The Party's Over

The party may have been over for the beatniks who form the centerpiece of this strange but compelling film, but for the rest of London it was just beginning. Unusually for a British production of this vintage (1963) it doesn't fit easily in any genre. An American girl who has been hanging around with the 'beats' goes missing amid lurid rumours of rape and even necrophilia. The atmosphere is one of existential angst laced and a fin de siecle fatalism, all conveyed by way of some studiously framed b&w photography. Aside from some clunky dialogue and plumy accents this could easily be French, perhaps because the story is by Marc Behm an American expat based in France who wrote Eye of the Beholder, later transposed by Claude Miller into the excellent thriller Mortelle Radonnee starring Isabelle Adjani.

Oliver Reed plays the leader of the 'beats' in such manner that you feel the void each time he's off-screen, he really is terrific and makes the rest of the cast look like the b-movie stalwarts they were. Particularly dreadful is Mike Pratt who plays Geronimo, an artist/drummer. The party scenes with all the beats lounging around or trying to twist to modern jazz are great,as is the jazz itself with John Barry and Annie Ross contributing.

THE PARTY'S OVER is an interesting time capsule piece that brings to life Beatnik culture in the mid 1960s. Given that nobody knows who the Beatniks were these days it's invariably a dated production, once controversial but now very tame in terms of execution and the old-fashioned black and white photography. The recently deceased Bond director Guy Hamilton had his name taken off the credits due to dissatisfaction with the film's censorship.

The film depicts a social group in which hedonism and ruthlessness are the order of the day. The idea of a gang of youths going around causing havoc without giving a thought for the consequences of their actions is an interesting one which has been explored many times in the cinema, perhaps to the extreme in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.

Added to this is a main mystery storyline in which a youthful investigator comes over from America to search for a missing girl. The actor playing him is Clifford David, later to essay the role of Beethoven in BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE. What happened to the girl forms the crux of the storyline, and eventually the mystery is revealed through some flashbacks which were once controversial, although they feel very tame and ordinary by modern standards; worse happens on an evening soap these days. Still, THE PARTY'S OVER is worth a watch, even if just to see Oliver Reed's surprisingly sensitive turn as the gang leader. His role is reminiscent of his one in THE DAMNED, but with greater nuance; he truly was an underrated actor.

This dark and disturbing drama of the '60's is notable for two reasons.The first is the very taboo nature of the storyline.Hardly surprising that it had problems with the British Board of Censors.The second is Oliver Reed's performance has the leader of a group of disillusioned young people,none of whom seemingly have any particular aim in life.These people do not seem to show any emotion or compassionate,even toward each other,something which is very evident in their attitudes towards the deaths of two of their number. I have read somewhere of this film being described as "Oliver Reed meets Necrophia".Watch this film,if you are a fan of Oliver Reed and if you can obtain it,but be prepared to feel depressed afterward.

Quite splendid London based film containing a towering performance from Oliver Reed amidst his fellow 'beatniks'. Interesting time capsule affair coming as it does as The Beatles break and before the so called 'swinging London'. Dream of an opening with the cast lazily/drunkenly and seemingly aimlessly walking across Albert Bridge in the early morning. Like the film generally, a beautifully shot sequence that clearly references European cinema despite the subsequent American references and cast inclusions. Much troubled history with heavily cut version being released two years after completion and only now available uncut on DVD. Surprisingly frank portrayal of sex and rock 'n' roll without the drugs and even the rock 'n' roll being replaced by jazz. Evocative, illuminating, unnerving and enjoyable with much London location exteriors.

Executive Producer Peter O'Toole and Jack Hawkins along with director Guy Hamilton took their names off this controversial British Beatnik flick where an American girl, missing from her New York tycoon father and businessman fiance, is supposedly raped/screwed after death: so for them it wasn't controversial enough...

Yet no actual necrophilia occurs (unless you count a quick posthumous kiss), even in the restored cut when -- a day before THE PARTY'S OVER -- Oliver Reed and his wayward cohorts play cat-and-mouse with Clifford David as the rich chick's arranged fiance, Carson...

Who's flown to England to not only get his girl back, but to know her, period, while she (Louise Sorel) is content with the breezy freedom among the eclectic crew of brooding Brits, either drinking and smoking while digging hot jazz when not coming down in the usual melancholy, philosophizing manner...

But it's not all emotional highs and lows since in its foundation, this is a Noirish, non-linear crime/mystery sporadically told through flashbacks provoked by the American's initially basic quest...

And he eventually becomes involved in a flirtatious, hang-around romance with the prettiest, wisest, seemingly most helpful English girls in Katherine Woodville's Nina, who, donning a slick black bowling hat and matching black cane, is lovestruck despite the secret she and the others are holding back...

As the most shocking and refreshing aspect -- much different than other counter-culture themed films -- is that the suit-and-tie fiance (a dapper-handsome hybrid of Robert Mitchum, Alan Badel, Cornel Wilde and Liam Neeson) is not the usual cliché idiotic conservative-square to make the progressive cool kids seem that much cooler...

So Clifford Davis's buried lead feels more like an even-keeled, experienced gumshoe, questioning (in vain) a goading, moody Oliver Reed, the passive-aggressive leader of the eclectic gang...

Each member foreshadowing the future punk rock movement of total individuality despite a sort of zombie-like/like-minded camaraderie (including Reed's big bald German sidekick; his cheated-on blues-crooning moll; a suicidal college student; and a gay messenger boy)...

But it's a shame these spontaneous, otherwise freewheeling nomadic scoundrels are so bogged-down by the previous night's crime (actually more of an unreported tragic accident)...

A burden that hinders their each and every step as, compared to the potentially awesome opening credits where the group coolly wanders across a bridge at a murky dawn, they could have been far more character-driven than guilt-ridden in what ultimately winds up a pre-Goth/Gothic romance about existential life (and love) after death.