The Party (1968)

The Party
Directed by Blake Edwards
Written by Blake Edwards and Tom and Frank Waldman
1968/US
IMDb link
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Hrundi V. Bakshi: Do you speak Hindustani?

Michelle Monet: No.

Hrundi V. Bakshi: Well, you are not missing anything. [/box]

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cringe.

Hrundi V. Bakshi (Peter Sellers) was brought in all the way from India to play a smallish role in a Hollywood extravaganza.  Being a bumbling idiot, Hrundi messes up every aspect of the production ending with the indispensable setting for the climax.  The director speaks with a studio boss who agrees to see that he never works again.  Unfortunately, the boss absent-mindedly writes down his name on a piece of paper that contains his guest list to a very high-toned Hollywood party.  Hrundi arrives complete with invitation and proceeds to create havoc and destruction wherever he goes.

 In the  boss’s  modern monstrosity of a home everything is operated remotely at the push of a button.  And, man does Hrundi enjoy pushing buttons just to see what will happen. Incredibly, along the way, he attracts the affection of an as-yet uncorrupted starlet (Claudine Longet).

Peter Sellers plays his role to the hilt – including with brown-face and a spot on comic accent.  I thought the role went far enough to be border-line offensive.  On the other hand, I laughed out loud several times at Sellers’ exquisitely timed physical comedy.  The show-biz satire is good as well.