Watch The Life of the Party For Free

Too much of everything

Great Film overall

Absolutely the worst movie.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Winnie Lightner was a unique performer who was a terrific find for Warners when she stole "Gold Diggers of Broadway"(1929). Her high spirited performances as well as a genuine love of entertaining had her bursting through the dullness of "The Show of Shows". Not long after when musicals were on their way out Winnie was almost their first casualty, unfortunately just at the time when Warners felt she had earned the right to carry a big musical comedy. This was "The Life of the Party" and it was going to be spectacular - Technicolor production, romantic leads from Broadway (Jack Whiting, Irene Delroy), strong comic support (Charles Butterworth), grand tunes and even a fashion show!! But as studios started to get public feedback, Warners got jittery and ended up slashing all the songs except one. So what was left was an extremely funny gold- digger farce where performers occasionally pause to break into song but nothing happens!! Projecting a 100 watt personality Winnie proved she didn't need songs and it was one of Warners few successes in that dismal year of 1930!!A super opening as the camera flashes along the great white way giving viewers a glimpse of bright lights and the best and most popular of Warners films of 1930!! And the pace doesn't slacken as the camera pans to the music store with Flo and Dot ("the gold dust twins") strutting their stuff. Behind a bevy of sheet music plugging Warners/First National recent song hits Winnie Lightner (as Flo) sings the only song in the film, the bouncy "Poison Ivy" but it's her constant stream of wisecracks that will keep you in stitches. Dot (Irene Delroy) is the pretty one and it's the discovery that the handsome boy who she has kept faithful to has married an old dowager for her money, that send both her and Flo down the gold digging path. The first millionaire the gals fleece (out of a $5,000 wardrobe) is fashion retailer Mons. Le Maire and Charles Judels is hilarious as the hyper-active Frenchman with his funny dances and temper tantrums, all the while screaming "I Will Not Lose My Temper"!!Now in Havana and with Dot posing as a wealthy widow, Flo is in charge and boy is there a mix up!! Between Smiths - A.J. Smith, the wealthy inventor of Rush invigorating elixir, Flo mistakes him for con-man (a natty John Davidson) and she spends the rest of the movie trying to separate Dot from the man of her dreams, the real A.J. Smith (Jack Whiting) who is hanging around like a love sick puppy and who..... Charles Butterworth adds his comic revelry as a "not quite there" hotel guest who has a passion for Winnie and horses!!With no songs to sing Jack Whiting seemed superfluous, at least Delroy got to look fetching in some fashionable clothes but often the scene found them gazing at the moon, then cutting as soon as they opened their mouths to sing!! But according to a Photoplay review, only Winnie, Charles Butterworth and Charles Judell were needed as the laughs poured out of them and they did!!Highly Recommended.

I can't understand why it is rated so low, it was really a joy to watch and the characters were all so well formed, I think this film may have helped inspire some like it hot, it has brilliant, witty characters, and it's great for all the pre-code fans. It tells a tale of two ambitious gold diggers, and it's such a shame the musical numbers were cut out and the Technicolor lost, but still a very fun film, also starring the beautiful Ziegfeld girl Irene Delroy, her and Winnie contrast and their opposites attract and they make a wonderful pair. I watched this film for Winnie Lightner but I was introduced to a few other forgotten stars and they were just spectacular, they were played with a lot of charisma and quirkiness.

Often-witty dialogue can't quite save a predictable, simplistic plot, but Winnie Lightner and Irene Delroy keep the film quite entertaining. The film as a whole is totally inconsequential, but several of the performances, especially those of the two leads, are enough to recommend it. Lightner's forceful, abrasive, energetic, and often hilarious performance is a perfect foil for Delroy's sweet, dewy, and relatively languid one. Charles Butterworth's underplayed humor is very welcome in a minor role, while the unfunny slapstick subplot anchored by Charles Judels' almost grotesque performance as Monsieur LeMaire throws the film off pitch whenever it resurfaces throughout. Overall, simple, predictable, and worth a watch.

