The Wild Party

The Wild Party (1975)

Hollywood in the '20s... Gin, Sin and a Night they're still whispering about!

An aging silent movie comic star throws a lavish party to try and save his failing career.

Date of release
1975-03-01
TMDB
4.9 / 10 (22)
Runtime
1h 49m
Genres
Comedy, Drama
Director
James Ivory

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: The Wild Party
  • Filmed in: California

The Wild Party is a 1975 American comedy-drama film directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant for Merchant Ivory Productions. Loosely based on Joseph Moncure March's narrative poem of the same name, the screenplay is written by Walter Marks, who also composed the score. The plot follows an aging silent movie comic star of the 1920s named Jolly Grimm attempts a comeback by staging a party to show his new film.

Production

The script was based on Joseph Moncure March's 1926 narrative poem about a party given by a vaudeville comic in his walk-up apartment in Greenwich Village. Lyricist-composer Walter Marks thought the poem might make the basis for a musical film, and decided to write a film adaptation, which relocated the action to Hollywood at the end of the silent-movie era.

Marks' brother Peter introduced Marks to director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant, who had just made Savages. As fans, Lansbury and Beruh hired Ivory and Merchant. After Ivory became involved, the film stopped being a musical and became a drama with music. Fatty Arbuckle was an inspiration for the main character.

Lansbury says "as we worked on it, the project sort of gathered momentum." Raquel Welch agreed to play the female lead and the budget expanded. The film was financed by American International Pictures which normally specialised in exploitation films. Studio president Samuel Z.

James Coco was cast in the lead. "There isn't anything I don't get to do and that's terribly appealing to any actor", said Coco. "It's full, fleshed out. And part of it is silent. I get to do love scenes with Raquel, I don't get that opportunity too often. I usually get the mule. She isn't what I expected. She's small. She's very serious, an organic actor and I love that. We have a marvelous relationship."

Filming started on 29 April 1974 at the Riverside Mission Inn in California. Shooting took five weeks. Ivory said the inn was chosen because "it's typical of the palatial, beautifully rococo architecture of the period."

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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