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.

Due to sensitive nature of the subject matter this film was never widely seen.It concerns a young American girl who comes to London and gets involved with a bunch of no-good hooligans known as the "Pack".What happens after a very wild party that goes horribly wrong is what led to troubles with the censor as it includes necrophilia as well as other assorted horrors.Not for every taste (to put it mildly!)but interesting to see for those who can stomach it for the young rising stars involved,including a very young Louise Sorel.

"The Party's Over" is nothing special. What makes it interesting is knowing that it ran afoul of the British censors for depicting things that were back then considered "inappropriate".

Oliver Reed plays the leader of a group of young beatniks in London. They're the sort of folks who live only for thrills, without a care in the world. Things get particularly unpleasant when a young woman hooks up with them.

I couldn't tell if the movie was trying to take a position on the direction that the UK's younger generation was taking. With the youth starting to move away from the stodgy social order that defined England for much of the 20th century, Swinging London was becoming the face of the country. This movie casts a more cynical face on that.

Anyway, it's an OK, not great movie. Guy Hamilton would later direct four James Bond movies. Incidentally, "Dr. No" (not a Hamilton movie) got released the same day as the Beatles' "Love Me Do", sixty years ago this month. Good times.

Apparently controversial in 1963 when it was made (I don't remember it), The Party's Over is evocative of so many films i saw around that time in the cinema when I was seventeen. Guy Hamilton the director removed his name from it and moved on to making James Bond films. It's still a curiosity though to anyone like myself who likes to wallow in nostalgia for b/w movies, full screen and suffused with a jazz soundtrack and familiar faces from that pre Beatles era. Louise Sorel is the daughter of an American businessman and is now slumming it with some beatniks in London. Her father, played by Eddie Albert (giving the most professional performance) sends Clifford David over here to rescue her. He is her fiance and works for her father and he comes over to where he thinks she will be living but is unable to find her. The truth is she's avoiding him. Oliver Reed and others have designs on the young lady as well and they all meet in a den where booze flows freely and cigarette smoke clouds the air. Whether there were any drugs available there, I couldn't see but they may have been using more than just booze from the state of some of them. After the party they walk in a gang, zombie like, across one of the bridges in London and Oliver Reed (way over the top) flicks his cigarette butt at the watchful copper on the beat. He wouldn't get away with that today. The viewer gas the impression that these are quite well off middle to upper class young people as they seem to have plenty of money for drink and lazing around. This inevitably leads to tragic circumstances, given the amount of booze flowing and the rather banal script needing something dark to keep our interest. The cast is let down by a weak lead in Clifford David, an actor I've never heard of before. He takes a liking to the beautiful Catherine Woodville and she to him. She gives one of the best performances in the film but they lack chemistry I thought. Oliver is way over the top with his acting but he was on the verge of breaking through in a big way as I well remember and I went to most of his subsequent pictures in the sixties. Ann Lynn plays another of his clingy girl friends and is quite good also. I kept thinking how sad it is now that these young actors on the up, have now mostly left us. Mike Pratt, famous on TV was also a songwriter and here plays a beatnik. He died young at 45 from lung cancer but he wrote a lot of songs with Lionel Bart for Tommy Steele, including the children's favourite, Little White Bull sung by Tommy. As I say, this I found a curiosity, having missed it at the time and I couldn't resist a nostalgic look, although it's not very good.

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.