It's hard for me to give an unbiased rating to this 1968 Blake Edwards comedy so I'll put it this way...anyone who (like me) really appreciates the comic genius of Peter Sellers forget the rating and just check this out! Sellers plays struggling Indian actor Hrundi Bakshi, who accidentally gets invited to a fancy Hollywood party...and thats about all the story there is, not much plot just Sellers-inspired mayhem as he proceeds to wreck the party with his clumsiness.
Peter Sellers is a master of dialect and physical comedy and we get that here too, but we also see another side of his talent -his skill as a silent comedian. There are several set pieces where Edwards just fixes the camera on Sellers and rolls with only the background noise of the party; one scene (my favorite) is in the bathroom as he can't get that pesky toilet to stop running, another shows him trying different methods to retrieve his floating shoe out of an indoor pool, still another has him playfully adjusting knobs on a wall console that control various things like fountains, revolving bars and the intercom.
At this point, if you haven't seen 'The Party' your imagination is at work based on the above descriptions and believe me, it's even funnier than you can imagine. So if you're just in a mood to laugh, and don't feel like following any plot, try this one...like I say, if you like Sellers, you won't be disappointed.
I think Peter Sellers may be the best all-around motion picture comedian of all time. He's at least in the top three -who can compare today? nobody! I mean..What are todays comedies? endless fart jokes and genitalia references...mere fodder for the brain dead masses. I need comic timing and clever dialog to make me laugh, or a natural comic genius like Sellers.
Peter Sellers is a master of dialect and physical comedy and we get that here too, but we also see another side of his talent -his skill as a silent comedian. There are several set pieces where Edwards just fixes the camera on Sellers and rolls with only the background noise of the party; one scene (my favorite) is in the bathroom as he can't get that pesky toilet to stop running, another shows him trying different methods to retrieve his floating shoe out of an indoor pool, still another has him playfully adjusting knobs on a wall console that control various things like fountains, revolving bars and the intercom.
At this point, if you haven't seen 'The Party' your imagination is at work based on the above descriptions and believe me, it's even funnier than you can imagine. So if you're just in a mood to laugh, and don't feel like following any plot, try this one...like I say, if you like Sellers, you won't be disappointed.
I think Peter Sellers may be the best all-around motion picture comedian of all time. He's at least in the top three -who can compare today? nobody! I mean..What are todays comedies? endless fart jokes and genitalia references...mere fodder for the brain dead masses. I need comic timing and clever dialog to make me laugh, or a natural comic genius like Sellers.