The Party (1968) - Blu-ray Review

Details: By Loron Hays; 12 October 2014

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The genius of Peter Sellers is that he can, in fact, carry an entire picture by saying very little. Just watching him “become” is the joy. Whether he is playing Chance the Gardner in Being There or Dr. Strangelove, the wheelchair-bound nuclear war expert and former Nazi, who gradually loses control of his gloved right hand in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, Sellers is absolutely brilliant at inhabiting comic characters through his use of physical comedy. His ode to the silent film era as Hrundi V. Bakshi, a bumbling East Indian actor who has a talent for innocently getting himself into trouble, in Blake Edwards’ The Party is simply fabulous.

The Party, as originally imagined by Edwards, was to be a celebration of everything slapstick that had come before it. From Buster Keaton to Charlie Chaplin, Edwards wanted his film to be a joyous ode to the films that saved him from his miserable childhood. Once he threw Henry Mancini and Sellers into the mix, the plan for a “new” silent film suddenly changed. Sellers needed to become a character; he needed to speak...even if only a little bit. Mancini’s saxophone-heavy score immediately places The Party in a certain era. The creative trio suddenly realize that the 60-page “script” – with the rest of the film all physical comedy adlibs from being on the set – works best as a send-up of the whole 60’s scene.

And that’s what you get with The Party. Celluloid anarchy. Tons of crazy situations thought up by Sellers and Edwards. That unique Mancini score. And Claudine Longet. Oh la la. From feeding a caged macaw some bird food from a container marked "Birdie Num Num" to washing a baby elephant painted with hippie slogans inside a house, this is one party that won’t soon be forgotten. Released quietly, the critically-praised feature disappeared from cinemas around the world without much attention from audiences. It quietly built its legacy through VHS and DVD releases and the persistent recommendations from the weird. “Yeah, but have you seen The Party?” became a common question in Film Studies classes throughout the world.

Well, I have to ask, have you seen it? It is one of the best examples of experimental film at its most comedic. The entire movie is based around an outline that needed Sellers and Steve Franken, as the increasingly inebriated butler, to play their roles with a massive amount of slapstick in mind. There have been many imitators but there is only one The Party. After the accident-prone Hrundi ruins a director’s (Herbert Ellis) movie set by triggering a massive explosion and knowing when to quit playing the bugle after being fatally wounded, he is blacklisted from Hollywood but – due to a clerical error – is instead invited to an exclusive Hollywood party.

Sellers, Franken, and Edwards could have let their gags go on for far too long. They don’t. Even when you know what to expect, The Party doesn’t disappoint. I have seen this movie ten times now (at least) and I can promise you that, with each repeated viewing, I get more and more out of Sellers and Franken and their mostly silent performances inside a house that has retractable floors and a pool running through it. Simply put, I could watch Sellers loose his shoe while washing mud off of it in the pool a million times and never get bored.

Now available on blu-ray thanks to Kino Lorber, this invite only celebration is The Party to crash.

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MPAA Rating: PG.
Runtime: 90 mins
Director: Blake Edwards
Writer: Blake Edwards
Cast:Peter Sellers, Claudine Longet, Natalia Borisova
Genre: Comedy
Tagline: If you've ever been to a wilder party... you're under arrest.
Memorable Movie Quote: "Wisdom is the province of the aged, but the heart of a child is pure."
Distributor: United Artists
Official Site:
Release Date: April 4, 1968
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: September 16, 2014
Synopsis: A clerical mistake results in a bumbling film extra being invited to an exclusive Hollywood party instead of being fired.

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The Party (1968) - Blu-ray Review

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - September 16, 2014
Screen Formats: 2.34:1
Subtitles: None
Audio:English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: 25GB Blu-ray Disc; Single disc (1 BD)
Region Encoding: Locked to region A

Unfortunately, The Party hasn’t been restored properly. Kino Lorber Studio Classics presents the film with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. It looks completely ported over from its last DVD incarnation without the true upgrade it deserves. Clarity is good but, overall, The Party is inconsistent, suffering from too much dust and artifacts, The picture is sharp and clear with bold colors, particularly in the finale where reds and yellows really pop. The lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix fares better, with the surround mix rich and immersive, and a fine balance between louder voices and always-audible whispers.

Supplements:

Commentary:

None

Special Features:

The slim supply of extras is in need of an upgrade, as most of the content feels badly dated. "The Party Revolution" featurette details the innovative video assist technology Blake Edwards employed on the film's set, in which, using a TV camera mounted to the film camera, the director would be able to immediately play back the footage that was just shot. While the content here is sporadically interesting, the short doc, made in 2004, suffers from distracting visual embellishments and an overall unnecessary aside showing the "latest" technology in digital filmmaking. But "Inside The Party" featurette provides valuable insight into the making of Edwards's ambitious production, where the director insisted on an atmosphere of improvisation when bringing to life the 63-page outline of a script. The paltry extras makes one wish for a commentary, or even a newer feature that doesn't make the ones on this Blu-ray release feel like novelty items. Also included is a trailer and short video profiles on Edwards and producers Ken Wales and Walter Mirisch.