Party

Just so you know, the Susan Wickman on White Lipstick DIDN'T do the art department work on this short! Get it right people!

If you like "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" -- in its many forms, written and cinematic; if you're into Ambrose Bierce, the "Devil's Dictionary" guy, you'll want to check out "Party." Woelfel has creatively adapted Bierce's ideas. Yes, once more there's a hanging (as in "Owl Creek") which is at the center of the story -- but other elements make this more akin to a 70's-style Star Trek or Twilight Zone (nowadays "Outer Limits"). Think Kirk (Shatner) versus the Gorn; or Next Generation fans may remember the episode where Picard (Stewart) faces off with the Gorn-like critter speaking entirely with analogies -- kinda like I'm doing here, eh? Amusing, dryly droll. Not so much the chase and suspense stuff of "Owl Creek." This is gallows' humor with the emphasis on humor -- but a real gallows, too. And a pretty lady, a drunk, a businessman. For the lit crowd, think Sartre's "No Exit" (Bierce predates him, of course) -- only much shorter, and funny. A blast, in fact. UC Davis has an annual short-film fest, mostly student stuff, Woelfel got mobbed by fans after "Party" was shown there and he'd identified himself as director/writer/composer. Women were tearing his clothes off, fortunately he was wearing Gor-Tek; still, an ugly scene. On a UC campus? Hard to imagine.