Review: Merchant Ivory's "THE WILD PARTY" Gets Wild... Eventually

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 19 of 2025 (No. 2025) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Wild Party (1975)

Running time:  95 minutes (1 hour, 34 minutes)

MPAA – R

DIRECTOR:  James Ivory

WRITER:  Walter Marks (based on the narrative poem by Walter Moncure March)

PRODUCER:  Ismail Merchant

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Walter Lassally (D.o.P.)

EDITOR:  Kent McKinney

COMPOSERS:  Laurence Rosenthal; Walter Marks (songs)

COMEDY/DRAMA/MUSIC

Starring:  James Coco, Raquel Welch, Perry King, Tiffany Bolling, Royal Dano, David Dukes, Annette Ferra, Eddie Laurence, Bobo Lewis, Regis Cordic, Dena Dietrich, Baruch Lamet, Fred Franklyn, J.S. Johnson, Tom Reese, Michael Grant Hall, Skipper, Jennifer Lee Pryor, Mews Small, and Geraldine Baron

The Wild Party is a 1975 comedy-drama and music film from director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant.  The film is loosely based on The Wild Party, a book-length narrative poem written by Joseph Moncure March and first published in 1926.  Walter Marks wrote the film's screenplay and the song score.  The Wild Party the movie focuses on a silent film comedian who throws a lavish party where he will screen his new silent film in hopes that it will save his failing career.

The Wild Party opens in 1929 at “St. Mark's Hospital” in Los Angeles, California.  There, we meet James Morrison (David Dukes), who has heavy bandaging around his neck.  He begins to recount the activities of the previous day, and the story moves to “Casa Alegria,” the palatial home of the silent film star and comedian, Jolly Grimm (James Coco), born “Carlo Grimaldi.”

James is a poet, but he did some screenwriting for Jolly's latest silent film, “Brother Jasper,” a comic and dramatic biopic about a monk.   Jolly seems to have everything:  wealth; a mansion; a faithful manservant and friend in Tex (Royal Dano), and an excellent maid and housekeeper in Wilma (Bob Lewis).  Jolly also has a beautiful and faithful mistress, the former vaudeville dancer, Queenie (Raquel Welch).  But Jolly no longer has Hollywood's interest.

Jolly was once a great star of the silent era, but sound film is taking over, and it has been a long time since Jolly has had a hit.  Although he has self-financed the production of “Brother Jasper,” Jolly still needs to sell the film to a studio for distribution.  He decides to throw a huge party at his mansion where he will screen the film for perspective buyers, especially the studio heads, A.J. Murchison (Regis Cordic) and Kreutzer (Eddie Laurence).

The party is complicated by the fact that Hollywood power couple, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, are also throwing a lavish gathering at their mansion and estate known as “Pickfair,” and some of the people Jolly and Queenie want to invite would rather go to Pickfair.  Jolly is a heavy drinker, and at the party, the more he drinks, the angrier he becomes.  The arrival of the virile young actor, Dale Sword (Perry King), and Queenie's interest in him are about to make a wild party have an ending wilder than anyone expected.

2025 is the fiftieth anniversary of the original theatrical release (1975) of the Merchant Ivory's film, The Wild Party.  This month (April 2025), the cable network, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), is screening several films from Merchant Ivory Productions.  The Wild Party is scheduled to be one of them.  After early, moderate success in the 1960s with such films as The Householder (1963) and Shakespeare Wallah (1965), Merchant Ivory suffered some lean years in the 1970s, and The Wild Party, which yielded disappointing box office results, was one of the films that defined the lean years.

The Wild Party's wild party doesn't really turn crazy until the last 40 minutes or so of the film.  Until then, the film really talks too much – for a film about the end of “Silent Film era.”  Still, James Coco's strong performance as Jolly Grimm and Raquel Welch's luminous looks and subtle portrayal of Queenie have a surprising allure.

However, I must say that The Wild Party's following departments:  hair and make-up, costumes, and art direction and set decoration, are also this film's stars.  The American rapper who goes by the stage name, “Da Brat,” once said that she liked Old Hollywood movies because (not an exact quote) they had class and everyone dressed up and went to clubs and parties.  This Wild Party, a 1975 feature film, recalls the lavish backdrops and non-stop reverie of a certain kind of Old Hollywood film.

