Misplaced Pages

#126873

28-429: The Wild Party may refer to: The Wild Party (poem) , a 1928 epic poem by Joseph Moncure March The Wild Party (1923 film) , a film with cinematography by Clyde De Vinna The Wild Party (1929 film) , a film based on the novel Unforbidden Fruit by Samuel Hopkins Adams The Wild Party (1956 film) , a film starring Anthony Quinn The Wild Party (1975 film) ,

56-463: A Merchant-Ivory film starring James Coco and Raquel Welch, based on March's poem The Wild Party (LaChiusa musical) , a 2000 Broadway musical based on March's poem The Wild Party (Lippa musical) , a 2000 off-Broadway musical based on March's poem Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title The Wild Party . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

84-452: A book-length narrative poem , written by Joseph Moncure March , who also wrote The Set-Up . Published in 1926 by Pascal Covici, Inc. , the poem was widely banned, first in Boston , for having content viewed as lewd. The poem was a success notwithstanding, and perhaps in part due to, the controversy surrounding the work. March's subsequent projects were more mainstream. The poem tells

112-478: A jealous fury in the sad comic that leads to violence and tragedy. 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

140-408: A problem, apart from the re-editing, was that the audience could not identify with any of the characters. "I think its mixed style – part musical, part melodrama , part character piece – would have gone down better if the audience could have entered more into those characters' lives." After the film's original release in 1975, other versions varying in length resurfaced on VHS and DVD , as well as

168-469: Is Raquel Welch, registering very strongly." Other reviews were much more negative. Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "The movie often looks very good ... but the script is, I think, really terrible. Never do Mr. Ivory, Mr. Coco, Miss Welch and the others discover the proper way to play it, probably because it's unplayable." Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times stated, "It

196-431: Is difficult to imagine how even the longer versions of the film could overcome the formidable handicap of a miscast James Coco, an actor well-suited to the broad overkill of recent Preminger but quite inadequate for the emotional range and shading of a tragi-comic silent star." Rosenbaum did go on to state, however, "The songs and musical numbers are particularly delightful." The film was a financial flop . Ivory thought

224-509: Is impossible to know exactly what Merchant, Ivory and scriptwriter Walter Marks had in mind for 'The Wild Party.' It is too simple-minded to be taken seriously but too earnest to work as a piece of campy nostalgia." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 1 star out of 4 and noted in a brief review that "Collectors of trash movies" might want to catch it while it played town. Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote that

252-504: Is lust. And their lust was tremendous. It had the feel Of hammers clanging; and stone; and steel: And torches of the savage, roaring kind That rip through iron, and strike men blind: Of long trains crashing through caverns under Grey trembling streets, like angry thunder: Of engines throbbing; and hoarse steam spouting; And feet tramping; and great crowds shouting. A lust so savage, they could have wrenched The flesh from bone, and not have blenched. A new hardcover edition

280-415: The " Woolworths line" but admitted with this film, the company was "going to add a higher line" and that it was a "wildly artistic film". 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

308-402: The book in 1938, when he was a graduate student at Harvard," Spiegelman wrote. "'The Wild Party,' [Burroughs] mused '...It's the book that made me want to be a writer.'" Spiegelman recalls that Burroughs then recited the opening couplet of the poem, in a manner that gave Spiegelman the impression that Burroughs could have continued the recitation, perhaps even to the final lines. The Wild Party

SECTION 10

#1732786776127

336-561: The cameraman, she fired Ismail, she would have fired [co-star] Perry King...and it was our film!... I did not enjoy making The Wild Party ." Welch demanded that the cinematographer Walter Lassally be fired after he made an "impertinent" remark to her. She also wanted Ivory fired and replaced as director by her then boyfriend Ron Talsky . The Directors Guild became involved and threatening letters were sent to Welch. Filming continued. "She's very insecure when she's working", said Lansbury. Ivory later said "the egos and temper tantrums in

364-476: The early cities were terrible and box office performance poor, and the film didn't get a theatrical release in New York until 1981. Variety published a fairly positive review, calling the film "overly talky" but "a magnificent showpiece for Coco's talents. He successfully covers a spectrum from silly comedy, warm humor, sober anger, maddening frustration and drunken psychosis. Holding her own as his mistress

392-565: The end of the silent-movie era. Marks took the project to Edgar Lansbury and Joseph Beruh , producers of Broadway musicals such as Godspell and they agreed to executive produce. Lansbury thought the poem was so "wildly unconventional" it was only worth making with a budget of $ 200,000, "as an experiment in which the risks were minimised". 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,

