Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Raquel Welch and James Coco team up in The Wild Party, now playing ait the Fox Theatre downtown. Carona Careseha MA WeThess.,,Sept.325, Alo onmbetheigeda S Fn Cat HOWfl *HwV oReeiC.E.U Voluntary Action C on Your Permanent Re * How You Can Help Spe * How We Can Help One r'oma& ON 4k1 LEFT .UA oils Pakrodl Presentsk ietSeak O e . SISaLOBBY.e 7:0-8:00 On epiuaVlnt Projec scrditondys cord. 1'0 DO IT? ouncil Proudly Presents Arnoer.uetSeaes SIMS LOBY. 7:-8. PAR TY From Page Seven THE DIFFERENCES between the ficticious Grimm and the real Arbuckle are many, but minor. Grimm's wild party came during a slump in his career in 1929, while Arbuckle's wild party occurred at the height of his in 1921. Grimm's mistress Queenie was far more lady-like than Arbuckle's rather shady Virginia Rappe, who was a notorious "sweetheart" to just about everyone who slept around in Hollywood. Grimm's party was in his own home, while Arbuckle decided to travel to a hotel for the wild festivities. But, more important than the differences and similarities in facts, The Wild Party does not begin to capture the least bit of drama or curiosity of the Arbuckle scanm. AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL PICTURES decided to make the film in 1973, when Paramount was making Day of the Locust. At that time, the belief was that Day of the Locust was going to be an enormous financial success, and Ie Wild party was going to cash in on it. A fairly intelligent script was written and the part of Grimm was offered to James Coco, who accepted immediately. Raquel Welch was approached to play Queenie, but the studio could only offer her half her normal going rate. But Welch accepted the offer at the sacrifice of thousands of dollars because she thought the part was the most challenging of her career. And after she got to work with James Coco, she liked his acting so much that she demanded her name be placed below the title, giving Coco the spotlight above the title. Reports started leaking out that the film was going to be great. Then Day of the Locust came out and did poorly at the boxoffice. American International Pictures, who was about to release their film with a similar ad campaign, suddenly shelved it for several months. They decided that unless they changed the entire mood of the film, it was going to bomb out like Day of the Locust. So, the film was re-edited, adding a prologue, as well as emphasizing the sex and toning down the dramatic charac terizations. In other words, they turned the film into an ex ploitation film that would be a sure-fire success at the boxoffice. EVEN THOUGH Welch's name was still below the title in the film's credits, the posters and newspaper ads shoved her ame prominently above the title with a picture of her writhing on a bed, with the catch-line "Talk about Wild". For a film that was intended to be a statement against decadence, it certainly became a victim of it. The acting in the film is extremely good, from what we see of it. Coco is remarkable in several scenes, and even Welch is excellent. The problem that occurs, however, is every dramatic scene in the film is chopped up with cross-cutting of other events destroying any impact that could have built up from an unin terrupted scene. As the film now stands, it is a hodge podge of scrambled editing with no semblence of continuity, and no chance to get dramatic. THE SUPPORTING CAST is also good, when one can imagine the various scenes intact. Perry King (Lords of the Flatbush) and David Dukes (Beacon Hill) are both superb, but they have wasted their efforts. Tiffany Boiling is Also on hand giving her best performance to date as a friend of Queenie and date of Dale Sword. There are a few things that would have been intolerable, even in the original version. First of all, the film was shot on location at an old hotel. The acoustics of the building are outrageously bad, causing everything to have a slight echo. Much of the photography is poor, especially during the fight sequences. The costumes on all the extras are noticably cheaper than those of the stars, which is inexcusable. The musical numbers, while good in themselves, are in troduced in the most contrived manners. Raquel Welch's song and dance routine on top of a bar, is spurred-on simply by a couple of people asking her to sing a song. She has had nothing to drink yet, but her uninhibited ease in allowing herself to be persuaded to perform is that of a drunk. There is also one character in the film that never should have been included in the script: Nadine played by Annette Ferra. Nadine is a young girl about 15 years old who comes to the party to dance for Grimm, hoping he will launch her career in films. She is such a sugary sweet brat, all of her several scenes stick out like sore thumbs, and that is putting it kindly. THE MUSIC by Larry Rosenthal never decides whether to be funny or dramatic, and the effect is neither. James Ivory's directing is questionable. His performers are surprisingly good, but a good deal of crudity exists that must be blamed on Ivory. But, it must be said that the film was made on a shoe-string budget, and it was edited by an ape in the dungeons at American International Pictures. The Wild Party is a disaster, but it was worth seeing because of the acting, and because it launches interest in the real Fatty Arbuckle. It probably will not be too long before someone makes a proper film depicting the Arbuckle Saga with a bit of taste, dignity and reverence. If the story were done properly, it could easily be one of the best films preaching against the decadence of show hiz.