Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
SAME TITLE, DIFFERENT FILM TRIPLE FEATURE
The Wild Party (1929)
Clara Bow, the "It Girl" of silent films, has her first talkie role in this frothy little romantic drama with an underlying theme of female friendship. The students at a women's college go crazy for the handsome new anthropology teacher (Fredric March.) During an all-girl costume party/dance, Bow and two of her gal pals show up in costumes so skimpy that they're asked to leave. (They look like one-piece bathing suits. There are plenty of pretty legs on display in this pre-Code film. Bow flirts with March in class by raising her skirt just enough to reveal the tops of her stockings, to which March says "Some people think this is an anatomy class.") They go off to a roadhouse, where March has to rescue her from the unwanted advances of some drunks. Later, he berates her for thinking life is just a "wild party" and wasting her time at college. When she asks him why he hates her, he kisses her. (It's an interesting relationship. Although March passionately loves her, he also angrily denounces her in class for turning in a lousy paper.)
The major subplot involves the school brain, who will lose her scholarship if the school finds out she (innocently) spent the night on the beach with her boyfriend, as revealed in a love letter she writes to him. When the school busybody finds the letter and turns it in, Bow pretends she wrote it so that she will be kicked out instead of her Best Friend Forever.
Bow has a great deal of charisma, and the movie is an enjoyable bit of fluff. The feminist undertone may stem from the fact that it was directed by Dorothy Arzner, one of the few women working in that capacity at the time. The passionate, if not erotic, love between Bow and her BFF, expressed in lots of hugs and sitting in laps, might have something to do with Arzner's open lesbianism.
The Wild Party (1956)
Tense crime drama with an compelling performance from Anthony Quinn. He stars as a washed-up pro football star, reduced to hanging around a bunch of petty crooks and other losers. There's the woman who loves him, although he treats her like dirt; there's a jive-talking piano player (familiar character actor Nehemiah Persoff in an unusual role, who also narrates in hep talk); and a smarmy con man, who turns out to be a knife-wielding hood when he's not charming a potential victim. The con man manages to get a rich woman and her naval officer boyfriend to join the group at a jazz club, from which they kidnap the unsuspecting pair, extorting cash from the officer in exchange for the woman's freedom.
Quinn has much more in mind, however. Convinced that the rich woman is the one for him, and not even bothering to hide this from his supposed girlfriend, he comes up with a crazy scheme to run off to Mexico and marry her. You can imagine that this doesn't work out well.
Quinn does a remarkable job bringing the character to life. Brutal and ready to explode at any moment, he's also something of a pathetic lost soul, endlessly obsessing over his glory days on the gridiron and trying to ingratiate himself with everybody, even those he abuses. There's also a lot of cool jazz on the soundtrack to add to the enjoyment.
The Wild Party (1975)
Odd combination of art film and exploitation movie, based on a narrative poem. That explains why it's narrated in rhyming couplets! Adding to the eccentric way in which the story is told, there are several 1920's-style songs on the soundtrack that comment directly on the action.
1929. Silent film comedian Jolly Grimm (James Coco) is about to show the film he's been working on for five years to potential buyers. He has a live-in mistress Queenie (Raquel Welch), whom he occasionally slaps around. (It should be noted that the plot is not based on the Fatty Arbuckle scandal, although it may remind one of it.) Hollywood is moving into sound, and Grimm's career faces a crisis.
At the party at his sumptuous mansion where he's showing the film, we're introduced to the various guests by our old friend the rhyming couplets. There's genteel suggestion of Hollywood decadence. Booze, of course, but also drugs, prostitution, a pair of gay pianists, and a lesbian actress. Things get out of hand when Grimm's film is an obvious failure, Queenie goes off with a handsome young actor, and the party degenerates into an orgy. The inevitable tragedy occurs right at the end of the movie.
Besides the narrative songs, we also get elaborately choreographed dance sequences, so that the film is almost a musical. It's handsomely produced, to be sure, and convincingly recreates the period. Coco gives a very strong performance, and Welch is quite good. (She also looks great in 1920's-style hair, makeup, and clothing.) It's a quirky movie, and it's understandable that it didn't find much of an audience.
