Half Decent

In the past week I’ve watched two classic films thanks to TCM and my old DVR pal MOXI.

First I watched the film noir classic “Detour”


For years I have heard this film spoken about in hushed tones. For noir fanatics this is one of the greats. The first half of the film left me wondering what all those noir aficionados were smoking. The dialogue is clunky and I repeatedly felt like I was watching a film noir parody. The only thing that kept me hanging in there were the beautiful camera moves that director Edgar G. Ulmer was able to orchestrate on such a small budget. Finally at about the half way mark I discovered why people love this film – Ann “motherfucking” Savage!

Noir is a very specific genre and you need to be in the proper mood for it. Ann’s performance is soooooooooooo over the top that it MAKES you forgive everything and get in the mood. She plays a bitch like no other and brings out great things in fellow lead Tom Neal. If only they could have worked her into more of the film.

The second film I watched was the Peter Sellers/Blake Edwards collaboration “The Party”

Like “Detour” I was not very fond of the first half of the film. The difference here is that while “Detour” is 75 min long, “The Party” is 120 min long – which makes for a much longer journey to the half way mark. “The Party” centers around Sellers as Hrundi V. Bakshi a bumbling Indian actor (yes there is brown face) who is accidentally invited to a classy Hollywood party and hilarity ensues.

There isn’t very much for you to hang on to in that first half. Now mind you, Sellers is brilliant as always in his odd physical comedy but why should we care? Where is this going? If it weren’t for the beautiful beautiful mid-century décor of the house I would have quit the movie after about a half-hour. I cannot for the life of me understand how a major Hollywood studio let this go out as is. Fortunately I stayed in the game.

The second half of the film is wonderful. There are elephants and bubbles and most importantly a love story that, while brief, has real feeling. As the film ended I found myself wondering how it had arrived at this point and I’m still not very sure, but I liked what I saw. You just have to learn to stop worrying and dig “The Party”.