I must have seen it 100 times and know this movie line by line. However, it was the first time for my kids and they enjoyed a lot. This is very difficult these days when people have the attention span of a mouse... Steve Franken ( aka the drunken butler ) steals the show, he's something else... It is quite unbelievable that Peter Sellers was pretty hard to live and work with to see that Peter Sellers was a comedic genius. Mind you I never enjoyed The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980) or Casino Royale (1967), however I remember where I was when learned of his death. I think his best role I think is Chance the gardener in Being There. You know when you still walk around the house saying: Burdie num, num or Kato my little yellow friend , 40 years on, it means something. My kids think I'm crazy , probably ! lol

You all ate birdie num num. Nobody noticed what is written on the proverbial elephant in the room forehead: "The World is Flat!" Didn't see that? You didn't get it! Also says, "chicken little was right," "Socrates eats Hemlock," and "Go naked." Blake Edward's birth name: William Blake, famous poet who wrote poem about flat earth. Theme modeled after William Blake's "Island in the Moon." Bakshi's orange jumpsuit, same worn by astronauts. Bakshi says speak with a forked tongue twice. NASA's logo: red forked snakes tongue. Kelso means "High Level Sheep." Hostess name: Alice. Boss name: Fred, an acronym for F@#ing ridiculous economic disaster, nickname for Lockheed 6-5 Galaxy first flown 1968, same year movie released. Bakshi puts his hand in "Operation Fishbowl" Something smells fishy! None of you get it! Bake Edwards was extremely brilliant, everything in the movie means something. Name on guest list Bernard Stein. Dig deeper, join the real party!

In one of the few non-Pink Panther related collaborations between actor Peter Sellers and filmmaker Blake Edwards, the great Sellers is at his best. He's cast as bumbling Indian actor Hrundi V. Bakshi, whose clumsiness on a location destroys a Hollywood productions' most valuable set. However, circumstances not only prevent Hrundi from being fired, but being invited to the swank party hosted by studio mogul Fred Clutterbuck (J. Edward McKinley) by mistake. There, he ultimately makes a shambles of the evening, but he receives ample assistance from other bumblers on the scene."The Party" might not appeal to all viewer tastes, who might see it as too slowly paced and overlong. But it's very lavish entertainment, well shot in Panavision by Lucien Ballard, and with colourful sets. The gags aren't non-stop, but there are some appreciable farcical moments, such as when Hrundi turns a visit to the bathroom into a disaster.Sellers is completely endearing and hilarious, once again completely disappearing inside a role. He receives solid support from a cast also including French beauty Claudine Longet (as party guest Michele Monet), Marge Champion, Buddy Lester, Gavin MacLeod, Fay McKenzie, Denny Miller, Timothy Scott, Ken Wales, and Carol Wayne. However, for a while this turns into the Steve Franken show, as the actor threatens to steal the film away from Sellers, playing an incompetent servant who becomes inebriated.Everything builds at a deliberate pace to a fun over the top finale, that's better seen than described.Great music, as always, by Henry Mancini.Seven out of 10.

That opening scene is hilarious, a take-down of all those old British colonials in the Khyber Pass movies. After Bakshi (Sellers) accidentally blows up the movie set, he gets mistakenly invited to the producer's Hollywood mansion party, where he makes a similar shambles. He may be a congenital screw-up, but somehow never lacks for dignified bearing. The house could be collapsing, yet there he would be, still standing, a sickly smile and manful composure. As the hapless screw-up, Sellers delivers in spades.Director Edwards has a big challenge— he has a series of comedic sketches but basically no story or dialog. For one thing, he brings in Steve Franken, (from TV's Dobie Gillis), as a drunken waiter to help Sellers carry the comedic load. Together, their screw-ups turn polite society into a kind of Marx Bros. chaos. Plus the indoor pool is great comedic inspiration. The sketches are mostly pretty funny, but I'm with those who find the last 20-minutes a misfire. By building the turmoil, Edwards has to climax with something boffo to top all the rest. But the hippie kids, painted elephant and watery foam, are more awkward contrivance than comedic topper. Then too, by that time, the one-note premise has worn pretty thin.Nonetheless, the movie has more than its share of laughs, thanks mainly to that genius of the artful bumble, Peter Sellers.