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Director Blake Edwards and the late, great Peter Sellers famously collaborated on The Pink Panther franchise, but they also produced unlikely comedy hit The Party, a mischievously rib-tickling tale with a stupidly simple premise: Sellers plays an uninvited guest at a Hollywood party who loses his shoe and talks in a dodgy Indian accent. (What's not to love?!?) Released to coincide with the opening of Stephen Hopkins' biopic The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers (starring Geoffrey Rush and Charlize Theron), this DVD edition affords the rare opportunity to hear from the legend himself.
Every Party Has One...
Inside The Party is a rather patchy retrospective that kicks off in less than jovial mood with director Blake Edwards announcing, "I had a s****y childhood." Uh, oh... "I discovered that the only way out, the only way to exist, was to find the humorous side of the tragedy." Unfortunately there's isn't a punchline. Instead the bitter, twisted Edwards goes on to explain his inspiration for The Party - essentially a nod to the silent comedies that pulled him through his years of misery.
It's left to megabucks producer Walter Mirisch to get down to the nitty gritty, talking about the simultaneously fruitful and fractious relationship between Edwards and Sellers. There's also brief discussion about the controversial brown makeup and "Goodness Gracious Me" persona that Sellers adopted to play the archetypal "funny, little Indian". Edwards is having none of it though, enthusing, "I loved his Indian character. And the Indians loved it too!" If you say so, Blake...
Cocktails And Conversation
Nine excerpts of archive interview footage make up the centrepiece of this package, taking Sellers back to his days on The Goon Show as well as dissecting his approach to developing a character. Shamelessly playing up to the camera, Sellers delivers his answers in a boggling variety of silly voices, which says as much about the man as his words. Although he never talks directly about The Party, he does make mention of his own social habits ie sitting alone, quietly in a corner and - "just observing people, which tends to make me bad company". Still Blake Edwards makes him look like the life and soul...
The remainder of the extras are mere padding - including the frankly unfunny Barclays Bank commercials that Sellers fronted back in the 70s. The transfer of the film to the digital format also leaves much to be desired, with visible grain and tinny sound quality. In short, only die-hard Sellers fans will find this Party worth staying in for.
EXTRA FEATURES
