I watched this film when I was 10 yrs old, now I am 40 and I still love it. Peter Sellers unfolds all his great talent on this film. It is a classic comedy, that is perfect to watch together with your kids.

Want to taste some strawberry soup? You are not a gourmet like me? Not even a gourmet of movies? Of the best movies? Believe you me, this one it's probably the best comedy of all time. Peter Sellers in an absolutely irresistible role, for which he coached in "The Road to Hong Kong"(1962), directed by Norman Panama, where he performs a demented Indian Neurologist. You will see many other adorable actors in "The Party": Claudine Longet, Steve Franken, J Edward McKinley, etc. Great music by the great Henry Mancini. Blake Edwards (1922-2010) was a great film director and comedy specialist, the Pink Panther series with the huge Peter Sellers, "Breakfast at Tiffany's," and so on. Now, I recommend you to watch The Rolling Stones' official promo video for "It's Only Rock 'N' Roll (But I Like It)"(1974), directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. The circus tent that fills with bubbles is certainly inspired by the end of "The Party". And another recommendation, if you watch "Bean" (1997), with Rowan Atkinson and directed by Mel Smith, you will find that the idea with the painting is inspired by the same "The Party" (Peter Sellers scene in the bathroom after he succeeds finally to pee...). I would give it more than 10 stars because it is really a movie that you can see many many times, all your life. I forgot how many times I saw it, five times for certain, at least.

Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers' rowdy comedy about an Indian actor Hrundi V. Bakshi (Sellers), who is brought from India to act in a studio epic picture. When his offbeat improvisation and unwitting behaviour sabotage the entire production, he is fired and black- listed, but by a single mistake, his name is added onto the guest list of a party thrown by Alice Clutterbuck (McKenzie), the wife of the studio head Fred Clutterbuck (McKinley). So Hrundi happily accepts the invitation and attends the party in Clutterbuck's posh mansion, and turns the party into an absurd and bubbly farce.The absurdity might come from the influences of Jacques Tati, but its calibration is much broader and the devil-may-care outlandishness is less refined, quite pertinent to serve the purpose of caricaturing the tawdry and supercilious constitutions of the Tinseltown industry though. Without a particular character-building or story-unfolding, the story meanders aimlessly through Hrundi's slapstick around various characters, among which the guests are all dignified in their formality, apart from the host and hostess, some notable ones are the Western film star Kelso (Miller), a haughty Ms. Dunphy (Champion), and a French chanteuse Michele Monet (Longet) accompanied by bigot producer C.S. Divot (MacLeod). The scale of buffoonery balloons accordingly through Hrundi's often unintended bumbling, and the drunkenness of the waiter Levinson (Franken), whose clash with the major-domo Harry (Lanphier) is crack. But essentially, it is Sellers' one-man-show, fashions a funny Indian accent, his gaucheness is a miraculous laughter-inducer, against his self-aware diffidence, he is an exemplary comedian, a bona-fide humorist, who is too good to debase himself into raunchiness, no vulgar toilet jokes, instead his pee-holding antics producing one of the optimal funny moments inside a toilet. Edwards' long-time collaborator Henry Mancini scores an entertaining big band soundtrack, where the theme song NOTHING TO LOSE sung by Monet in the film is agreeably catchy. It is difficult to me to claim this is the best comedy of its time, as evidently Edwards lets it loose a bit near the end, all sensational but also indolent in its development, the whole farce evolves into a revelry, without considerable moderation when a painted elephant walks into the foreground, finally as if all the ballyhoo only makes a contribution to en-kindle a budding romance between Hrundi and Michele, we never get a punch-drunk final blow the film seems to promise with its pungent irony, in spite of all its distinctive merits and innovative comic bravura

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.