don't really know who they are.

The climax occurs when Hrundi demands that the hosts' daughter and her friends wash an elephant they have ignominiously painted (a representation of ideological protest gone wrong, since it's more for entertainment than for anything else). When they start washing, the party turns into a real party. Social lines are blurred as people in different social levels are equalized, for example, when some of the housekeeping staff joins the party. Constraints and boundaries are laid aside and forgotten. The American guests, a group of Russian entertainers, Hrundi, and Michele all join in and have fun together. Not everyone joins the party; the older Americans refuse to participate. But we get the idea that they and their ideals have been vanquished.

In the end of the movie, we get a strong and uplifting suggestion that Hrundi and Michele are going to be spending more time together.

Subtle humor, clever slapstick, romance, and serious issues -- The Party has them all in good abundance. The best aspect of this movie, however, is that it examines serious themes through masterful,unrelenting humor.

The movie is still fresh after all these years. It's an homage to the slapstick comedy, an homage to the Laurel & Hardy films, and to Chaplin movies as well.

"The party" is the finest achievement of Sellers & Edwards, the film is far superior to the "Pink Panther" series. Why? The story is absolutely simple: by mistake an Indian actor goes to a party in a Hollywood villa. End of the story.

Mr. Hrundi V. Bakshi (the name of the main character) is the kindest and most awkward person you can meet... The film is just made by a group of gags -many are improvised-.

We can see that Peter Sellers, a terrific actor, is also a mime -he can do whatever with the expressions of his face and his body-. For doing such film you have to have a very intelligent and patient director, who knows all the comedy's tricks and let actors play with a total freedom... Blake Edwards is an eclectic director who allows that. Working with Peter Sellers (as Edwards says) was not easy -he had a very difficult personality, either he was the funniest man in the world or he was the most unbearable person. But he was a genius, he let many many gems.

"The Party" is one of them. Brilliant and moving.

Is there a more iconic comedic prologue than The Party's, with Hrundi Bakshi (Peter Sellers, priceless), a bumbling actor involuntarily, repeatedly sabotaging some kind of schlocky adventure / period piece first by refusing to die, then by showing his wholly anachronistic watch and finally by blowing up the set while trying to tie his shoelaces? Because if there is, I can't think of one at the moment.

The movie belongs to veteran comedy director Blake Edwards and especially to Sellers, who provides an hilarious turn as Bakshi, a sweet, meek individual so clumsy and inclined to disaster, he is essentially the human version of a tornado. Material is droll, but at times so thin that with a lesser lead it would have collapsed - Sellers being who he is, the mere sight of him staring with awkward alarm at a toilet which refuses to stop flushing provokes laughter.

8,5/10

When I was working for the Museum of Modern Art, we had a small retrospective for Blake Edwards, and he selected "The Party" as the movie he wanted to open with: he felt it was his "purest" film comedy. After the opening sequence with the Peter Sellers character wrecking a movie set, the bulk of the film takes place during the night of a big Hollywood party (which the Sellers character is inadvertently invited to). In this, the film is as rigorous as Antonioni's "La Notte" (also set during the events of one day and night), and the sight gags build and accumulate in a manner that is reminiscent of Jacques Tati (with the same melancholic humor prevading the slapstick). The film is utterly charming, with some acerbic touches pricking the hypocrisies of Hollywood, and the film takes the time to let the characters (especially the two principals, played by Sellers and Claudine Longet in her only major film role) develop. It may not be as manic as parts of "The Pink Panther" but it's very funny in an even and sustained way.

I'm sorry, but if you don't laugh, until you cry or your sides ache, at something, hell, at everything in this movie then you'd better check yourself for a pulse. The first four or five times I viewed The Party, I did just that. This is a gut aching, side splitting, fall on the floor, laugh a minute comedy, from start to finish! The scene where the Cornish game hen 'flies' across the dinner table and lands on the tiara of one of the party 'goers' is literally one of the funniest scenes of all time. And it's not just the outrageously funny bumbling physical comedy of Peter Sellers. There is also a subtleness with which Sellers portrays his Indian character that is very visible in his many facial expressions as well as with the 'body language' he uses, that's just as funny. If you even like comedy just a little, you'll love this movie. I give it 4 stars, to infinity!

