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The Birthday Party ()

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The down-at-heel lodger in a seaside boarding house is menaced by two mysterious strangers, who eventually take him away.
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Cast verified as complete

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Stanley
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McCann
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Goldberg
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Meg
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Petey
Helen Fraser ...
Lulu

Directed by

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William Friedkin

Written by

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Harold Pinter ... (screenplay)
 
Harold Pinter ... (play) (uncredited)

Produced by

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Max Rosenberg ... producer (as Max J. Rosenberg)
Edgar J. Scherick ... executive producer
Milton Subotsky ... producer

Cinematography by

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Denys N. Coop ... director of photography (as Denys Coop)

Editing by

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Antony Gibbs

Editorial Department

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John Hackney ... assistant editor
Brian Mann ... assistant editor
Stanley Smith ... associate editor

Art Direction by

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Edward Marshall

Makeup Department

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Eddie Knight ... makeup artist
Betty Sherriff ... hairdresser (as Betty Sherrif)

Production Management

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Teresa Bolland ... production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director

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Andrew Grieve ... assistant director
Gerry Harrison ... second assistant

Art Department

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Martin Atkinson ... assistant art director
Arthur Wicks ... standby props (uncredited)

Sound Department

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Norman Bolland ... sound recordist
Alan Pattillo ... sound editor
Jim Roddan ... sound editor

Camera and Electrical Department

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Alan Ballard ... special still photography
Alan Hall ... camera operator
Maurice Gillett ... supervising electrician (uncredited)
Douglas F. O'Neons ... focus puller (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department

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Dulcie Midwinter ... wardrobe supervisor

Script and Continuity Department

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Kay Rawlings ... continuity
Crew believed to be complete

Production Companies

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Distributors

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Special Effects

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Other Companies

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Storyline

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Plot Summary

Based on Harold Pinter's enigmatic play about a border in a British seaside dwelling who is visited by two strangers. They torment him verbally, ask him idiotic unanswerable questions, force him to sit down and stand up, and give him a "party." Then, eventually, they take him away, a tongue-tied idiot. The trivial becomes the terrible, and with it a certain wonder, a certain pity. Written by alfiehitchie

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Additional Details

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Also Known As
  • Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party (United Kingdom)
  • Fiesta de cumpleaños (Spain)
  • Syntymäpäiväjuhla (Finland)
  • Вечеринка в день рождения (Soviet Union, Russian title)
  • A Festa de Aniversário (Portugal)
  • See more »
Runtime
  • 123 min
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Did You Know?

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Trivia The movie was a passion project of director William Friedkin who called it "the first film I really wanted to make, understood and felt passionate about". He had first seen the play in San Francisco in 1962, and managed to get the film version funded by Edgar J. Scherick at Palomar Pictures, in part because it could be made relatively cheaply. Pinter wrote the screenplay himself and was heavily involved in casting. "To this day I don't think our cast could have been improved," wrote Friedkin later. See more »
Movie Connections Featured in Pinter's Party as Told by William Friedkin (2017). See more »
Quotes Stanley Webber: How would you like to go away with me?
Lulu: What?
Stanley Webber: How would you like to go away with me?
Lulu: Where would we go?
Stanley Webber: Nowhere...
Lulu: Well that's a charming proposal.
Stanley Webber: There's nowhere to go, so we could just go, it wouldn't matter.
Lulu: We might as well stay here.
See more »
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