Song: "The Party" by the L.A. power pop band The Wondermints
Released: 1996
Why's it part of the "Rome, Italian Style" playlist?: For the Henry Mancini tribute album
Shots in the Dark, which is best known for featuring a
Scream-era Rose McGowan on its artwork, The Wondermints covered Mancini's psychedelia-lite main theme from
The Party, the mostly improvised 1968 Blake Edwards comedy that thumbs its nose at Hollywood douches and SoCal stuffed shirts. (They didn't call anyone "douches" back then, so what did they say instead? "Hey, don't be such an un-groovy female sanitary napkin!"?)
Although I really like the brilliantly directed silent movie-style slapstick in
The Party, especially any set piece involving the practically mute waiter who gets himself plastered (Steve Franken,
cousin of Sen. Al Franken), I can't get past
Peter Sellers' aggravating brownface act (even though his docile Indian outsider character was written to be one of the few sympathetic and likable people in the movie, it's still brownface). The late Edwards was full of
odd contradictions as a filmmaker. For instance, he'll emasculate Asians in one movie (either in
Breakfast at Tiffany's or, to a lesser extent, in
The Party) but then give an Asian American a pretty progressive role for its time in another (James Hong's dramatic role as a surgeon wrongly accused of murder in 1972's
The Carey Treatment, a much-maligned but interesting and Roy Budd-scored
whodunit that
Edwards disowned after directing it for MGM).
The 1996
Shots in the Dark take on "The Party," which is slightly updated with '90s production trickery and opens with a clip of
the film's most quoted line, is a faithful rendition of one of Mancini's most underappreciated themes. In '96, Brian Wilson's future backing band was about to get some recognition the following year for its
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery song "Austin Powers."
All the other "Rome, Italian Style" Tracks of the Day from this week:
Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi, "Her Hollow Ways"
Parodi/Fair, "James Bond Theme (GoldenEye Trailer Version)"
Goldfrapp, "Lovely Head"
The John Gregory Orchestra, "The Avengers"
This is the final "'Rome, Italian Style' Track of the Day" post. The "Rome, Italian Style" block on A Fistful of Soundtracks airs Mondays through Thursdays from 11am to noon.
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