Wild Party

The famous poem of the 1920s becomes an ambitious meeting of American International and Merchant-Ivory, who sink into a most un-Merchant-Ivory-like Hollywood orgy in this tale suggested by, but not actually dramatizing, the Fatty Arbuckle scandal that ruined his career. With a screenplay and songs by Broadway songwriter Walter Marks, it seems to lick its lips at all prospects for lasciviousness, reveling in the bare breasts and spent drunken bodies the morning after. The songs are OK, and James Coco's excellent, carefully indicating the conflicting warmth, selfishness, and desperation in Jolly Grimm. But Raquel Welch feels anachronistic, not convincingly of the Twenties, and her singing and dancing are at best proficient. It's a messy movie, the plot threads not really hanging together, and the trendy camera-work belongs to 1975 and 1975 only. Let's call it an interesting failure.

: It's 1929, and Hollywood is changing over to sound. Meanwhile, screen comic James Coco hasn't made a film in six years, but he's putting the finishing touches on his latest, to be followed by a party. Some major players show up, but it's mostly hangers-on, marginal players, and parasites who stay for the debauched and desperate aftermath.

This Merchant-Ivory film features a fine performance by James Ivory, a good one by Raquel Welch as his mistress, and a party that by 1970s standards would have been a slow night at Studio 54. Heck, exclude the gunfire, and I've been to wilder science-fiction club meetings. Still, although the pacing of the movie is stop-and-go, there are a few moments that visually capture the moment: a man dancing to "The Herbert Hoover Drag" that looks like a John Held Jr. Cartoon; a moving camera combined with editing montage to show the orgiastic aspects of the part; Coco and Miss Welch telling the story of how they met. These are all good moments, but the movie under-delivers on the title.

It's based on a poem by Joseph Moncure March who also wrote the poem that The Set-Up (1949) was based on. Most of the time he is better remembered as a playwright and screenplay writer.

The worst Ivory-Merchant film I've seen is THE WILD PARTY, very loosely based on the Roscoe Arbuckle scandal. More specifically it's based on a hideously maudlin poem by Joseph Moncure March published in 1928. The Ivory-Merchant team so famous for its impeccable period detail in any number of films totally flops in capturing the 1929 Holly glam look. What they did capture is the 1975 look. James Coco stars as Jolly Grimm, a washed up silent film comic hoping for a comeback in his latest and self-backed film on the life of Brother Juniper. His live-in girlfriend and former extra is played by Raquel Welch. She gets to sing and dance to one of the film's many horrid songs. Perry King plays a flashy new film star, Tiffany Bolling plays his jaded party date, Bobo Lewis plays the maid, Royal Dano plays Tex the former stuntman, David Dukes plays the guy who writes the poem. The majority of the cast is unrecognizable. The story hits of just about every stereotype. There's the Valentino type, a vamp who's really a lesbian, studio heads with thick Euro accents, and worst of all is the little puke who'll do anything to get into the movies so she crashes the party and does an Isadora dance draped in dish towels.

Everything is wrong although there could have been a decent movie with James Coco and none of the rest of the cast. The costumes are all wrong as is the women's hair and makeup. The several songs are the type that Paul Williams used to sing with that gag-worthy diction of his. There are also lots of clips of Coco playing Brother Juniper in the silent movie. As the cannibals trap him and lead him to the giant cauldron, Juniper says..... "You can't boil me. I'm a friar!" And that's the high point of the film.

It's 1929 and talkies are taking over. Veteran comedian Jolly Grimm (James Coco) is putting together a new silent film with his own money. It's an old style broad comedy. He's throwing a party but is having trouble gaining support for his film. He hopes to show the movie during the party and get some backing. He's afraid to lose his girlfriend Queenie (Raquel Welch) who catches the eye of hunky new leading man Dale Sword (Perry King).

This is a different Merchant-Ivory movie from their more famous 80's and 90's fare. They are still doing historical dramas but not necessarily this type. For most of it, I liked this movie and was surprised at the critical panning. The dark ugliness of Hollywood could be off-putting. I'm not a fan of the ending. It's often an easy out for a movie to end with gun fire. A better climax may be Jolly trying to get into the Pickford party and refused entry. All in all, I like this as one of many takedown of Hollywood people.

The combination of director James Ivory and his producing partner Ismail Merchant with sensual star Raquel Welch should have resulted in a dynamic art-house hit, but "The Wild Party" is a series of missed opportunities (you're more acutely aware of all the possibilities that went unrealized than you are gripped by what made it to the screen). Loosely based on the Fatty Arbuckle scandal, this is a well-intentioned, noble failure with James Coco playing a silent-screen star in early 1930s Hollywood who throws a bash to celebrate his comeback in talkies, but his big night goes awry. A.I.P. recut the film for its theatrical run to punch up the sex--which gave the pic something of a sullied reputation--however MGM has since restored Ivory's cut. Coco, Welch (as mistress Queenie), and Perry King (as another in his stable of studs) all do fine work, and some of the dialogue has snap. The film is certainly a curiosity, but Ivory's handling is plastic and his pacing and musical effects are colorless. *1/2 from ****