The Night of the Party

Izenburua EEBBetan/US Title/Título en EEUU: The Murder Party
BFI NFTVA-TIK DATORREN KOPIA/COPY FROM BFI NFTVA/COPIA PROCEDENTE DE BFI NFTVA

A newspaper magnate gives a lavish party in honour of a visiting princess and the guests are invited to play “murder”. When the lights are turned on again, the magnate is dead and almost everyone present is a suspect. Although his secretary, Guy, is charged, during the trial, Chiddiatt, a foppish “modern” novelist, becomes deranged and confesses before killing himself. The atmospheric nocturnal settings marked Powell's first collaboration with Alfred Junge and this was also his first encounter with the editor Derek Twist. The Night of the Party (1934) tackles that most conventional of all English genres (the after-dinner murder game that turns real), with an able cast and elegant lighting. Well worth the mention are Ernest Thesiger's delightfully camp decadent novelist and a flashing neon sign advertising the ruthless Studholme's newspapers, which provides a suitably lurid background for several confrontations. Ian Christie (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger: Arrows of Desire)

YEAR   1934 PRODUCTION   Jerome Jackson Gaumont-British DIRECTOR   Michael Powell SCREENPLAY   Ralph Smart PHOTOGRAPHY   Glen Mac Williams EDITION   Derek Twist CAST   Malcolm Keen (Lord Studholme), Jane Baxter (Peggy Studholme), Ian Hunter (Guy Kennington), Leslie Banks (Sir John Holland), Ernest Thesiger (Adrian Chiddiatt) RUNNING TIME   61 m.

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