Peter Sellers play the part of an Indian actor that has a great ability in getting into troubles. After ruining a film he is fired, but, due to a mismatch in the data, he is invited to a Hollywood party, where everyone seem to be happy, but he knows nobody, which will lead to a bunch of funny situations. Time has passed for the movie and most of the scenes have a unique naive character, as the jokes now seem a little innocent (no sex jokes, no gross gags). However, the movie is still quite funny, as the genius of Peter Sellers is able to make it. His acting is superb and it makes the film one of the best he did, following the Pink Panther ones.

Blackballed bit-actor in Hollywood is mistakenly invited to a Tinsel Town party hosted by the same studio chief who wants him dead. Unusual comedy with little dialogue, lots of terrific visual gags and Peter Sellers at his peak (he's very low-keyed here, and immensely charming). Director Blake Edwards loses his footing in the final 15 minutes when the gathering gets out of hand (I can't recall one movie wherein a wild party sequence managed to be hilarious). Despite this, there's a lovely concluding scene between Sellers and a breathtaking Claudine Longet (who looks like a delicate flower), capped with Henry Mancini's wonderful score. "The Party" isn't full of dumb shtick. The slapstick is sometimes very smart, and Edwards doesn't condescend to the audience. Good fun! *** out of ****

It is a little uneven, but if you stick to it you end up liking this warm and fuzzy little film, the only Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers comedy without Chief Inspector Jacques Clousseau.

Sellers had played an Indian before. In THE MILLIONAIRESS (1960) he was an Indian doctor working for the poor in London who attracts the world's richest woman (Sophia Loren). That film has it's moments (when the original George Bernard Shaw play creeps out) but this improvised film of 1968 is far better.

Sellers is an Indian film actor who somehow was signed up to do a lead part in a Hollywood production called SON OF GUNGA DIN. Sellers' actor is playing this supposed fictional character (really fictional, as Kipling never wrote about his brave water carrier having a family). In the opening fifteen minutes Sellers demonstrates the wisdom of being hired by refusing to die properly (or is he trying to stretch out his deathbed sequence for the screen?). He is shot (while badly wounded) blowing a bugle call to the British troops about to be entrapped by the Indian "rebels". Instead of falling down dead he keeps beeping his bugle again and again and again until the director tells him to stop it. Later he ruins a shot where he kills an enemy picket by forgetting that the movie is set in 1878, and Sellers is still wearing his waterproof wristwatch! Finally (I think Stan Laurel would have appreciated this) he ruins the one-chance-only destruction of the fort by explosives simply by tying his shoe on the plunger.

Fired after the last (he asks the director if he can still do television), Sellers should be seen no more. But the director and the film producer (Gavin McLeod - later of MCHALE'S NAVY, THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, and THE LOVE BOAT) call the studio President, Mr. Clutterbuck (J. Edward McKinley) and tell him about what has just happened to send the film's budget into the stratosphere. McKinley says he'll see the actor never works in the film industry again, and writes the name (Hrundi V. Bakshi) on a paper on his desk. Unfortunately, he did not realize it is a list of his guests for a fancy dinner party the next day. So Clutterbuck's secretary sends Bakshi/Sellers) an invitation).

What follows is a disaster upon disaster improv. Unlike THE PINK PANTHER and A SHOT IN THE DARK, Edwards and Sellers approached THE PARTY as an experiment where they were creating escalating disasters at the dinner party that engulf all the guests. The escalating disasters is par and parcel for the work of Edwards' favorite comedians, Laurel & Hardy, for whom his slapstick comedy THE GREAT RACE (1965) was dedicated to.

Sellers arrives at the party and quickly demonstrates the wisdom of inviting him. His shoe is muddy so he tries to "nonchallantly" clean it off in a pool (the clean water rapidly turns black) but the shoe floats away. Later, due to Sellers' ineptitude the shoe ends up on a tray of canapés being served. Still later, when he hurts his hand Sellers sticks it into a mound of ice on a table, only to find the caterer put beluga caviar within the "mountain" of ice.