The Wild Party was apparently a troubled production, and neither director James Ivory nor producer Ismail Merchant found the endeavor pleasant.  That aside, I like this film (although director Damien Chazelle's 2022 film, Babylon, is better at depicting the chaos of the transition from silent film to sound motion pictures).  Although it never really comes together until the party really gets wild, there are a number of stand-out scenes, and many of the supporting actors and actresses have a moment to really shine.  The Wild Party isn't a typical Merchant Ivory film, but it shows that everything they touch has, at the very least, the air of high quality, even if the substance of high quality is not present.

6 of 10

B

★★★ out of 4 stars

Thursday, April 24, 2025

The text is copyright © 2025 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW" is Always Waiting For Us

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 25 of 2023 (No. 1914) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Running time:  100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)

MPAA – R

DIRECTOR:  Jim Sharman

WRITERS:  Jim Sharman and Richard O'Brien (based on the original musical play by Richard O'Brien)

PRODUCER:  Michael White

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Peter Suschitsky (D.o.P.)

EDITORS:  Graeme Clifford

COMPOSER:  Richard Hartley

SONGS: Richard O'Brien

MUSICAL/COMEDY/SCI-FI and FANTASY/HORROR

Starring:  Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell, Peter Hinwood, Jonathan Adams, Meat Load, and Charles Gray

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a 1975 comedy-horror and musical fantasy film directed by Jim Sharman.  The film is written by Sharman and Richard O'Brien and is based based on the 1973 musical stage production, The Rocky Horror Show, for which O'Brien wrote the music, lyrics, and book.  Both the film and stage musical pay tribute to the science fiction and B-movie horror films that appeared in theaters from the 1930s to the 1960s.  The Rocky Horror Picture Show follows a newly-engaged couple who, because of car trouble, seeks shelter at a castle-like country home that is populated by bizarre guests and an even more bizarre host.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show introduces a naive young couple, Brad Majors (Barry Bostwick) and Janet Weiss (Susan Sarandon).  It is late November, and the couple are attending the wedding of their friends, Ralph Haphschatt (Jeremy Newson) and Betty Monroe (Hilary Labow), at Denton Episcopalian Church.  Brad and Janet get engaged after the wedding and decide to celebrate with their high school science teacher, Dr. Everett Scott (Jonathan Adams).

In Brad's car, the duo are en route to Scott's house on a dark and rainy night when they get lost and then get a flat tire.  Needing a telephone to call for help, the couple walk to a nearby castle.  There, they find the place in the throes of a rowdy party.  The guests are both flamboyantly dressed and bizarre.  What is even more bizarre however, is the host, the transvestite scientist, Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), who is about to unveil his latest creation.  There are two things of which Brad and Janet are unaware.  The first is Frank-N-Furter is from the planet “Transsexual,” located in the galaxy “Transylvania.”  The second is that at some point in the future, their story will be narrated by a noted criminologist (Charles Gray).

When The Rocky Horror Picture Show was initially released in the United States in the early fall of 1975, it was not well-received by either critics or audiences.  However, by the spring of 1976, the film's infamous cult following began, thanks to midnight showings, first in and around New York City, and then, spreading throughout the U.S.  Soon, fans in costume were performing alongside the film.

Dear readers, I must admit that I have never seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show in a theater.  I first saw it in the late 1980s via a Japanese import or bootleg copy at the science fiction, fantasy, and gaming convention, CoastCon (I believe), in Biloxi, Mississippi.  It was a wild screening, and I freaked out when audience members jumped out of their seats and started performing bits from the film.

As some of you may know, Netflix is shutting down its DVD-by-mail service – currently known as DVDNetflix or DVD.com.  I decided to spend some of these final months on this beloved service re-watching favorite films and well as trying some older films that I have never seen.  Watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show seemed like the right thing to do as a sendoff to the service that I used to build my movie review blog, Negromancer.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is indeed a tribute to science fiction, B-movie, and monster films.  There are references to such films as Universal Pictures' Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), RKO's King Kong (1933), Hammer Films' The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), Fox's The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), and MGM's Forbidden Planet (1956), to name a few.

However, Rocky Horror's punk rock fashions, colorfully dyed hair, corsets, torn fishnet stockings, glitter, androgyny, and sex and violence are more important than its haunted mansion, secret labs, rival scientists, and sci-fi angles.  For me, this film is about having a good time and being liberated.  Sometimes, the film may seem like it is being outrageous for the sake of being outrageous, but one of its final songs personifies the film for me, “Fanfare/Don't Dream It, Be It.”  It's okay to look like you want to and to be what you want to.  And yes, it's okay to be turned on by both Susan Sarandon in her unmentionables and Barry Bostwick in his Jockey classic Y-front briefs.