The Wild Party (1929)
Clara Bow, the "It Girl" of silent films, has her first talkie role in this frothy little romantic drama with an underlying theme of female friendship. The students at a women's college go crazy for the handsome new anthropology teacher (Fredric March.) During an all-girl costume party/dance, Bow and two of her gal pals show up in costumes so skimpy that they're asked to leave. (They look like one-piece bathing suits. There are plenty of pretty legs on display in this pre-Code film. Bow flirts with March in class by raising her skirt just enough to reveal the tops of her stockings, to which March says "Some people think this is an anatomy class.") They go off to a roadhouse, where March has to rescue her from the unwanted advances of some drunks. Later, he berates her for thinking life is just a "wild party" and wasting her time at college. When she asks him why he hates her, he kisses her. (It's an interesting relationship. Although March passionately loves her, he also angrily denounces her in class for turning in a lousy paper.)
The major subplot involves the school brain, who will lose her scholarship if the school finds out she (innocently) spent the night on the beach with her boyfriend, as revealed in a love letter she writes to him. When the school busybody finds the letter and turns it in, Bow pretends she wrote it so that she will be kicked out instead of her Best Friend Forever.
Bow has a great deal of charisma, and the movie is an enjoyable bit of fluff. The feminist undertone may stem from the fact that it was directed by Dorothy Arzner, one of the few women working in that capacity at the time. The passionate, if not erotic, love between Bow and her BFF, expressed in lots of hugs and sitting in laps, might have something to do with Arzner's open lesbianism.
The Wild Party (1956)
Tense crime drama with an compelling performance from Anthony Quinn. He stars as a washed-up pro football star, reduced to hanging around a bunch of petty crooks and other losers. There's the woman who loves him, although he treats her like dirt; there's a jive-talking piano player (familiar character actor Nehemiah Persoff in an unusual role, who also narrates in hep talk); and a smarmy con man, who turns out to be a knife-wielding hood when he's not charming a potential victim. The con man manages to get a rich woman and her naval officer boyfriend to join the group at a jazz club, from which they kidnap the unsuspecting pair, extorting cash from the officer in exchange for the woman's freedom.
Quinn has much more in mind, however. Convinced that the rich woman is the one for him, and not even bothering to hide this from his supposed girlfriend, he comes up with a crazy scheme to run off to Mexico and marry her. You can imagine that this doesn't work out well.
Quinn does a remarkable job bringing the character to life. Brutal and ready to explode at any moment, he's also something of a pathetic lost soul, endlessly obsessing over his glory days on the gridiron and trying to ingratiate himself with everybody, even those he abuses. There's also a lot of cool jazz on the soundtrack to add to the enjoyment.
The Wild Party (1975)
Odd combination of art film and exploitation movie, based on a narrative poem. That explains why it's narrated in rhyming couplets! Adding to the eccentric way in which the story is told, there are several 1920's-style songs on the soundtrack that comment directly on the action.
1929. Silent film comedian Jolly Grimm (James Coco) is about to show the film he's been working on for five years to potential buyers. He has a live-in mistress Queenie (Raquel Welch), whom he occasionally slaps around. (It should be noted that the plot is not based on the Fatty Arbuckle scandal, although it may remind one of it.) Hollywood is moving into sound, and Grimm's career faces a crisis.
At the party at his sumptuous mansion where he's showing the film, we're introduced to the various guests by our old friend the rhyming couplets. There's genteel suggestion of Hollywood decadence. Booze, of course, but also drugs, prostitution, a pair of gay pianists, and a lesbian actress. Things get out of hand when Grimm's film is an obvious failure, Queenie goes off with a handsome young actor, and the party degenerates into an orgy. The inevitable tragedy occurs right at the end of the movie.
Besides the narrative songs, we also get elaborately choreographed dance sequences, so that the film is almost a musical. It's handsomely produced, to be sure, and convincingly recreates the period. Coco gives a very strong performance, and Welch is quite good. (She also looks great in 1920's-style hair, makeup, and clothing.) It's a quirky movie, and it's understandable that it didn't find much of an audience.
