The Party

Finally, after months of searching, I find a copy of the DVD and I realize how truly worthwhile this search was! This film is hysterical! I've read that The Great Race is supposed to be Blake Edwards' tribute to Laurel & Hardy, but Hrundi V. Bakshi is Stan Laurel's hindustani soul mate. Probably Peter Sellers' single funniest performance ever! He's always well meaning and gracious, but just naive enough to cause chaos everywhere he goes. Much of the business about the wait staff is also straight out of the L&H book of comic situations. Though the ending involving a baby elephant looks to me as if they simply ran out of ideas, the rest of this movie more than makes up for it. Have another "Birdy Num Num".

I'm sorry, but if you don't laugh, until you cry or your sides ache, at something, hell, at everything in this movie then you'd better check yourself for a pulse. The first four or five times I viewed The Party, I did just that. This is a gut aching, side splitting, fall on the floor, laugh a minute comedy, from start to finish! The scene where the Cornish game hen 'flies' across the dinner table and lands on the tiara of one of the party 'goers' is literally one of the funniest scenes of all time. And it's not just the outrageously funny bumbling physical comedy of Peter Sellers. There is also a subtleness with which Sellers portrays his Indian character that is very visible in his many facial expressions as well as with the 'body language' he uses, that's just as funny. If you even like comedy just a little, you'll love this movie. I give it 4 stars, to infinity!

This film has to be regarded as a hilarious one-man-act by Peter Sellers. I saw it on its first run UK cinema release in 1969 and I've seen it at least a dozen times since. I would gladly watch it another dozen times; it always makes me laugh. The supporting cast perform adequately but Peter Sellers does all the work. He is simply one of the all-time greatest masters of great comedy timing. I was surprised to read so many negative comments on this site in association with this film. I can only surmise that they have come from a younger generation who have had their sense of humour surgically removed due to a force fed diet of unamusing US sitcoms. If you can't laugh at this film you must be birdie-num-num!

Is there a more iconic comedic prologue than The Party's, with Hrundi Bakshi (Peter Sellers, priceless), a bumbling actor involuntarily, repeatedly sabotaging some kind of schlocky adventure / period piece first by refusing to die, then by showing his wholly anachronistic watch and finally by blowing up the set while trying to tie his shoelaces? Because if there is, I can't think of one at the moment.

The movie belongs to veteran comedy director Blake Edwards and especially to Sellers, who provides an hilarious turn as Bakshi, a sweet, meek individual so clumsy and inclined to disaster, he is essentially the human version of a tornado. Material is droll, but at times so thin that with a lesser lead it would have collapsed - Sellers being who he is, the mere sight of him staring with awkward alarm at a toilet which refuses to stop flushing provokes laughter.

8,5/10

Legendary Peter Sellers improvised his role using only Director Blake Edwards' 50 page film outline with no set scripted dialogue. Sellers is left to devise and improvise each scene. This required assembling a highly competent ensemble of supporting actors capable of keeping up with Peter, and they pulled it off very well. Larry David uses this same approach in his 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' in case you did not know.

The film's scenes were largely shot in sequence to preserve the comic flow, allowing Sellers to figure out what astoundingly destructive comic mess his character Hrundi Bakshi (the character being an actor brought in from India to lend authenticity to a period film) would innocently create next for his Hollywood producer boss while shooting the film on location, and the "big man" president of the studio, whose Beverly Hills VIP party Bakshi inadvertently gets an invite to attend.

Truly hilarious deadpanned slapstick scenes abound - one of the most memorable being the "Birdie Num Nums" bit.

This movie has captured an ever growing number of fans over the years, myself included.

One may be offended by the cliche' India culture stereotyping Sellers applies via his character's mannerisms and accent, but If you want to be compelled to laugh out-loud, this may be just the ticket.