THE LIFE OF THE PARTY (Warner Brothers, 1930), directed by Roy Del Ruth, is another attempt to capitalize on the presence of Winnie Lightner based on her debut screen character from THE GOLD DIGGERS OF Broadway (1929). Though Lightner appears to be "the life of the party" through her actions and wisecracking methods, the finished product, originally intended as a musical, is a straight comedy minus any party sequences but enough life and laughter only when Lightner is concerned.Starting off with an amusing inter-title, "New York was originally purchased from the Indians for six dollars and thirty cents. The 30 cents was for Brooklyn," the plot gets underway with its introduction of two lady pals, Flo (Winnie Lightner) and Dorothy "Dot" Stottsbury (Irene Delroy) working as song pluggers for Mr. Foster (Eddie Kane) at the Acme Music Company in the Broadway district of New York City. Unable to interest anyone with popular song hits from the latest shows and motion pictures, the girls end up fired when their friend, Monsieur LeMaire (Charles Judels), comes to visit with Dot, thus disrupting the place when Mr. Foster forces him to leave. The next morning, Dot learns through a newspaper article that the man she loves, Robert Cole, age 23, has married a Mrs. James Halcon, a wealthy widow of 45. She and Flo come the conclusion that the only way to make it through life is to seek millionaires and marry them for their money, the way Bob has done. After acquiring jobs as models for fashion retailer, LeMaire, they trick him into loaning them enough clothes and take with them to Havana, Cuba, where they intend on doing some gold digging. Staying at the Grand Hotel, they make an impression by posing themselves as rich young widows. Along the way, Flo encounters Colonel Joy (Charles Butterworth), a horse breeder (who looks like a horse anyway), while Dot come across a bogus Mr. Smith (John Davidson), a male gold digger, and, through her phony fainting spells, Jerry A.J. Smith (Jack Whiting), inventor of the popular Rush soft drink. Things become more complicated when the excitable Monsieur "Yoo Hoo" LeMaire enters the scene.What makes LIFE OF THE PARTY most fascinating for film buffs is the opening sequence of the Broadway district with theater marque titles of those 1930 movie releases, mostly Warner Brothers titles, including: "The Silent Enemy," "The Song of the Flame," "Fifty Million Frenchmen," "Courage," and "Journey's End" along with current Broadway shows as "The Last Mile," along with some inside humor of Lightner calling out movie songs from 1929 releases as "Tip Toe Through the Tulips" from "The Gold Diggers of Broadway" and "Singing in the Bath Tub" from "The Show of Shows," each featuring Lightner herself. With some songs deleted prior to theatrical release, the only one that remains intact is Lightner's rendition of "Poison Ivy." Several popular tunes of the day, namely "When the Little Red Rose Gets the Blues for You," are relegated to background scoring.Often amusing, especially with the now familiar "gold digger" theme and mistaken identity angle, THE LIFE OF THE PARTY weakens as it progresses, especially through the constant annoyance of Charles Judels's frequent "Yoo Hoo" yells that loses its credibility long before its 77 minutes is up. Irene Delroy, the attractive, serious-minded gold digger, has her doses of man trouble, considering how both of them have the last name of Smith, while Lightner, naturally, gets all the laughs. Her funniest moment is where she disguises herself as a male jockey, making every effort staying on the back of the horse (Number 13) during a big race, followed by a series of mishaps until the horse comes across its biggest fear, a black cat on the race track. Rear projection is obvious, making the riding scene look phony or a reminder of a vintage silent comedy starring Ben Turpin. The result, however, are still quite funny. One liners as "We can't even boil water without ever burning it" comes as a hit or miss. Another laugh getter is Charles Butterworth, with his hair combed back and parted in the middle. A natural foil for Lightner, he worked opposite her again in two additional 1931 comedies, SIDE SHOW and MANHATTAN PARADE, which like this movie, can be seen on Turner Classic Movies cable channel.Initially produced in early Technicolor, circulating prints are now only in complete black and white form, with 1940s orchestration to a song, "He Lied and I Listened" as introduced in the Warner Brothers 1941 drama, MANPOWER, starring Edward G. Robinson and Marlene Dietrich, as its over-scoring instead. I can't swear that the title cards used for the cast and credit listings, but do know this is the way LIFE OF THE PARTY has been shown on August 1990. Considering several films bearing this title, interestingly, in 1996, American Movie Classics, which then contained a film library of mostly 20th Century-Fox and RKO Radio titles prior to 2001, surprisingly aired this 1930 Lightner comedy over its standard 1937 RKO Radio musical as part of AMC's Ann Miller birthday tribute.Though both are no cinematic masterpieces, the Lightner version is certainly a prime example of the type of movies that turned out during the dawn of sound, and something to consider. One can only hope for a rediscovery of the original Technicolor print along with the original scoring that came with the film's opening credits way back in 1930. (***)