The Wild Party

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed watching 'The Wild Party'. It is not a brilliant film, but it is much better than I expected after having looked at some of the reviews here and having tried a couple of other early talkies (though none as early as this one). So what did I like about it? First of all Clara Bow of course. She comes across just as well as on silent film; in fact, I think she managed the transition to talking pictures excellently. Some contemporary and later reviewers disliked her New York accent. I don't, though admittedly English isn't my first language and I am no good at recognising regional accents. Her voice itself - occasionally criticised too - is perfectly alright as far as I am concerned. Her acting style is natural, not overdone - at least after the first couple of scenes, where she looks a bit nervous. All in all she is credible as a college student. The other female actors do very well, too. Most dialogue (again, after the actors got the first one of two scenes behind them) sounds fine - far better than the stilted and unnatural lines in the few talking scenes in 'Lonesome' for example, which came out only one year before 'The Wild Party'. The plot is nice enough. There are some enjoyable twists and turns and a reasonably satisfying conclusion. I am saying 'reasonably satisfying' because this conclusion involves the male lead actor, Fredric March, who I think was miscast in the role of professor Gilmore. He is supposed to be very much focused on academia and research, but that does not mean that he absolutely has to be quite so stuffy, boring and downright unfriendly (he does not even greet, let alone welcome the students in his new course). It beats me why all the girls go crazy about him.

'The Wild Party' is of course also interesting because it shows, if not what all-women colleges were like in the late 1920s, then at least how the general public assumed students and professors to behave. My, how things have changed! There is this professor, Gilmore, who saves the character played by Clara Bow from being gang raped by a group of drunks. His reaction? He says he worries about his position at the college. A moment later he passionately kisses Clara. THAT is what would make him worry today. Evidently the general public thought it was fine for members of faculty to have romantic relations with students (even though the college is implied to have frowned upon this kind behaviour). Well, at any rate, I liked 'The Wild Party'. It is definitely the most enjoyable early (i.e. Pre-1933) talkie I have watched so far. I recommend it.

The first thing I had to wonder, just prior to watching "The Wild Party" was whether or not it was based on the novelette I'd ripped through, just a month or so ago: The Wild Party by Joseph Mancuso March--originally published in 1928. Discovering that this was a very different story was my only disappointment.

It often seems that no small number of people, out there, don't want to give the early days of Hollywood the credit it so richly deserves. And that's sad; as sad as, say, the somewhat dark story behind "It" Girl, Clara Bow--whose mother considered slitting the girl's throat when Clara declared her she wanted to be an actress.

(Fortunately that didn't happen. If it had, film fans of today might not have an inkling of a clue that, even way back then--in the days that would become infamously known as "The Great Depression"--girls just wanted to have fun.)

Clara Bow plays her role of mischievous college girl, Stella Ames, to-the-hilt. And a young, debonaire Frederic March as straight-laced college professor Gilmore is her perfect counterpart.

The way the two begin seeing eye-to-eye may be said to be expected, but not totally predictable--because the antics of Stella Ames and her sorority sisters provide just the right element of subplot. If there was any one flaw in this gem, it was that the sound quality was often so scratchy, I was unsure, now and again, what one actor or another had said.

Still, this in no way detracts from the film's overall quality. (One must taken into account, after all, that 1929 was the infancy of the "talkie" era). Come to think of it, I can

only imagine what a "wild party" '29 must've been for many Hollywood executives and stars alike--the huge stock market crash aside!

Paramount's first all-talking picture is nothing like you'd expect it to be. It's nothing like its title suggests either. If you've watched BABYLON, with Margot Robbie you might be expecting to see a badly acted, technically inept disaster but this actually a pretty decent movie. This massive hit of 1929 is still a hell of a lot better than a lot of films made one or two years afterwards!

