The Wild Party

In fact, on some levels it is a fascinating look at college girls at play at the end of the roaring twenties. The year is 1929 and the place is mythical Winston College, an all-girl school. Stella Ames (Clara Bow) is the most popular girl in school and life of the party, Helen Owens (Shirley O'Hara) is the smartest girl in school, and Faith Morgan (Marceline Day) is a trustee of sorts in the dorm where the girls live who is given to lecturing Stella and has a very stern outlook on life. All of the girls get along pretty well with the exception of one who seems to delight in snooping and gossiping - her antics enter heavily into the plot. The romance here is an unlikely one between young professor of anthropology Dr. Gilmore "Gil" (Fredric March) and party girl Stella. The relationship starts out antagonistically due to an incident a few months before Gil came to the college. A mishap in the sleeper car of a train had a sleepy Stella getting up in the middle of the night for a drink of water and returning to the wrong berth - Gil's, in fact. She's determined to get even with him for teasing her at the time, and is surprised when he doesn't seem to know she's alive.

The college stag dance with girls dancing with girls in which Stella and her two buddies enter the stag dance in a sort of conga line dressed in sequined bathing suits, raccoon skin coats, and high heels is truly an iconic moment in late 20's film. The story should hold your interest although there is nothing truly unique about it, and I thought that the acting and direction were quite good for an early talkie. Sure, Bow has a very noticeable New York accent, but it suits her in this and the other early talkie roles I've seen her in as it accentuates her brashness. Director Arzner keeps things moving by not letting a dead camera just hang there while actors endlessly speechify as is common in other films from this same year. As for the plot devices, there's a rowdy roadhouse, a near-attempted rape, a shooting, dorm fire-drills and head counts at embarrassing moments, and one of the girls falling asleep on the beach with a man at a party until 4AM and then losing the page of a letter in which she is writing about the incident. Wherever did that piece of paper go? I'd definitely recommend this to early talkie fans.

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.

Clara Bow is the most popular student at this staid women's college where classroom lectures are somber affairs but the dorm rooms are filled with personal drama. When the girls are able to sneak off campus and hit a party, they have some good times but run into danger as well.

This semester, all the girls are in love with handsome new professor Fredric March. A cautious friendship develops between March and Bow, but he tells her she is wasting her potential with all this partying. Eventually, Clara has a chance to prove her true worth - but will he understand the sacrifice she is making?

The plot here is fairly stodgy and the production is definitely early talkie era. As a fantasy of university life it's not too convincing but still, it's kind of fun.

Clara Bow is very much the center of the picture and she gives a good performance as the young woman who seems shallow when the story begins but grows into someone more mature, thoughtful, and generous. It's not a dramatic masterpiece by any stretch but Bow's character at least shows some development.

Fredric March, on the other hand, scowls his way through the whole picture. Why are all these girls in love with him?

Overall, it's a bit slow moving but not without interest.

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!

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.