"Party Girl" is a B film in A wrapping paper - even the title suggests a tawdry B picture. But it's in color and stars Robert Taylor, Cyd Charisse, Lee J. Cobb, and John Ireland. Taylor plays an attorney whose hip was damaged in a boyhood accident. He's become a powerful mob mouthpiece when he falls in love with a showgirl (Charisse). When he wants out of the mob life, he finds that the mobster (Cobb) is unwilling to let him go.
Directed by Nicholas Ray, the film flirts more with film noir than B status and has some excellent performances, particularly by Taylor and Lee J. Cobb. Cobb is quite terrifying as a violent thug who doesn't telegraph his violence, making him all the more frightening - you just never know what he's going to do. And the violence doesn't leave much to the imagination.
Taylor does a terrific job as an attorney who all his life has believed he's nothing but a cripple, an outsider, and has given up on having any kind of a personal life. He tells Charisse the story of how his hip came to be damaged in his youth and talks about it being a mark of bravery - until he was older and the other guys were getting the dates. I really can't see any woman looking at Robert Taylor being deterred by a limp - or anything else - but perhaps this is more a statement about the power of a negative self image and how it allowed him to be ridiculed by his wife.
Charisse is very good and has two great dance numbers that show off her great talent, gorgeous figure, and those to-die-for legs.
The script has some huge problems. The story is preposterous, the Swedish surgery being one aspect that defies reality. The other is the DA expecting a lawyer to breach attorney-client privilege. Also, the film is set in the '30s but some of it has a '50s aura to it - I blame the color more than anything else.
"Party Girl" is still worth seeing. It's a Nicholas Ray film, it's Taylor's last MGM film as a contract player, and he turns in a wonderful performance.
Directed by Nicholas Ray, the film flirts more with film noir than B status and has some excellent performances, particularly by Taylor and Lee J. Cobb. Cobb is quite terrifying as a violent thug who doesn't telegraph his violence, making him all the more frightening - you just never know what he's going to do. And the violence doesn't leave much to the imagination.
Taylor does a terrific job as an attorney who all his life has believed he's nothing but a cripple, an outsider, and has given up on having any kind of a personal life. He tells Charisse the story of how his hip came to be damaged in his youth and talks about it being a mark of bravery - until he was older and the other guys were getting the dates. I really can't see any woman looking at Robert Taylor being deterred by a limp - or anything else - but perhaps this is more a statement about the power of a negative self image and how it allowed him to be ridiculed by his wife.
Charisse is very good and has two great dance numbers that show off her great talent, gorgeous figure, and those to-die-for legs.
The script has some huge problems. The story is preposterous, the Swedish surgery being one aspect that defies reality. The other is the DA expecting a lawyer to breach attorney-client privilege. Also, the film is set in the '30s but some of it has a '50s aura to it - I blame the color more than anything else.
"Party Girl" is still worth seeing. It's a Nicholas Ray film, it's Taylor's last MGM film as a contract player, and he turns in a wonderful performance.