Click here to copy URL

The Wild Party

5.9

208

Ratings

Add to lists

Links

Original title

The Wild Party

Year

1975

Running time

100 min.

Country

United States

Director

James Ivory

Screenwriter

Walter Marks, Joseph Moncure March

Cast

Cinematography

Walter Lassally

Producer

Merchant Ivory Production, American International Productions

Genre

Drama | Biography. Film In Film. 1920s

Synopsis

THE WILD PARTY is based on the 1926 narrative poem by Joseph Moncure March about a Greenwich Village party-turned-disaster. Director James Ivory sets the film in Hollywood at the mansion of silent-screen legend Jolly Grimm (James Coco). Grimm and his mistress, Queenie (Raquel Welch), are hoping that a big party given at their home to celebrate the finish of Grimm’s film will be the catalyst that revives his career. But Grimm’s alcoholism, the advent of talkies, and his failure to get a studio to distribute the film turn the party into something less than celebratory. Queenie entertains the affections of a new Hollywood heartthrob, Dale Sword (Perry King), while Grimm cavorts with a Mary Pickford-type ingenue. It has been suggested that the poem and movie are founded on events similar to the 1921 Fatty Arbuckle scandal.

Time also has a framing role in The Wild Party, shot soon after Autobiography of a Princess. It has a curious history, having been inspired by a blank-verse narrative poem of 1926 by Joseph Moncure March about a disastrous Greenwich Village party given by a vaudeville comic in his walk-up apartment. The lyricist Walter Marks saw in it the idea for a musical film, with the setting changed to Hollywood at the end of the silent-movie era. Shortly after the project was brought to Edgar Lansbury and Joseph Beruh, producers of Godspell and other Broadway musicals, Walter Marks's brother Peter discussed it with Ivory and mentioned that a director was needed. It was in this way that Ivory, as director, and Merchant, as coproducer with Lansbury and Beruh, were brought in. An important change was made in the script on which Ivory and Marks collaborated: the musical became a drama with music.

Movie Soulmates' ratings: Register so you can access movie recommendations tailored to your movie taste.
Friends' ratings: Register so you can check out ratings by your friends, family members, and like-minded members of the FA community.

Is the synopsis/plot summary missing? Do you want to report a spoiler, error or omission? Please send us a message.
If you are not a registered user please send us an email to [email protected]

All copyrighted material (movie posters, DVD covers, stills, trailers) and trademarks belong to their respective producers and/or distributors.

For US ratings information please visit: www.mpaa.org www.filmratings.com www.parentalguide.org

User history

The Wild Party

1975

James Ivory

5.9

(208)