The Party Pics

The film opens in the desert, and it is revealed that a film crew is filming an ambush scene for a Gunga Din-style costume epic. Unknown Indian actor Hrundi V. Bakshi (Sellers) has a small role in which he sounds a bugle to start the attack. Ignoring directions, he continues to play even after being shot dozens of times, and he does not stop even after the director (Herbert Ellis) yells cut. Bakshi continues to hamper the filming, until he accidentally blows up an enormous set, a fort rigged with explosives for an upcoming scene depicting its attack. The director fires Bakshi immediately and calls the studio head, General Fred Clutterbuck (J. Edward McKinley), about the mishap. Clutterbuck writes down Bakshi's name in order to blacklist him, but he inadvertently writes Bakshi's name on the guest list of his upcoming dinner party.

During the opening credits, Bakshi receives his invitation in the mail and drives to the party at Clutterbuck's home. Upon arrival at the party, Bakshi tries to rinse dirt off his shoe in a large fountain that flows through the house, but he loses his shoe. He spends about five minutes trying to retrieve it as it floats through the house and gets launched onto a serving platter.

Bakshi has awkward interactions with everyone at the party, including Clutterbuck's dog Cookie. He meets famous Western movie actor "Wyoming Bill" Kelso (Denny Miller), who gives Bakshi an autograph. Bakshi later accidentally shoots Kelso with a toy gun, but Kelso does not see who did it. Bakshi tries to feed a caged macaw some bird food from a container marked "Birdie Num Num." He ends up dumping the food everywhere as two guests stare. Bakshi then accidentally activates a panel of electronics that control the intercom, a fountain (soaking a guest), and a retractable bar (which Bakshi closes while Clutterbuck is sitting at it). After Kelso hurts Bakshi's hand while shaking it, Bakshi sticks his hand into a bowl of crushed ice containing caviar. While waiting to wash his hand in the bathroom, he meets aspiring actress Michèle Monet (Longet), who came with producer C.S. Divot (Gavin McLeod). Bakshi shakes Divot's hand, and Divot then shakes hands with other guests, passing around the fishy odor, even back to Bakshi after he has washed his hand.

Dinner is served, but at Bakshi's place setting right by the kitchen door, his chair is missing. He gets a very low chair that puts his chin near the table. Several mishaps occur while an increasingly drunk waiter named Levinson (Steven Franken) tries to serve dinner and fights with the other staff. During the main course, Bakshi's roast Cornish game hen accidentally catapults off his fork and becomes impaled on a guest's tiara. Bakshi asks Levinson to retrieve his meal, but the woman's wig comes off along with her tiara, as she obliviously engages in conversation. Levinson ends up brawling with other waitstaff, and dinner is disrupted.

Bakshi apologizes to his hosts, then needs to go to the bathroom. He wanders through the house, opening doors and barging in on various servants and guests in embarrassing situations. He ends up in the back yard, where he accidentally sets off the sprinklers. At Divot's insistence, Monet gives an impromptu guitar performance of "Nothing to Lose," to impress the guests. Bakshi ends up upstairs, where he takes a toy gun from Clutterbuck's young son. He then uses it to save Monet from Divot's unwanted sexual advances by dislodging Divot's

The Party is a 1968 comedy film directed by Blake Edwards, starring Peter Sellers and Claudine Longet. The film has a very loose structure, and essentially serves as a series of set pieces for Sellers's improvisational comedy talents. The comedy is based on a fish out of water premise, in which a bungling Indian actor accidentally gets invited to a lavish Hollywood dinner party and "makes terrible mistakes based upon ignorance of Western ways."