Year:  1975
Rating: 4.0

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I was expecting a comedy. It stars James Coco who did a lot of comedy in his day and Raquel Welch who is best known for light fun films. The poster looks like a comedic romp as they say. The title The Wild Party brought to mind the Peter Sellers film The Party which I used to find hilarious though I expect that with Sellers in brown face with his fake Indian accent it would be frowned upon today and could never be made or exhibited. But I have a liking for the film that has a connection to my very young days. The first seven years of my life were spent in Pakistan and India with my father being assigned there. When we came back to the USA I was sent off to school and my mother received a call from the teacher. "Your son has a speech defect. He needs special help". "Oh that. He just has an Indian accent". So I used to do a pretty good Indian accent for years. Anyway, back to this film.


In the opening credits I noticed that it was produced and directed by Merchant-Ivory who are not exactly known for laughs, but at the same time it was being distributed by American International Pictures (AIP) best know for Roger Corman and low grade horror films. What a strange partnership I thought. Still this should be at least mildly amusing. But when James Coco throws scalding coffee on Raquel and then gives her a bruiser below her eye, I began to realize that if this was a comedy it was a very bad one. Turns out not to have been a comedy - at all - more a depressing ugly look at Hollywood around 1929 and the life of a fading comic silent star. There are no laughs to be had here.


Jolly Grimm (Coco) had been a huge silent comedy star - ala Fatty Arbuckle - who was on the outs not having made a film in five years. He takes out his anger, depression and frustration on Queenie (Raquel) his mistress by beating her and verbally abusing her. She takes it though because she is still grateful to him for taking her out of a two-bit vaudeville act and giving her a prestigious life. And where would she go if she left? Back to the boards in Hoboken? Grimm is giving his career one last chance by making a silent film - in 1929 mind you - as a Franciscan monk who brings on a miracle. Ok. Sounds hilarious. He throws a party and invites some second rate stars and producers (all the best are at a party at Mary Pickford's home) and previews the film for them. It doesn't go well and the night turns into a sordid affair of fights, drinking and arguments climaxing in a giant orgy and murder.


I am not sure whether Ivory got the irony of making a bad movie about a guy making a bad movie. But apparently AIP did as they took the film and totally recut it to dismal results. It got pulled quickly, put on the shelf and forgotten for years. Until those plucky French came across it and released Ivory's version of the film in 1981 which is what the DVD is these days. Maybe I would have enjoyed the AIP version more. I thought this was terrible - stilted dialogue that should have had a stake put through it, a totally unpleasant plot and Coco clearly going for an Oscar with his over heated performance. Raquel is actually not bad giving a toned down performance and looking all flapper gorgeous. This is a story of a film gone bad. Two of them.