The Wild Party

This film was not box office poison as people flocked to the Theater to hear the "IT" girl talk for the first time. During filming of the feature to capture clara bows voice as she moved they straped the mic on a fishing pole creating the boom mic we know today. It is so interesting to see college girls in the 1920s its such a fascination maybe because Im college aged as the time im writing this review. Clara bows voice is not what you expect, i feel like people expected something cute, and squeeky kind of like jean Harlow. While this is a very early talkie you can see many actors including bow still act as if it were a silent picture.

This is the 35th or so Fredric March movie I have seen to date...and the earliest one. I must say overall I was not impressed with it. Fred was handsome to be sure...but his part was not very challenging or deep for him. He was fine in the movie though...wonderful voice, got to see him in knickers again (other time in the Marriage Playground)...hey, if I were at a college and he was a professor, I would be like Clara and her pals; take his class just because he's such a swell guy!!

About Clara Bow...I didn't think she was so great,you could tell she was definately meant to be a silent actress with all her facial and eye expressions, and I have no idea why Fred fell for her instead of her friend Helen, who was more of a nice and sweet girl. I found Clara very boisterous, rebellious; I did not like her voice or manner or personality. I found the clothing styles in this film hilarious!! Did people actually wear that kind of stuff??? And it surprised me how Clara looked like she could be a modern person, a person of now, I think because her hairstyle was so different--more frizzy and loose.

This is not a film that leaves you sighing at the wonderful acting or story...it left me just thinking, "that was interesting..." It is in no way Fredric's best. For that, see him in The Eagle and the Hawk, The Best Years of Our Lives, Smilin' Through, Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, We Live Again...there are many others out there besides this one. Still and all, I am glad to have seen this, Fred's 2nd talkie.

Wild party girl Clara Bow (as Stella Ames) has plenty of fun at the "Winston" college for young women. Parties and roadhouse jaunts are the college girls' preoccupation. On the train trip to "Winston", Ms. Bow recalls accidentally climbing into bed with fellow traveler Fredric March (as James "Gil" Gilmore). As it turns out, Mr. March is the school's new Professor of Anthropology. Bow and her housemates see the good-looking teacher arrive, and immediately become interested in anthropological matters. Eventually, Bow and March fall into each other's arms, which threatens their student and teacher status at the college.

Bow's first "talkie" was not unsuccessful, although it is sometimes recalled as a failure. Perhaps, detractors are recalling Bow's subsequent talking features. Strangely, she became more unnatural, hesitant, and uneven in later films. Possibly, she was rattled by negative reviews. However, by 1931, Bow's performances became more assured. By then, unfortunately, it was too late for the huge audiences attending "The Wild Party" to appreciate her efforts.

"The Wild Party" is a more than respectable talking film debut; while undeniably silly, it was a fun "college youth" film. Bow wasn't going to be young forever, obviously; but, she could still carry out the college hi-jinks. March and the supporting cast perform well. And, Paramount assigned a woman, Dorothy Arzner, to direct the film.

Watch for one notably silent word "mouthed" the film. When Bow and the women are in the back seat of the car, they see March walking in the street, and Bow exclaims, "----!"

****** The Wild Party (4/6/29) Dorothy Arzner ~ Clara Bow, Fredric March, Joyce Compton

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed watching 'The Wild Party'. It is not a brilliant film, but it is much better than I expected after having looked at some of the reviews here and having tried a couple of other early talkies (though none as early as this one). So what did I like about it? First of all Clara Bow of course. She comes across just as well as on silent film; in fact, I think she managed the transition to talking pictures excellently. Some contemporary and later reviewers disliked her New York accent. I don't, though admittedly English isn't my first language and I am no good at recognising regional accents. Her voice itself - occasionally criticised too - is perfectly alright as far as I am concerned. Her acting style is natural, not overdone - at least after the first couple of scenes, where she looks a bit nervous. All in all she is credible as a college student. The other female actors do very well, too. Most dialogue (again, after the actors got the first one of two scenes behind them) sounds fine - far better than the stilted and unnatural lines in the few talking scenes in 'Lonesome' for example, which came out only one year before 'The Wild Party'. The plot is nice enough. There are some enjoyable twists and turns and a reasonably satisfying conclusion. I am saying 'reasonably satisfying' because this conclusion involves the male lead actor, Fredric March, who I think was miscast in the role of professor Gilmore. He is supposed to be very much focused on academia and research, but that does not mean that he absolutely has to be quite so stuffy, boring and downright unfriendly (he does not even greet, let alone welcome the students in his new course). It beats me why all the girls go crazy about him.

'The Wild Party' is of course also interesting because it shows, if not what all-women colleges were like in the late 1920s, then at least how the general public assumed students and professors to behave. My, how things have changed! There is this professor, Gilmore, who saves the character played by Clara Bow from being gang raped by a group of drunks. His reaction? He says he worries about his position at the college. A moment later he passionately kisses Clara. THAT is what would make him worry today. Evidently the general public thought it was fine for members of faculty to have romantic relations with students (even though the college is implied to have frowned upon this kind behaviour). Well, at any rate, I liked 'The Wild Party'. It is definitely the most enjoyable early (i.e. Pre-1933) talkie I have watched so far. I recommend it.

The first thing I had to wonder, just prior to watching "The Wild Party" was whether or not it was based on the novelette I'd ripped through, just a month or so ago: The Wild Party by Joseph Mancuso March--originally published in 1928. Discovering that this was a very different story was my only disappointment.

It often seems that no small number of people, out there, don't want to give the early days of Hollywood the credit it so richly deserves. And that's sad; as sad as, say, the somewhat dark story behind "It" Girl, Clara Bow--whose mother considered slitting the girl's throat when Clara declared her she wanted to be an actress.

(Fortunately that didn't happen. If it had, film fans of today might not have an inkling of a clue that, even way back then--in the days that would become infamously known as "The Great Depression"--girls just wanted to have fun.)

Clara Bow plays her role of mischievous college girl, Stella Ames, to-the-hilt. And a young, debonaire Frederic March as straight-laced college professor Gilmore is her perfect counterpart.

The way the two begin seeing eye-to-eye may be said to be expected, but not totally predictable--because the antics of Stella Ames and her sorority sisters provide just the right element of subplot. If there was any one flaw in this gem, it was that the sound quality was often so scratchy, I was unsure, now and again, what one actor or another had said.

Still, this in no way detracts from the film's overall quality. (One must taken into account, after all, that 1929 was the infancy of the "talkie" era). Come to think of it, I can

only imagine what a "wild party" '29 must've been for many Hollywood executives and stars alike--the huge stock market crash aside!