His real problem is he is a square peg in a round hole. He can't mingle and join the people at the party, many of whom have hostility towards him (Marge Champion, not dancing in this film, is the stiff wife of a Congressman who just never cottons to Sellers). He tries to laugh at jokes, not hearing them completely but laughing anyway, or laughing at anecdotes that aren't funny. In his curiosity he experiments with the pushbuttons of the living room, causing all kinds of odd, disruptive errors to occur. He even ends up feeding "Birdy num nums" to the host's pet parrot.

Only one person is actually friendly to him at the start - a western film star, whom Sellers enjoys watching. They get on pretty well, except for one mishap with a toy dart gun (though Sellers isn't blamed for it). Then McLeod shows up with his latest protégé, Michelle Monet (Claudine Longet) and a second person turns out to be out-of-place at the party, only a French lady, not an Indian man.

In the meantime the problems multiply during dinner, when besides Sellers the host and guests have to deal with a drunken waiter (Steve Franken - best recalled as Dobie Gillis' rich rival Chatsworth Osborne Jr.). The dinner reduced to a shambles between Sellers and Franken (including causing a squab to get twisted into a guests wig - don't ask), the guests do the best they can.

I can't get into all the sequences - that spoils the fun here. One of the best deals with Sellers desperately trying to find a place to pee, and finding the bathrooms in use (once by Mrs. Champion), and finally using one in the master bedroom, that he causes a flood in, and even causes the band drummer to lose his drum (don't ask).

However, one sequence actually shows that for all the confusion and destruction he causes, Sellers is actually pretty level headed. He confronts McLeod on the latter's miserable treatment of Longet, and shows up the former as a total creep. One recalls that with the other Edwards-Sellers stumble-bum, Clousseau, he is a walking disaster maker - but he is a first rate detective for all that.

As I said, it is a little slow at points, and disjointed at times, but stick to THE PARTY. It is a worthy film for it's star and for it's cast.

I once had the pleasure of telling the legendary Dodgers announcer Vin Scully that he was in a Peter Sellers comedy, this one of course. He is heard calling a game on the radio while Sellers' character, Hrundi V. Bakshi, is looking for a restroom. Scully was quite pleased about this, glowing in fact, and I was able to walk away knowing I scored a point with the Hall of Famer.

"The Party" is the kind of pleasure that keeps delivering, in ways big and small. Reading the many reviews here about how sidesplitting the film is for them makes me a little jealous, because the comedy isn't all that for me. It's funny, yes, but it works for me more as a good-hearted film about people without much of a chance in life finding strength and purpose in each other.

The key line in the movie for me is when Bakshi, standing up for a pretty girl, is confronted by a nasty producer played effectively by Gavin MacLeod. "Who do you think you are?" the producer demands.

"In India, we don't think who we are, we KNOW who we are!" Bakshi counters. It's Bakshi's one great stand-up moment in a film which shows him taking pratfall after pratfall, and evidences his secret strength against all the derision around him: He has integrity.

So does the girl, as played by Claudine Longet, later famous for giving the Rolling Stones the inspiration for one of their classic bootleg songs after she shot and killed her skier lover. Longet is not really a looker in my book, only mildly pretty, but she has great charm and provides Bakshi with a measure of validation in the way she appreciates him and champions him after everything else in her life crashes down. "Nothing To Lose," she sings, a great Henry Mancini song that offers ironic counterpoint since she has much to lose in one sense, trying to get her big break, but not in the sense that she is willing to sacrifice her integrity for it.

"The Party" isn't an easy film to describe. Bakshi is accidentally invited to a party, where he finds himself very much a fish out of water. Polite to a fault, he tries to make himself inconspicuous and fails, making a mess of the living room and rocketing a Cornish game hen onto a woman's wig. People walk all over him, but he takes it in stride. When a cowboy star named Wyoming Bill Kelso gives him a painful handshake, Bakshi grins and says he would have been disappointed if Kelso hadn't crushed his hand.