I can certainly point to Tim Curry's legendary performance as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, but everyone, from the filmmakers, cast, and crew to the artisans, craftsman, and technicians that brought the sets and costumes to life, made The Rocky Horror Picture Show memorable and, for many, unforgettable.  I can't forget the songs, so I need a soundtrack album.  Meat Loaf makes the most of his short time on screen.  The narrator turns out to be hoot.  Even the passing of DVDNetflix won't stop me from seeing this show again.  The music, the songs, the cast, and the setting seem as if they will never let me forget that part of me belongs, at least for a little while, at The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

8 of 10

A

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Thursday, June 15, 2023

NOTES:

2005 National Film Preservation Board, USA:  National Film Registry

The text is copyright © 2023 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: Steven Spielberg's "JAWS" is Still Hungry For Your Ass (Countdown to "The Fabelmans")

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 54 of 2022 (No. 1866) by Leroy Douresseaux

Jaws (1975)
Running time:  124 minutes (2 hours, 4 minutes)
Rated – PG by the Classification and Ratings Administration
DIRECTOR:  Steven Spielberg
WRITERS: Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb (based on the novel by Peter Benchley)
PRODUCERS:  David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Bill Butler (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Verna Fields
COMPOSER:  John Williams
Academy Award winner

DRAMA/THRILLER/ADVENTURE

Starring:  Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Carl Gottlieb, Jeffrey Kramer, Chris Rebello, Jay Mello, Lee Fierro, Jeffrey Voorhees, Robert Nevin, and Susan Backlinie

Jaws is a 1974 adventure drama and thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg.  The film is based on the 1974 novel, Jaws, by author Peter Benchley, who also wrote (with Carl Gottlieb) the screenplay adapting his novel. Jaws the film is set in and around a beach community that is dealing with a killer shark and focuses on the police chief who leads a team to hunt down and kill the creature.

Jaws opens in the New England beach town of Amity Island.  During a nighttime beach party, a young woman, Christine “Chrissie” Watkins (Susan Backlinie), goes skinny dipping in the ocean.  While treading water, something unseen attacks Chrissie and pulls her under the water,  The next day, local police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) and Deputy Hendricks (Jeffrey Kramer) find the partial remains of Chrissie's body on the shore of the beach.

The medical examiner concludes that Chrissie died due to a shark attack.  Still, Amity's Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) is more concerned with the town's summer economy, which is wholly reliant on tourism, and does not want the beaches closed.  Then, the fact that a shark, specifically a “great white shark,” is hunting the waters off the island becomes reality when the shark attacks and kills a boy named Alex Kintner (Jeffrey Voorhees).

After another attack, Chief Brody takes matters into his own hands.  He joins Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), a marine biologist who specializes in shark, and Quint (Robert Shaw), a crusty old shark fisherman, on a seafaring mission to hunt and kill the shark.  But that mission proves more difficult than any of the many realized.

I have seen Jaws so many times that I have lost count.  Still, the movie seems eternally fresh to me, in a semi-sepia tone kind of way.  Jaws fascinates me because it seems to me, at least, to be like three short films merged into one film.  The first section introduces the shark attacks and Chief Brody's misgivings and investigations.  The second section pits Brody against the town fathers, led by money grubber, Mayor Vaughn, who want the beaches open at all cost.  The film's final section focuses on the boys' adventure of Brody, Matt Hooper, and Quint going shark-hunting and ending up being the hunted.  As much as I enjoy the film's final act, I find the first section of the film to be the most intriguing because of its sense of mystery.  What is really beneath the waves, coming up to chomp on young folks?

Jaws is essentially the prototypical summer blockbuster, a kind of film that is designed to get as many people into movie theaters and chomping on popcorn and guzzling soda.  The blockbuster, especially the summer kind, is the cinema of the sensations:  thrills and chills to make the viewer's body tingle and get the heart racing.  The bracing action scenes keep the viewer on the edge of his or her seat.  Steven Spielberg turned out to be the perfect director of summer blockbusters – at least for awhile.  He could press all our emotional buttons and ensnare our imaginations so that all we thought about was what he wanted us to think about – for two or so hours.

Still, Spielberg's prodigious skills as a filmmaker are evident.  He is a superb film artist and a consummate cinematic entertainer.  He gets the best out of his cast and crew and creatives – from composer John Williams' iconic and ominous shark-presence theme to Bill Butler's expansive cinematography that turns this movie into a vista of natural wonders.  Plus, Spielberg allows his talented cast to really show their dramatic chops, especially Richard Dreyfuss as Matt Hooper and Richard Shaw as Quint.  Even Lorraine Gary gets to make the most of her moments as Ellen Brody.

