☆ ☆ ☆ ½
The Party (1968) – B. Edwards
Peter Sellers stars as an Indian actor (so you
have to decide for yourself right away whether you will accept this potentially
racist conceit) who is a bit of a bumbler who gets fired from a movie for
accidentally blowing up the set (this is in a pre-title credits sequence). Due to a mix-up, he is accidentally invited
to a posh party at the producer’s house – the movie itself simply shows us the
party. There is no plot to speak of but
instead we follow the various encounters and accidents of the protagonist. I suppose this film is a forerunner of the
comedy of embarrassment, because unlike in the Clouseau/Pink Panther films
(also by director Blake Edwards) where the hero is clearly a joke, you feel
some sympathy for this poor Indian star, you feel embarrassed for him (for example,
when he loses his shoe in the indoor river running through the house). Fortunately, the film (and Sellers) doesn’t
really treat Hrundi as a stereotype (well, not too much) and the partygoers are
generally accepting of him even as he initiates a variety of “situations”. So, was it funny? Occasionally yes – there is
slapstick. But the overall effect is
something beyond this, something almost tender toward the character seems to emerge
that is greater than the sum of the gags.
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