The film just ambles along, in its charming way, bathing us in its West Coast '60s ambiance and making us feel like we are watching a very silly festivity go down in real time. The feeling of the film is note-perfect, even when the jokes are labored. We get a sense of a multitude of characters, including a dancing model, a dipso waiter, a frustrated host, and many others, many of whom are only glimpsed in the background and give the film a real sense of being lived rather than acted.

Sellers shines as Bakshi, because he manages to give us a character we can really care about even as we laugh at his misadventures. It would be easy to simply have made Bakshi the butt of every situation, but sometimes he's the bystander while others create the craziness, and other times he manages with a sly smile to turn a potentially hazardous situation to his advantage.

"The Party" may be a great example of the virtue of keeping a good attitude about life, and in realizing how much more important it is to be true to yourself than conform to others' expectations. "Wisdom is the province of the aged, but the heart of a child is pure," he says, before admitting he doesn't really know what it means. But watching "The Party," I think we get a pretty good idea what he meant.

"The Party" is easily my favourite Peter Sellers performance. One brilliant set-up, and then one hilarious situation after another. If it were any longer, it'd probably wear out its welcome--but it's exactly the right length. And don't forget Henry Mancini's great score. Favourite line? (shaking hands with one of his movie star idols) "I would have been disappointed had you not crushed my hand!"

I love this movie! Peter Sellers plays a bumbling Indian movie extra who, after prematurely blowing up a very expensive fort (which was meant to be destroyed in the big finale of the war movie he was cast in), is earmarked for blacklisting so he will 'never work in movies again'. His name inadvertently ends up on an exclusive guest list to a Hollywood party at the residence of the bigwig producer who tried to sack him. Many laughs follow as Sellers (lacking in social skills) fumbles his way around the party, bringing misadventure to all those he meets. The visual gags are cheap but effective and his Indian accent is to die for! This is a side-splitter - definitely check it out! I gave it an 8 out of 10.

The Party begins with a kind of lame parody of Gunga Din's final scene (I guess you might consider it a SPOILER to Gunga Din, so consider that before you check this one out). Hrundi Bakshi (Sellers) is playing the main character of the new film production Son of Gunga Din, but he's little more than a series of accidents waiting to happen. He ends up ruining a set piece, which gets him fired. The producer of that film tells a studio exec to blacklist him. That exec accidentally adds Hrundi's name to the bottom of a party list. He goes, and, as you might expect, ends up destroying everything around him like a small tornado. Most of the film takes place at this party (and the film only really gets funny when Hrundi gets to the party), where we meet various Hollywood phonies and stars who are full of themselves, as well as a few innocent newcomers being beckoned to the infamous casting couch. All these people react in different ways to Hrundi, but most like him and see him as a nice guy who probably doesn't belong there anyway. He becomes enraptured by a young French newcomer named Michelle (Claudine Longet).

Peter Sellers made a lot of films, and I have to admit that I haven't seen many. What I particularly like about The Party is the character of Hrundi and Sellers' performance. Sellers' films are usually very funny, but the characters are often just caricatures. I really like Hrundi. He could have easily been a gross stereotype. Sellers wears dark makeup to appear Indian, and he speaks in an accent. But Hrundi is not just a stereotype. He is a genuinely lovable person. He does some stupid things, but he always means well. I actually think the character would have been worth sequels.

I am sure that Sellers and Blake Edwards were studying the French comedic filmmaker Jacques Tati when they were making this film. There are several scenes very, very reminiscent of M. Hulot's Holiday, Mon Oncle, and Playtime. Hrundi seems to be clearly based on M. Hulot. Of course, I am not accusing The Party of stealing or anything. I'm just happy that someone in Hollywood was a fan of Tati's films, and felt that his formulae would work in an American film. I wonder how well this film did financially. It's not well known at all today.

One more note: my Lord, Claudine Longet may be the single cutest girl I've ever seen! I don't know if I've seen her elsewhere. I can see why she didn't become a huge star. She's not imposing like others. Nor, truth be told, is she a great actress. But wowza! I think my heart just stopped!

Many viewings of this great movie do not dull its comic genius. I have had the pleasure to introduce so many people to this movie. Sellers is magnificent. The movie itself pokes fun at the Hollywood establishment in a mild way.