The studio picked their biggest star, Clara Bow to draw in the crowds but this isn't just Miss Bow frolicking around in her underwear - well there is some of that but I was amazed to discover that this was a mature, thoughtful and thoroughly entertaining picture. Made by Hollywood's premiere (ok, only) female director, it's also got a strong feminist undercurrent which is absolutely not something you'd expect in 1929! The famous scene when Clara and her friends nearly get raped "because" they were dressed provocatively in a lot of films from the thirties (not just the thirties) would have been a misogynistic morality tale: "well look at them, they were asking for it." was the pervading attitude back then. Drunk middle-aged men groping girls was often depicted as being perfectly acceptable behaviour but in Miss Arzner's refreshingly progressive picture it's not, definitely not seen as acceptable.

Her direction is innovative and dynamic: it's as removed from being static and stage-bound as you can possibly imagine, it's even got a score (which wasn't normal until years later). The acting is still a little theatrical but as the film progresses, you can really see them, especially Clara Bow figuring out how to come across more naturally.

You watch some really old films simply out of interest, like museum curios. Some people might just want to see what Clara Bow was like (watch the superb CALL HER SAVAGE if you do...or better still, an Alice White film - the real 'it girl' of the twenties!) but this is so much more than something to tick off your list. You can watch this as a real piece of genuine entertainment. It's not quite one of those few classics of 1929 but it's still one of the best. It gives you a lovely sense of the age with an intelligent, enjoyable and surprisingly thought provoking script.

In fact, on some levels it is a fascinating look at college girls at play at the end of the roaring twenties. The year is 1929 and the place is mythical Winston College, an all-girl school. Stella Ames (Clara Bow) is the most popular girl in school and life of the party, Helen Owens (Shirley O'Hara) is the smartest girl in school, and Faith Morgan (Marceline Day) is a trustee of sorts in the dorm where the girls live who is given to lecturing Stella and has a very stern outlook on life. All of the girls get along pretty well with the exception of one who seems to delight in snooping and gossiping - her antics enter heavily into the plot. The romance here is an unlikely one between young professor of anthropology Dr. Gilmore "Gil" (Fredric March) and party girl Stella. The relationship starts out antagonistically due to an incident a few months before Gil came to the college. A mishap in the sleeper car of a train had a sleepy Stella getting up in the middle of the night for a drink of water and returning to the wrong berth - Gil's, in fact. She's determined to get even with him for teasing her at the time, and is surprised when he doesn't seem to know she's alive.

The college stag dance with girls dancing with girls in which Stella and her two buddies enter the stag dance in a sort of conga line dressed in sequined bathing suits, raccoon skin coats, and high heels is truly an iconic moment in late 20's film. The story should hold your interest although there is nothing truly unique about it, and I thought that the acting and direction were quite good for an early talkie. Sure, Bow has a very noticeable New York accent, but it suits her in this and the other early talkie roles I've seen her in as it accentuates her brashness. Director Arzner keeps things moving by not letting a dead camera just hang there while actors endlessly speechify as is common in other films from this same year. As for the plot devices, there's a rowdy roadhouse, a near-attempted rape, a shooting, dorm fire-drills and head counts at embarrassing moments, and one of the girls falling asleep on the beach with a man at a party until 4AM and then losing the page of a letter in which she is writing about the incident. Wherever did that piece of paper go? I'd definitely recommend this to early talkie fans.

I'm going to have to disagree with the person who said you should watch it without the sound. You can tell its a early talkie and that all of the actresses are trying very hard to make the transition. Clara Bow was a sensational actress but she had a very hard time with sound. Its a cute film if you don't over analyze it too much. And its fun to hear what Clara sounded like. You can kind of hear her Brooklyn accent if you listen really hard. It is cheesy but its 1929! You weren't allowed to do anything in 1929! Clara is great and its unfortunate that she retired by the time she was 27. The Wild Party is about girls who don't take college seriously until Clara, who's kinda like the queen bee, meets Frederic March, who is her professor. Its fun to see what life may have been like in the early years of sound. Clara was so talented and beautiful.