The Wild Party (1975)

The Wild Party is a 1975 Merchant Ivory Productions film directed by James Ivory, produced by Ismail Merchant, and starring James Coco and Raquel Welch.

An aging silent movie comic star of the 1920s named Jolly Grimm attempts a comeback by staging a party to show his new film. But the party turns into a sexual free-for-all and the comic ends up killing his mistress, Queenie, and an actor who has taken an interest in her.

The film was loosely based on a poem by Joseph Moncure March and filmed in Riverside, California. The poem was also made into two musicals, a Broadway show, composed by Michael John LaChiusa, which followed the poem very closely, and an off-Broadway production, composed by Andrew Lippa, which took some artistic liberties with the poem but still less than this movie.

A dance scene was choreographed by Patricia Birch.

Synopsis

Once a great star of silent film, Jolly Grimm has wealth, a mansion, a manservant, Tex, and a beautiful and faithful woman in his life, Queenie, but no longer has Hollywood's interest. He desperately tries to get studio executives interested in his latest project, which he has financed himself, so he decides to throw a huge party at his house and show the film footage to those who come.

Actors