The famous " Birdie Num Num " is often heard in many forums. My as introduced a whole new generation to the delights of Hrundi V Bakshi as a bugle player genius and just a very humble guy who goes out of his way to please everyone, albeit in the most chaotic way possible,

It reminds me very much of an aria from Mozart's The Marriage of Figgaro where more players keep getting added to the aria and it just keeps getting better.

Bakshi Rules OK ( or for those with dyslexia Bakshi lures KO )

This one of my favourite Peter Sellers films. But as funny as his character (Hrundi V. Bakshi) is, the drunk waiter and the head waiter are just as "laugh out loud" hilarious. The confrontations between the two waiters are definitely some of the funniest scenes in this movie.

It was well known that Blake Edwards was an enormous Laurel and Hardy fan. You can see it in the Pink Panther films. And no where in his work is that more evident than in The Party. The L & H influences and touches are everywhere. The running gag of the drunken waiter who speaks only one or two words in the entire film. The careful building of gag upon gag, each one funnier than the one before it. The reaction shots that top all the gags. The comedy of embarrassment. (Babe Hardy would be proud!) There are some funny lines for sure but the biggest laughs come from moments that feature no dialog at all. There is very little slapstick until the end. But the humor is visual and based on character just as the best stuff in Laurel and Hardy was. In my opinion the boys invented situation comedy. Television comedy owes a big debt to Laurel and Hardy. They probably don't even know it.

Superb and overblown comedy with Peter Sellers in sparkling form as one man show in which plays an Indian actor making life intolerable for all and causes wreak considerable havoc at a lush Hollywood party . Very funny comedy from the team responsible for the Inspector Clouseau series , as stars Peter Sellers , musician Henry Mancini and director Blake Edwards .

This release is an enjoyable comedy starred by the great Peter Sellers as the inept and bungler actor named Bakshi , role who along with Clouseau became a world-wide institution . Pacing of visual film is well-developed including a magnificent opening with Sellers and his trumpet , as the director with his knowledge of the mechanics of cinema gets entertainment and amusement . Several chuckles and gags , and sight jokes abound , the result of which is one of the funniest Blake Edwards films . The movie gets entertained and hilarious moments here and there , with some side-splitting situations . This slapstick contains funny scenes , never slowdown and laughters come quickly . Top-notch Peter Sellers who is an absolute walking disaster in a similar character to Clouseau , as botcher Bashki , everything he touches turns to ashes . It appears notorious secondaries as Gavin MacLeod , Steve Franken , Marge Champion and a gorgeous Claudine Longet . Lively and atmospheric music by habitual Henry Mancini .

The film is well penned and directed , as always , by Blake Edwards . Blake is a classic comedy filmmaker and director of his own dialogue , there's no doubt he knows what he's about . His stories are amusing and well-realized though uneven , but thanks to Sellers many movies stand out . He had successes with ¨Pink Panther¨ series who became him a world-wide celebrity as ¨A shot in dark¨ , ¨Return of pink panther , ¨Revenge of pink panther¨ , ¨Curse of Pink Panther¨ , ¨Pink Panther strikes again¨ , ¨Trail of Pink Panther¨ , ¨Son of Pink Panther¨ , among others . Since then , there have been many more hit-and-miss comedies , some wildly unsuitable vehicles for his second wife Julie Andrews as ¨The Tamarind seed¨ , ¨Darling Lili¨, ¨SOB¨ , ¨10¨ , ¨That's life¨ . His greatest hits were ¨The party¨ , the tranvestite comedy ¨Victor/Victoria¨ and of course the joyously ¨Breakfast at Tiffany's ¨. The flick will appeal to Peter Sellers fans . This is arguably one of the Blake Edwards' best . This consistently fun comedy titled ¨The party¨ deserves 'Two thumbs up' .

