OLIVER REED & KATHERINE WOODVILLE IN 'THE PARTY'S OVER'

Title: THE PARTY'S OVER Year: 1965 Rating: ****

Executive Producer Peter O'Toole and Jack Hawkins along with director Guy Hamilton took their names off this controversial British Beatnik flick where an American girl, missing from her New York tycoon father and businessman fiance, is supposedly raped/screwed after death: so for them it wasn't controversial enough...

Yet no actual necrophilia occurs (unless you count a quick posthumous kiss), even in the restored cut when — a day before THE PARTY'S OVER — Oliver Reed and his wayward cohorts play cat-and-mouse with Clifford David as the rich chick's arranged fiance, Carson...

Katherine Woodvile and Louise Sorel in THE PARTY'S OVER Rating: ****

Who's flown to England to not only get his girl back, but to get to really know her while she (Louise Sorel) is content with the breezy freedom among the eclectic crew of brooding Brits, either drinking and smoking while digging hot jazz when not coming down in the usual melancholy, philosophizing manner...

But it's not all emotional highs and lows since in its foundation, this is a Noirish, non-linear crime/mystery sporadically told through flashbacks provoked by the American's initially basic quest...

Roddy Maude-Roxby with Katherine Woodville, Louise Sorel & Oliver Reed in The Party's Over

And he eventually becomes involved in a flirtatious, hang-around romance with the prettiest, wisest, seemingly most helpful English girl in Katherine Woodville's Nina, who, donning a slick black bowling hat and matching black cane, is lovestruck despite the secret she and the others hold back...

As the most shocking and refreshing aspect — much  different than other counter-culture themed films — is that the suit-and-tie fiance (a dapper-handsome hybrid of Robert Mitchum, Alan Badel, Cornel Wilde and Liam Neeson) is not the usual cliché idiotic conservative-square to make the progressive cool kids seem that much cooler...

Katherine Woodville and Clifford David and gang in THE PARTY'S OVER

So Clifford Davis's buried lead feels more like an even-keeled, experienced gumshoe, questioning (in vain) a goading, moody Oliver Reed, the passive-aggressive leader of the eclectic gang...

Each member foreshadowing the future punk rock movement of total individuality despite a sort of zombie-like/like-minded camaraderie (including Reed's big bald German sidekick; his cheated-on blues-crooning moll Ann Lynn; a suicidal college student; and a gay messenger boy)...

Oliver Reed flicks a cigarette at the bridge cop when THE PARTY'S OVER

But it's a shame these spontaneous, otherwise freewheeling nomadic scoundrels are so bogged-down by the previous night's crime (actually more of an unreported tragic accident)...

Which is a burden that hinders their each and every step as, compared to the potentially awesome opening credits where the group coolly wanders across a bridge during a murky dawn, they could have been far more character-driven than guilt-ridden in what ultimately winds up a pre-Goth romance about existential life (and love) after death.

Louise Sorel and Oliver Reed in THE PARTY'S OVER

Clifford David and Louise Sorel in THE PARTY'S OVER (their one shot together, a fade)

Katherine Woodville wanders in from dusk to dawn in THE PARTY'S OVER

Katherine Woodville and Clifford David bond in THE PARTY'S OVER

Oliver Reed as Moise in THE PARTY'S OVER

Katherine Woodville and Clifford David bond in THE PARTY'S OVER

Oliver Reed as Moise in THE PARTY'S OVER with Clifford David

Katherine Woodville and Clifford David bond in THE PARTY'S OVER

Clifford David and Eddie Albert in THE PARTY'S OVER

Katherine Woodville and Clifford David bond in THE PARTY'S OVER

Katherine Woodville plays Nina in THE PARTY'S OVER

Oliver Reed as Moise in THE PARTY'S OVER

Oliver Reed as Moise in THE PARTY'S OVER

 Louise Sorel as the American fiance Melina in THE PARTY'S OVER

Oliver Reed as Moise in THE PARTY'S OVER with Maurice Browning

Oliver Reed as Moise in THE PARTY'S OVER with Maurice Browning

Katherine Woodville and Clifford David bond in THE PARTY'S OVER

Oliver Reed as Moise in THE PARTY'S OVER

Oliver Reed as Moise in THE PARTY'S OVER

Oliver Reed as Moise in THE PARTY'S OVER

Opening Credits with Oliver Reed as Moise in THE PARTY'S OVER

 Opening credits with Louise Sorel as Melina in THE PARTY'S OVER

 Louise Sorel as the American fiance Melina in THE PARTY'S OVER

Oliver Reed in THE  PARTY'S OVER

Katherine Woodville and Clifford David bond in THE PARTY'S OVER

Oliver Reed as Moise in THE PARTY'S OVER with Clifford David

Murky yet beautiful opening credit sequence for THE PARTY'S OVER

Katherine Woodville and Clifford David bond in THE PARTY'S OVER

Louise Sorel and company crossing the early morning bridge when THE PARTY'S OVER

Katherine Woodville and Clifford David bond in THE PARTY'S OVER

Gorgeous and underrated British actress Katherine Woodville in THE PARTY'S OVER

Clifford David and Katherine Woodville in THE PARTY'S OVER 

Katherine Woodville in THE PARTY'S OVER

Katherine Woodville in THE PARTY'S OVER

Clifford David and Ann Lnn Lynn in THE PARTY'S OVER

Louise Sorel and Oliver Reed in THE PARTY'S OVER

Oliver Reed in THE PARTY'S OVER

Katherine Woodville in THE PARTY'S OVER

Katherine Woodville in THE PARTY'S OVER

Katherine Woodville in THE PARTY'S OVER