420-446: The film "can be recommended with a fairly clear conscience to connoisseurs of bad movies, but anyone looking for a serious night's entertainment will have only himself to blame. Although it's never as energetically, uproariously preposterous as The Carpetbaggers and The Oscar , the most diverting stinkers of the '60s, The Wild Party gives it the old college try." Jonathan Rosenbaum of The Monthly Film Bulletin stated that "it

448-465: The film footage to the attendees. The party turns into a loud, alcohol-fueled orgy. Jolly is unable to impress a Hollywood mogul, eager to move on to a more important social engagement, with the outdated humor and pathos of his work. The more he drinks, the more angry Jolly becomes. The arrival of an underage girl brings out a protective, possibly perverted interest on Jolly's part, while the attention paid to Queenie by virile young actor Dale Sword ignites

476-454: 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. Arkoff said AIP usually made movies for

504-590: The first two lines of "Part II, ch. 9" was used in the 1959 Ian Fleming novel Goldfinger , although Fleming did not credit March. He also changed the word "fiercest" to "finest". The Wild Party (1975 film) Shot in Riverside, California , the poem was also made into two musicals, a Broadway show , composed by Michael John LaChiusa , which followed the poem very closely, and an off-Broadway production , composed by Andrew Lippa , which took some artistic liberties but still less than this film. A dance scene

532-594: The heat of May and June, the large crowds of extras, the festering atmosphere reminded me of working among those tempestuous movie stars in Bombay." Two test screenings in Santa Barbara and San Diego in late January-early February 1975 went badly; the Santa Barbara preview audience consisting mostly of University of California students reported liking the orgy and fight scenes but hated Perry King and

560-399: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Wild_Party&oldid=1231930150 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages The Wild Party (poem) The Wild Party is

588-584: 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." "Raquel Welch was a very, very difficult actress to work with", said Ivory. "She fired

SECTION 20

#1732786776127

616-482: The new "serious" Raquel Welch, while the San Diego audience of mainly middle-class people had the exact opposite reaction. Unsure about how to handle the contradictory results, AIP heavily re-edited the film. "They did more than recut it", said Ivory. "They turned it upside down and they distributed two versions. I never knew which is being shown." There was talk within the company of showing one version in cities and

644-421: The other in small towns. Ivory said the main changes were softening Coco's character, adding discarded sex scenes, and introducing flashbacks and flashforwards. Ivory wrote that the "patched-together remnants" of the film "proves once more that you cannot effectively re-edit a picture and change its character in order to 'save' it." While Lansbury, Beruh and Marks approved the re-cut, Welch hated it. Stanzas from

672-538: The source poem are read in a narrative voice-over by actor David Dukes during the film. "It's a simple, linear story but I think the poem adds a dimension to it", said Lansbury. "It is literary and it has the various textures of a mosaic." Contrary to Ivory's wishes to get a New York City premiere (where he expected it to gain a following) as quickly as possible, the film instead premiered in Washington, D.C., and then made its way to Denver and Boston . Reviews in

700-405: The story of show people Queenie and her lover Burrs, who live in a decadent style that March depicts as unique to Hollywood. They decide to have one of their parties, complete with illegal bathtub gin and the couple's colorful, eccentric and egocentric friends, but the party unfolds with more tumultuous goings-on than planned. Some love is fire: some love is rust: But the fiercest, cleanest love

728-461: Was adapted into a film version in 1975, and two stage musicals , both produced in New York City in the same 1999–2000 theater season. Michael John LaChiusa 's version , directed by George C. Wolfe was mounted on Broadway and the other version , by Andrew Lippa , performed off-Broadway. The Wild Party has been translated into French, German and Spanish. An altered quote from

756-419: Was choreographed by Patricia Birch . The year is 1929 and sound films are arriving. Once a great star of the silent era , Jolly Grimm has wealth, a mansion, a manservant, Tex, and a beautiful and faithful mistress, Queenie, but no longer Hollywood's interest. He desperately tries to get studio executives interested in his self-financed latest project, so he decides to throw a huge party at his house and show

784-427: Was released in 1994 with the subtitle The Lost Classic . It featured about fifty black-and-white illustrations by Art Spiegelman , a long-time admirer of the poem. In his introduction to the volume, Spiegelman recalls his first meeting with writer William Burroughs . He indicates that the conversation was stilted until Spiegelman asked if the elderly Burroughs had ever encountered March's poem. "Burroughs had first read

#126873