When I first saw The Party in the theater in 1968, I broke down crying from laughing so much. Watching it again recently, it has - like all great comedies - stood the test of time quite well. A beautifully understated performance by Peter Sellers, playing an aspiring actor from India. Also an incredibly funny performance by Steve Franken (aka Chatsworth Osborne Junior from the Dobie Gillis Show) as a waiter who keeps getting drunker and drunker throughout the "party". Also a very nice performance by Claudine Longet. Two of the funniest scenes are in the beginning, when, as a bit actor in Hollywood, Peter Sellers refuses to die on cue in a Gunga Din-type scene, and then accidentally steps on a detonator that prematurely blows up a fortress before the cameras are rolling. But there are funny scenes from beginning to end. One of my favorite quotes is: "In India, we don't think who we are. We know who we are." The growing friendship between Claudine Longet and Peters Sellers is also done quite well

The Party is not a harmless comedy. It's got a lot of sting in it, against snobbishness and contempt for your fellow man - or woman, for that matter. But above all, it's Peter Sellers who shows his talent here. How an earlier reviewer manages to call this 'a dud' is beyond me.

So the movie loses its pace a bit at the end - maybe trying to underline too much what a nice fellow Bakshi is. But there's a lot of great scenes - the army attack, the parrot, the dinner and that incredible toilet scene. The increasingly drunken waiter (a convincing performance, who is that actor?). And through it all, Bakshi wanders around with that eternal smile on his face.

Sellers manages to combine The Pink Panther's slapstick with a sympathetic character of more depth. Great humour!

This cult favorite may be the peak of the Edwards-Sellers collaboration, and boasts the funniest cold-open prologue misdirects on film....(except perhaps Dick Lester's outrageous bathhouse farce, The Ritz(1976)).

The Party(1968) opens as British Imperial forces c.1878 march through an Indian ravine; a wounded native deserter, Hrundi V.Bakshi(Sellers) climbs atop a ridge to bugle a charge. However, this is a Hollywood set, so when the abrasive/clumsy actor stretches his on-screen role by not dying on cue, his compatriots....er....hurry him along.

For 2mins, the specially flown-in authentically "Sikh" actor (played to perfection by the British comic who'd road-tested the accent in India) whines and squeals his bugle as he's repeatedly shot (more and more enthusiastically) by the frustrated cast, some resorting to a gatling gun(!)....and what Bakshi does later to an unsuspecting fort almost defies description. This may be THE most dangerously side-splitting, tear-inducing and fall-down-funny film prologues....ever.

We then immediately segue through a single scene watching this destined-for-the-chopping-block actor mistakenly get invited to a snooty Hollywood party: the studio head/party host, "General Clutterbuck" (his name hints what he'll suffer), first rages on the phone hearing his set was destroyed by "an idiot", then distractedly hands his fortunes to his assistant.

Bakshi's changing fortunes unfold via Henry Mancini's brilliant juxtapositional scoring. It first presents Bakshi at home playing sitar (recalling Beatle George Harrison's contemporary taste), then launches into Mancini's main film theme as Bakshi receives his accidentally posted Party invitation.

This is an insider's spoof--a cinematic mugging of 1960s Hollywood--since Blake Edwards both improvises and lampoons so much of his own industry. With award-winning Mirisch scribes Frank & Tom Waldman, Edwards created (co-wrote) a knowing satire: some Hollywood (stereo)types have disappeared, but the crass sexual leeches are still here. The rest of the film is sustained by Steve Franken's rare "duck-walking" drunk waiter (a decent homage to Charlie Chaplin), and Peter Seller's great precedent for Borat & Mr.Bean.

Edwards originally planned a silent film with Sellers to honor silent-era slapstick, but the radio comic (Sellers made his career on British radio's The Goon Show) knew he couldn't carry the movie without words, nor would silent comedy play in a hip 1968 setting.

The eventual screenplay, although looking as effortless as it was short (63pp), is masterful: its 'incidental' early meeting between Bakshi and Janice Kane(Corinne Cole) establishes her as having the DTs/hallucinating objects in her glass (significant later), but it also hands Sellers a precisely observed joke as he backs away from her uncomfortably, realizing she's mental. Sellers' physical comedy, so precisely set up for him by Edwards, is predicated on Cole's verbal delivery as she insists in a raised voice, "But I can see it!".

This then is why a purely silent film would never have worked for Sellers.

