Sellers

Decades after its release, the Peter Sellers-Blake Edwards comedy “The Party” has finally become part of my DVD collection. My first reaction to revisiting this classic was a realisation of how predictable and banal contemporary farces and slapstick comedies have become. Witness “The Party”, about 40 years old, a funnier comedy than most “riotous laugh-fests” (what awful hyperbole) released since.

Of course, the Ashton Kutchers of the world are no real competition for Peter Sellers, the comic giant who carved himself into film history not only in his multiple roles in Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove” but with his 'serious' acting turn in the same visionary director’s “Lolita”. Here, Sellers is taking it easy, and still makes another character his own: an Indian want-to-be actor who mistakenly receives an invitation to a dinner party hosted by a powerful Hollywood player.

To give away what happens in this film would be to spoil it for anyone attending for the first time. That said, let me say this: shoes float, waiters are troublesome, forced small talk is difficult for anyone and, of course, birdie num-num. There are those who will view this film as slow, dated and old; yet those critics are the ones weaned on a diet of exactly the type of comedy that I complained about earlier in this post.