The Wild Party
1929, NR, 110 min. Directed by Dorothy Arzner. Starring Clara Bow, Frederic March, Shirley O'Hara, Marceline Day.
REVIEWED By Marjorie Baumgarten, Tue., Feb. 26, 2002
The final film in this AFS series, The Wild Party is a curio by any standard. Starring "It" Girl Clara Bow in her first talkie, the film is also directed by pioneering woman director Dorothy Arzner, who was selected by Paramount to direct the studio's first talking feature. The "college girls go wild" genre is a tried-and-true formula much older than all those late-night videotape hustlers on the TV commercials would have us believe. This one has party girl Bow pursuing the new anthropology professor on campus played by Frederic March. Its not much in the enduring comedy department but it's certainly a fascinating relic.
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The Wild Party, Dorothy Arzner, Clara Bow, Frederic March, Shirley O'Hara, Marceline Day