The party fright
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The party fright |
| Original title | The party |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1968 |
| length | 94 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Blake Edwards |
| script | Blake Edwards |
| production | Blake Edwards Ken Wales |
| music | Henry Mancini |
| camera | Lucien Ballard |
| cut | Esther Stephenson |
| occupation | |
| |
The Party is an American comedy film of Blake Edwards from the year 1968 .
action
Hrundi V. Bakshi, an Indian extra , got an engagement in a period film in Hollywood . However, he messes up scene after scene, either through his unauthorized playing (a signal trumpeter who just can't be killed) or he simply forgets to take off his watch . Last but not least, his clumsiness causes him to blow up the entire backdrop before the cameras start running.
The director is furious and calls producer Fred Clutterbuck to put Hrundi on the "black list" so that he can never work in Hollywood again. The producer makes a note of the saboteur's name and leaves his office. He reminds his secretary to get the invitations ready for his party; the guest list is on the desk. It quickly turns out that he accidentally put Hrundi's name on the guest list and not, as assumed, on a blank page. Unsuspecting, the secretary also sends Hrundi an invitation for the big party in the extravagant house of the studio boss in Beverly Hills .
The villa is built in the most modern style with all the refinements of contemporary technology and offers many "traps" for Hrundi. As soon as he arrives, he loses one of his shoes in an artificial brook when he tries to clean it. With his efforts to get the shoe back, he causes the first irritations for guests and house staff.
Hrundi then tries to connect with the guests, but does not succeed. Only the western actor "Wyoming Bill" Kelso, whom Hrundi adores, gives him an autograph and offers him the opportunity to have his first small talk.
Then Hrundi gets to work on the technical gadgets of the house: he cackles over the intercom and, to the displeasure of those sitting at it, pulls in the mechanical bar. He also keeps his own parrot company with a feeding insert.
Then he meets the starlet Michele, who is introduced to the scene by the director. The two become friends straight away, but are always torn apart by other people.
Finally, the dinner is served, which is very turbulent, and not just because one of the waiters is dead drunk.
After dinner, the director introduces Michele to the audience by having her sing a song. Meanwhile, Hrundi urgently needs to go to the toilet, and because the toilet on the ground floor is permanently occupied, he is looking for one upstairs. There he can just prevent the director from getting too close to Michele against her will. When the bedroom is free and Hrundi has access to the attached bathroom, the toilet immediately becomes his undoing. At first he can no longer turn off the flush, then a watercolor falls into the cistern, which is open because of his attempts at repair. When he tries to clean the precious picture, he unrolls the entire toilet paper with one jerk. He disposes of this in the toilet and thus causes a flooding, since the flushing has meanwhile become independent again. To escape his discovery, he flees to the roof of the inner courtyard, from which he crashes again and ends up in the pool.
Since he cannot swim, Michele also plunges into the water to save him. Both will be accommodated soaking wet on the upper floor. Before that, Hrundi was given a scotch. Since he cannot tolerate alcohol, he will be drunk after a glass. In the bedroom he gets red overalls as a makeshift clothing. When he feels a little better again, he finds the crying Michele. He comforts her, suddenly the angry director is in the room. He gives Michele the choice of whether to come or stay with him. Michele lets the director go and stays with Hrundi at the party. When she too received fresh clothes, both of them plunge back into the hustle and bustle.
In the meantime a Russian balalaika troop has arrived. There is wild music and dancing, the vodka flows freely. Hrundi again plays with the control panel in the house and manages to make a platform disappear, causing some of the guests to fall into the swimming pool.
The situation comes to a head when the homeowner's daughter shows up at the party with her friends and a painted baby elephant . Hrundi convinces the teenagers to clean the elephant, as the animal is a sacred symbol in its homeland. Therefore, brushes, brooms, buckets and detergents are brought out. Now the chaos is perfect: the pool, in which the elephant is being cleaned, foams over, the guests rush into the pool, the landlady gets several fits of weakness and falls into the pool too. The whole house has now turned into a bubble bath.
The director, who was already sleeping at home, can suddenly remember who the ominous stranger was at the party: Bakshi! The next morning he hurries back to the house; emergency services and police have now arrived there. Hrundi says goodbye to the landlord when the director arrives, who whispers in the producer's ear who his guest is. Hrundi runs away and the producer accidentally tries to choke the head waiter, but is prevented from doing so by the director and the police.
Hrundi leaves the house with Michele, he still gets the cowboy hat from "Wyoming Bill" Kelso. He brings Michele home and a romance seems to be emerging between the two of them.
backgrounds
The comedy is mainly characterized by a firework of slapsticks by Blake Edwards and his friend Peter Sellers . The party horror was the first film that was also recorded on video parallel to the PANAVISION film technology. The technology for this was still in its infancy in 1968 that it was installed in a huge truck that had to be operated with its own high-voltage current on a neighboring property. Edwards and Sellers thought the technology was necessary so that they could see and develop their improvised gags immediately. Otherwise you would have had to wait two days for the footage to develop.
The film production company Mirisch Corporation produced the comedy for the film distributor United Artists .
Reviews
"A modern slapstick comedy (...) Blake Edwards' best film, carried by stylistic security"
“A turbulent film fun with cunningly worked out and cleverly structured and varied gags, cheeky swipes at the film business and bizarre secondary characters. The entertaining film deliberately uses great role models like Laurel and Hardy , Harold Lloyd (in " Movie Crazy ") and Jacques Tati (in " My Uncle "). The main actor Peter Sellers is outstanding. "
“'Der Partyschreck' stands and falls with Peter Sellers: For 94 minutes, he is the undisputed star in a film that is primarily a sequence of sketches loosely linked to one another by a framework and, secondly, a parody peppered with sometimes quite snappy swipes on the customs of show business à la Hollywood . Jacques Tatis The holidays of Monsieur Hulot sound, at times you feel reminded of the visual humor of some of Loriot's skits . "
“You only notice it at second glance because the film works so well as a comedy. But Blake Edwards' The Party Horror is one of the few true experimental films from Hollywood. A study of the dissolution, a happening of destruction from the spirit of slapstick, staged by Edwards as a daring image and sound collage, as a self-reflection also on Hollywood and filmmaking. [...] And you can feel with the melancholy sounds of Henry Mancini's music that Edwards' wonderful comedy has its basis in melodrama and tragedy. "
Trivia
- The original script was only 56 to 60 pages long. Blake Edwards later said that this was the shortest script he had ever worked with.
- Most of the gags were improvised during filming.
- The film was the only collaboration between Sellers and Edwards outside of the Pink Panther films.
- The role of Hrundi V. Bakshi is similar to Sellers' role in The Millionaire as Dr. Ahmed El Kabir.
- While Hrundi struggles with the toilet upstairs, you can hear the band playing the piece of music It Had Better Be Tonight (Meglio Stasera) from The Pink Panther in the background .
- In Pirates of the Caribbean , Jack Sparrow mentions birdy num num (bird happi happi) and howdy partner in the caves of Isla de los Muertos, these are the two quotes that Hrundi V. Bakshi uses again and again at the party.
- The party horror was Elvis Presley's favorite film.
Web links
- The Party in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The party horror in the online film database
- The party horror at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The party horror. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 1, 2017 .
- ↑ Der Partyschreck in: Filmzentrale.com, accessed on May 1, 2017
- ↑ Hans Schifferle: Blake Edwards: "Der Partyschreck" in: Der Standard from April 8, 2005, accessed on May 30, 2011