Main Cast: Robert Taylor, Cyd Charisse, Lee J. Cobb, John Ireland, Kent Smith
Release Year: 1958
Country: US
Run Time: 99 minutes
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, All Movie Guide
Review
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, All Movie Guide
Corey Allen - Cooky La Motte; Lewis Charles - Danny Rimett; David Opatoshu - Lou Forbes; Patrick McVey - O'Malley; Barbara Lang - Tall Blond Party Girl; Myrna Hansen - Joy Hampton; Betty Utey - Party Girl; Hy Anzell - Man; Herb Armstrong - Intern; Margaret Bert - Wardrobe Woman; Peter Bourne - Cab Driver; Marshall Bradford - District Attorney; Barrie Chase - Showgirl; John Damler - Detective; Ken Dibbs - Joey Vulner; Burt Douglas - P.A; Jack Gargan - Officer; Tom Hernandez - Sketch Artist; Harry Hines - Newsboy; Stuart Holmes - Juror; Paul Keast - Judge Davers; Jack Lambert - Nick; Rusty Lane - Judge John A. Dasen; Sam McDaniel - Jesse; David McMahon - Guard; Carmen Phillips - Ricos' Girlfriend; Aaron Saxon - Frankie Gasto; Vito Scotti - Hotel Clerk; Floyd Simmons - Assistant Prosecutor; Ralph Smiley - Hotel Proprietor; Sydney Smith - Judge Bookwell; Vaughan Taylor - Dr. Caderman; Erich Von Stroheim, Jr. - Police Lieutenant; Geraldine Wall - Day Matron; Marc Wilder - Speciality Dancer; Robert B. Williams - Guard; Michael Dugan - Jenks; David Garcia - Newsman; Benny Rubin - Mr. Field; Dolores Reed - Woman; John Franco - One of Cookie's Henchmen; Herbert Lytton - Judge Alfino; Michael Pierce; Sanita Pelkey; Georges Saurel - Rico's Hood; Jerry Schumacher - Newsboy; J. Lewis Smith - Juror; Carl Thayler; Clare Kelly - Genevieve
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 is a 1958film color film noir directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Robert Taylor and Cyd Charisse. Charisse performs two dance routines in the gangster film. Party Girl marked the last film Robert Taylor did under contract for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.[1]
Slick lawyer Thomas Farrell has made a career of defending mobsters in trials. It's not until he meets a lovely showgirl at a mob party that he realizes that there's more to life then winning trials. Farrell tries to quit the racket, but mob boss Rico Angelo threatens to hurt the showgirl if Farrell leaves him.
A. H. Weiler, film critic for The New York Times gave the film a mixed review and said, ""Party Girl," it should be noted at once, is handsomely accoutered in color and CinemaScope and professionally handled by Nicholas Ray, director, and Joe Pasternak, producer, who approach their subject as if the explosive Chicago of the early Thirties was something they had just discovered. The fact is that "Party Girl," like the Charleston, is old hat, an old hat that would be amusing if it weren't so frighteningly reminiscent of a past best forgotten...There is little that is novel or exciting about this "Party Girl," despite her trappings or the occasional gunplay that surrounds her.[2]
The film today is considered a cult film by some. TV Guide's review of the film praised the films performances, "Party Girl offers only a standard story, but director Ray makes more of it through clever setups and inventive techniques, drawing forth excellent performances from Taylor (who is playing a role loosely based on Dixie Davis, lawyer for mob boss Dutch Schultz of New York, who later turned informant and married a beautiful showgirl). Cobb turns in a "Wild-Man-of-Borneo" performance wherein he not only eats the scenery but spits it out and chews on it again and again. Charisse, who performs two sensuous nightclub dances, does a commendable job with her cliché role."[3]
Film critic Bruce Eder liked the film and wrote, "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."[4]
Film critic Dennis Schwartz said, " Ray does wonders with George Wells' slight script through his masterful use of the camera to evoke the characters' alienation and vulnerability, and by also including exotic dance numbers and diverting costumes he creates some stunning visuals that have an eye-catching surreal look...It's a honey of a film, never mind the superficial flaws."[5]
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 80% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on ten reviews.[6]
