TRASH IN MY EYE Reviews: Ismail Merchant

Showing posts with label Ismail Merchant. Show all posts

Thursday, April 24, 2025

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

★★★ out of 4 stars

Thursday, April 24, 2025

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Thursday, April 17, 2025

Review: Merchant Ivory's "SHAKESPEARE WALLAH" is a Tale as Old as Time

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 17 of 2025 (No. 2023) by Leroy Douresseaux

Shakespeare Wallah (1965) – Black & White

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA/India

Running time: 120 minutes (2 hours)

Not rated

DIRECTOR: James Ivory

WRITERS: R. Prawer Jhabvala and James Ivory

PRODUCER: Ismail Merchant

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Subrata Mitra (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Amit Bose

COMPOSER: Satyajit Ray

DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring: Shashi Kapoor, Felicity Kendal, Geoffrey Kendal, Laura Liddell, Madhur Jaffrey, Utpal Dutt, Praveen Paul, Prayag Raaj, Pinchoo Kapoor, and Jim D. Tytler

Shakespeare Wallah is a 1965 romantic drama film from director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant. It was the second film produced by Merchant Ivory Productions. The film is co-written by Ivory and novelist and screenwriter, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who wrote in some capacity 23 of Merchant Ivory's films. Shakespeare Wallah focuses on a traveling family theatre troupe that performs Shakespearean plays in towns across India even as demand for its work dwindles in the country.

Shakespeare Wallah introduces “the Buckingham Players,” a traveling family theatre troupe led by a British couple, husband Anthony “Tony” Buckingham (Geoffrey Kendal) and wife Carla Buckingham (Laura Liddell). Their young daughter, Lizzie (Felicity Kendal), is also an actor in this nomadic troupe. The Buckingham Players travel from town to town in post-colonial India, performing the plays of William Shakespeare before local audiences. However, demand for their work is dwindling as audiences begin to prefer the movies of “Hindi cinema,” also known as “Bollywood.”

One day, Lizzie meets Sanju Raj (Shashi Kapoor), a playboy. The two fall in love, but what Lizzie does not know is that Sanju is also romancing the actress, Manjula (Madhur Jaffrey), a very popular Bollywood star who is also very jealous.

2025 is the sixtieth anniversary of the original theatrical release (1965) of Merchant Ivory's second film, Shakespeare Wallah. As one of the production company's early films, it set the tone for future Merchant Ivory films that focused on cross-cultural romance and relationships.

Shakespeare Wallah is loosely based on the real life of actor-manager Geoffrey Kendal and his family. Kendal, his wife, Laura Liddell, and their daughter, Felicity Kendal, were part of a real-life traveling Shakespearean company that performed in India. That is how Geoffrey apparently earned the nickname, “Shakespearewallah” (with “wallah” being an informal term meaning a person involved in a particular thing or business).

Shakespeare Wallah being the second Merchant Ivory film showcases what many of the company's films would depict – seismic shifts in society and changes in culture. Tony and Carla have been performing Shakespeare across a specific region of India for decades, but the couple, essentially British expatriates, begin to wonder if time has passed them by and if they should return to England.

Meanwhile, their daughter, Lizzie, is experiencing a clash not so much of culture, but of gender roles. Her playboy paramour, Sanju, is wooing two actresses, but in truth, he does not think of acting as a proper role for a woman, especially more so in the case of Lizzie than in the case of Manjula.

The best thing that I can say about Shakespeare Wallah, and I can say a lot of good things about it, is that the film's emotions and feelings seem authentic. Manjula's jealousy is alive, dangerous, and electric. Lizzie and Sanju's romantic feelings are natural, but are also fragile and vulnerable because they are not only different people, but also are from different cultures and outlooks on life. The overall naturalism and relaxed pace of the narrative are also genuine.

The beautiful film score by Satyajit Ray embellishes the melancholy nature of the film when it comes to love. Whether one's love is another person, the nomadic life of a traveling troupe, or the profession of performing Shakespeare on the stage, it is bittersweet. Shakespeare Wallah, however, is the sweet art of cinema.

8 of 10

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Thursday, April 17, 2025

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About MERCHANT IVORY PRODUCTIONS

Merchant Ivory Productions was a film company founded in May 1961 by producer Ismail Merchant (1936–2005) and director James Ivory (born in 1928). Ivory and Merchant had met two years earlier in 1959 in New York City at a screening of Ivory's documentary short film, The Sword and the Flute (1959). 1961 was also the year that Merchant and Ivory became romantic partners. Merchant and Ivory were life and business partners from 1961 until Merchant's death in 2005.

During their time together, they made 44 films – beginning with 1963's The Householder and ending with 2005's The White Countess. The films were for the most part produced by Merchant and directed by Ivory. Twenty-three of those films were scripted by novelist and screenwriter, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1927–2013), in some capacity. The films were often based upon novels or short stories, particularly the works of Henry James, E. M. Forster, and Jhabvala herself. The company's final feature film production was 2009's The City of Your Final Destination, directed by James Ivory.

This month (April 2025) cable network, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), is showing seven of Merchant Ivory's feature films over two nights (April 17th and 24th). This TCM programming includes what may be the company's most famous and acclaimed films: A Room with a View (1985), Howard's End (1992), and The Remains of the Day (1993). TCM will also screen the 2024 documentary film, entitled Merchant Ivory, which follows the company's history.

It can be said, in general, that the films of Merchant Ivory Productions have a nostalgia for an idealized past,which usually photographed in sweeping cinematography. The lush landscapes of its films depict cultural shifts in a society's rigid class structures and also how those changes and shifts affect people of differing classes and social orders.

In conjunction with TCM's programming, I am going to review some of Merchant Ivory's films. I don't know how many and for how long I will do this, other than that I will likely continue to do so past TCM's Merchant Ivory programming dates.

Negromancer reviews of Merchant Ivory Productions' filmography:

Review: Shakespeare Wallah (1965)

Review: The Wild Party (1975)

Review: The White Countess (2005)

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