Plot
Vicki Gaye (Cyd Charisse) is a dancer at a night club in early 1930's Chicago. A healthy cynic who still possesses some ideals, she entertains no illusions about the "invitation" (or the $100 that goes with it) that she gets to a party hosted by mob kingpin Rico Angelo (Lee J. Cobb) -- but she still won't let Angelo's head torpedo Louis Canetto (John Ireland) get near her. Angelo's attorney Thomas Farrell (Robert Taylor) is another story -- he's a more complicated than the men he defends, and still enough of an idealist so that when he and Vicki cross swords about who is the worse hypocrite, it actually affects him. Farrell, whose right leg has been crippled from birth and getting worse, took the easy way to success by pursuing a criminal practice, including getting Canetto off a murder rap -- but after meeting Vicki he starts to see another path to take, and also embarks on a year of surgical procedures to cure the worst of the pain in his leg. And he comes out a new man, with a new plan in life, including starting over in a practice that doesn't involve criminal law. But Angelo plans on having Farrell fight an old friend, prosecutor Jeffrey Stewart (Kent Smith), who is trying to indict Angelo's associate Cooky La Motte (Corey Allen). Farrell resists, until Angelo threatens to harm Vicki -- and when the case and the trail blow up in both sides' faces, he finds himself caught between the mob and the law, with Vicki urging him to do the right thing. ~ Bruce Eder, RoviReview
Party Girl is regarded by many Nicholas Ray fans as the most beautiful looking of all of his movies. Shot in CinemaScope and color, and starring Cyd Charisse (with Robert Taylor, it gave cinematographer Robert J. Bronner one of the best showcases he ever had for his work, and was a treat to the eye of the viewer, a veritable explosion of color and motion for many of its best sequences. The acting, if quite broad at times, also displays some interesting touches -- Robert Taylor assumes a persona that might better have been played by John Emery, but acquits himself reasonably well, and with a good deal of dignity. Lee J. Cobb's mob kingpin -- very loosely based on Al Capone -- makes his work as Johnny Friendly in On The Waterfront seem low-key, by comparison; and Corey Allen does a memorable turn, in what almost amounts to a cameo, as psychopathic mobster Cookie La Motte (who was apparently based on Mad Dog Coll) -- though one wonders, if James Dean had lived and been available, if that role might not have loomed much larger in the film in his hands. One also has to wonder if producer Quinn Martin screened Party Girl a few times before plunging into production on The Scarface Mob (1959) and the subsequent series The Untouchables -- absent the color and the widescreen shooting, the film does anticipate some elements of the latter series, especially in the handling of the action sequences, and some of the odder, quirkier elements of the characters. ~ Bruce Eder, RoviCast
- Robert Taylor - Thomas Farrell
- Cyd Charisse - Vicki Gaye
- Lee J. Cobb - Rico Angelo
- John Ireland - Louis Canetto
- Kent Smith - Jeffrey Stewart
Credit
Randall Duell - Art Director, William Horning - Art Director, Robert Sidney - Choreography, Helen Rose - Costume Designer, Erich Von Stroheim, Jr. - First Assistant Director, Nicholas Ray - Director, John McSweeney, Jr. - Editor, Andre Previn - Composer (Music Score), Jeff Alexander - Composer (Music Score), Nicholas Brodszky - Songwriter, Sammy Cahn - Songwriter, William J. Tuttle - Makeup, Robert J. Bronner - Cinematographer, Joe Pasternak - Producer, Henry W. Grace - Set Designer, Richard A. Pefferle - Set Designer, Lee Le Blanc - Special Effects, Wesley C. Miller - Sound/Sound Designer, George Wells - Screenwriter, Leo Katcher - Short Story Author| Party Girl (1930 Film), Party Fever (1938 Film) | |
| Party Girl (1995 Film), Party Girls for Sale (1954 Film) |
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