If I am honest, however, Spielberg has a co-captain on this ship.  Roy Scheider (1932-2008) brings the film together and at times, holds it together.  Steady as a rock, Chief Brody epitomizes the small town law man who has to save the town not only from the bad guy – a shark in this instance – but also from themselves.  I think serious movie lovers and film fans recognize both the breath and depth of Scheider's talent and that he was a mesmerizing film presence.  If Jaws is the film that shot Spielberg's career into the stratosphere like a rocket, Scheider can certainly be described as the rocket booster.

9 of 10
A+
★★★★+ out of 4 stars

Friday, September 23, 2022


NOTES:
1976 Academy Awards, USA:  3 wins:  “Best Sound” (Robert L. Hoyt, Roger Heman Jr., Earl Madery, and John R. Carter), “Best Film Editing” (Verna Fields), and “Best Music, Original Dramatic Score” (John Williams); 1 nomination: “Best Picture” (Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown)

1976 BAFTA Awards:  1 win: “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (John Williams for Jaws and also The Towering Inferno); 6 nominations: “Best Actor”(Richard Dreyfuss), “Best Direction” (Steven Spielberg), “Best Film,” “Best Film Editing” (Verna Fields), “Best Screenplay” (Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb), and “Best Sound Track” (John R. Carter and Robert L. Hoyt)

1976 Golden Globes, USA:  1 win: “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (John Williams); 3 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama,” (Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb), and “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Steven Spielberg)

2001 National Film Preservation Board, USA:  1 win: “National Film Registry”


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Seven Beauties" is Fine Cinema (Happy B'day, Giancarlo Giannini)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 37 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Seven Beauties (1975)
Pasqualino Settebellezze – original Italian title
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Italy
Running time: 115 minutes (1 hour, 55 minutes)
MPAA – R
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Lina Wertmüller
PRODUCERS: Arrigo Colombo and Lina Wertmüller
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Tonino Delli Colli
EDITOR: Franco Fraticelli
COMPOSER: Enzo Jannacci
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/DRAMA/WAR

Starring: Giancarlo Giannini, Fernando Rey, Shirley Stoler, Elena Fiore, Piero Di Iorio, Enzo Vitale, Roberto Herlitzka, Lucio Amelio, and Ermelinda De Felice

In Pasqualino Settebellezze or (by its English title) Seven Beauties, Pasqualino Frafusco (Giancarlo Giannini) is a small time crook and hood wannabe who lives in Naples with his mother and seven sisters. As the movie begins, Pasqualino and a fellow soldier (Piero Di Iorio) are lost behind enemy lines, somewhere in Germany, during World War II. German soldiers eventually capture the duo, and they are interned in some kind of prisoner camp (which may also double as a concentration camp for Jews).

Because he has by his own estimation always been a ladies man, Pasqualino decides on a plan to woo an evil female German commandant (Shirley Stoler) in an attempt to save his life, a plan that of course goes horribly awry. Pasqualino’s camp trials are interspersed with scenes from his life in Naples and the time he spent in a mental institution for killing a man who he believed had insulted him and his family by turning one of Pasqualino’s sisters into a prostitute.

Seven Beauties earned Lina Wertmüller the first Oscar® nomination for a woman as Best Director. The film is part satirical and part farce, and it’s also a tragicomic drama that focuses on the soul of a common man. Giannini also earned a Best Actor nomination for his performance as a man who sells his body to the Germans and ends up loosing his soul or, at the very least, his spirit to them. Giannini’s performance is one of the great comic masterpieces, but many people may miss this because of the film’s darker tones. Pasqualino is a womanizing clown who thinks he has the world by the balls until the horrors of war and the internment camp show him how brutal people can be to one another. He thought he knew, but his imprisonments really show him how ugly dog eat dog can be.

Seven Beauties might be one of the best films about internment camps, except for the fact that it’s not really about that. Still, the film makes a salient point about the evil, greediness, and selfishness at the core of the human soul. If the film has a fault (and it’s a minor one), it’s that Wertmüller’s script glosses over the impact of Pasqualino’s mother and sisters on him and his character. Otherwise, this is an example of the great cinema Italy has given the world.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
1977 Academy Awards: 4 nominations: “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Giancarlo Giannini), “Best Director” (Lina Wertmüller), “Best Foreign Language Film” (Italy), and “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen” (Lina Wertmüller)

1977 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Foreign Film” (Italy)

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