Bakshi creates havoc through many clumsy encounters with inanimate objects: the house's bizarre electronic panel is a too-tempting toy; retrieving his soiled shoe from the pool proves increasingly ridiculous; and feeding the parrot with spilling seeds is best recalled with the catch-phrase "Birdie num-num"--now total lore for the film's actors and fans alike! My favourite is still the prologue, and Bakshi's battle with the (rigged) toilet roll/cistern....and the painting above. These scenes are screamingly funny, often going from bad to worse; with them Edwards & Sellers achieved a perfection of "coincidental" timing that is every bit as artful as Buster Keaton's.

Everyone present compounds the evening's disorder. The Party soon becomes a veritable maelstrom of career-hungry Tinseltowners preying on one another; but Bakshi's match-made-in-mayhem turns out to be Levinson the drinks waiter(Steve Franken). Their yin/yang relationship emerges from Bakshi's inability to drink. Now technically, as a Sikh Indian, he should've worn a turban at all times as well; but it's Bakshi's cultural aversion that convinces Levinson to make up for his "shortfalls". Our waiter gets so plastered that he waddles absent-mindedly (with precision timing) through doors and pools with all manner of trays, plates and chairs, driving his boss mad, but never worse for wear.

Much of this slapstick is drowned out by white noise, simulating silent films--so Edwards still got his wish.

His (actually) partying set used the same live band, which struck up (Ethel Merman's) "There's_No_Business_Like_Show_Business" every time their baby elephant (last 15mins only) needed the elderly janitor's shovel.

The film's only false note is struck by the hostess, who goes into hysterics when encountering sudsy people from the out-of-control elephant wash. Her over-the-top "nervous breakdown" beggars belief.

Conversely, the unheralded performance of the boozy blonde (Corinne Cole) hints a future with our waiter. Their "spontaneous"/scripted co-dependent sparks are courtesy of Levinson's "insulation" while gliding through neck-deep foam. He accidentally sabotages Janice's incumbent letch, transferring the man's bribe bottle to her, seeming like a sloshed "White Knight". When she fights her way back to pour his drink, Levinson's wobbly lips lock onto hers in stunned/"insulated" gratitude. This surprisingly sweet payoff had the (unmet) potential to elevate the ending. It also qualifies Franken/Edwards as Master(s) of the Long Joke.

Beyond Franken and Sellers, only Gavin MacLeod (Capt.Stubing of "The Love Boat"(1977-1987)) remains familiar. MacLeod plays The Party's funniest perfunctory (unsuccessful) sleaze--his name Divot(="pit") implying his personality. However it's the thwarted Divot who recognizes Bakshi and threatens to undo his good fortune, considering him "meshugga"(meshugganah, Yiddish for "insane")--handing Sellers the funny retort "...I am NOT your sugar"!

The Bakshi/Monet romance probably won't succeed. While men read their awkwardness outside her building as full of hope, women recognize their fencing over a painful lack of commonality underneath their pretend-fencing over etiquette. Any future as a couple is bleak: he's virtually unemployable as "the idiot"(....headed back to India), but while The Party's on, none of us have to face the music.

The ending could have reflected Franken's contribution better, but The Party is a superbly hilarious time in the "hip" 1960s.

For more production stories please consult John Cork's terrific DVD-supplements.(8/10)

Peter Sellers in a rare departure with Blake Edwards and the 'PINK PANTHER' series;the film itself has many positive aspects in it' favour;stylishly produced,lushly photographed(by one of Hollywood's best color cameramen,Lucien Ballard),and an enjoyable reliance on mostly visual humour,some of which comes off very well. Despite this,it has about twenty minutes too much footage(the mayhem with an elephant is far too overstretched),and there is virtually no plot,which the amusing incident sometimes cannot compensate.Still good fun,though,and Sellers is magnificently politically incorrect as the accident prone Indian actor(hopefully this is not a comment on Indian people in general!).

The obscurity of "The Party" is amplified by the fact that it is not even listed in the filmography section of a Peter Sellers biography I picked up from the library. This movie sticks to memory for rousing up some of the heartiest laughs I've ever had. You have to pay attention to what's going on in the background quite a bit to get the full effect of this movie's comedy. Others who've seen it know exactly what I'm talking about. Rent or buy it today!