The Night of the Party

The Night of the Party
The Night of the Party
	U.S. trade ad
Directed by	Michael Powell
Written by	Roland Pertwee & John Hastings Turner
Produced by	Jerome Jackson
Starring	Leslie Banks; Ian Hunter; Jane Baxter; Ernest Thesiger;
Cinematography	Glen MacWilliams
Music by	Louis Levy
Production; company	Gaumont British Picture Corporation
Distributed by	Gaumont British
Release date	16 July 1934
Running time	61 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Night of the Party is a 1934 British mystery thriller film directed by Michael Powell and starring Leslie Banks, Ian Hunter, Jane Baxter, Ernest Thesiger and Malcolm Keen. In the United States it was released as The Murder Party.^[1]^[2] It was made at the Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush. The art direction was by Alfred Junge, later a regular contributor to the films of Powell and Pressburger. ^[3]

Synopsis[]

After inviting guests to a dinner party the ruthless press baron Lord Studholme is found murdered during a party game. The investigating detectives have to work out which of the guests had the motive to murder him.^[4]

Cast[]

Leslie Banks as Sir John Holland
Ian Hunter as Guy Kennion
Jane Baxter as Peggy Studholme
Ernest Thesiger as Chiddiatt
Viola Keats as Joan Holland
Malcolm Keen as Lord Studholme
Jane Millican as Anna Chiddiatt
Muriel Aked as Princess Amelia
Gerald Barry as Baron Cziatch
Cecil Ramage as Howard Vernon
John Turnbull as Insp. Ramage
W. Graham Brown as General Piddinghoe
Laurence Anderson as Defence counsel
Louis Goodrich as The Judge
Disney Roebuck as Butler
Gordon Begg as Miles

Critical reception[]

Kinematograph Weekly wrote in 1934, "Direction and production lack that slickness and kick which is so essential to the complete success of this type of manufactured thriller. Few of the stage favourites comprising the cast succeed in adapting their technique to the requirements of the screen." the reviewer however singled out Viola Keats and Ernest Thesiger as the two "who really succeed in establishing definite character." The reviewer added, "the film is just lukewarm mystery entertainment, suitable for second rather than first place on the programme";^[5] while more recently, the Radio Times wrote, "The film's surviving interest is as one of the earliest extant works of Michael Powell, still in his twenties at the time. The project offered little artistic challenge, but he directs fluently enough and seems to have cut short the lengthy courtroom dénouement in favour of a lively, if implausible, interruption by the guilty party."^[6]