Based on a fish-out-of-water premise, the film stars Peter Sellers as a bungling actor from India, who accidentally gets invited to a lavish Hollywood dinner party.

The film is a farce with a very loose structure; it essentially serves as a series of set pieces for Sellers's improvisational comedy talents.

The protagonist Hrundi Bakshi was influenced by two of Sellers' earlier characters: the Indian doctor Ahmed el Kabir in The Millionairess (1960) and Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther series.

Bakshi went on to inspire popular characters such as Amitabh Bachchan's role in Namak Halaal (1982) and Apu in The Simpsons.

The production of a costume epic film is ruined when Indian actor Hrundi V. Bakshi accidentally blows up an enormous fort set.

He fiddles with a panel of electronics that controls the intercom, a Manneken Pis sculpture (soaking a guest), and a retractable bar (where Clutterbuck is seated).

Hrundi asks an increasingly drunk waiter, Levinson, to retrieve his meal, but the woman's wig comes off as well, even as she remains oblivious.

Desperate for a bathroom, he wanders through the house, opening doors and catching servants and guests in embarrassing situations.

The air conditioning blows suds everywhere as the guests dance, and Clutterbuck's distraught wife repeatedly falls into the pool.

Vin Scully is uncredited and does not appear onscreen, but his voice can be heard announcing a Los Angeles Dodgers game on the kitchen radio.

Steve Franken, who played the drunken butler, thoroughly enjoyed being allowed to improvise, but noted the dangers of the foam in the water and struggled to breathe.

[7] The score of The Party was composed by Henry Mancini, including the song "Nothing to Lose," performed onscreen by Claudine Longet.

"[11][12] Saul Austerlitz wrote "Despite the offensiveness of Sellers's brownface routine, The Party is one of his very best films...Taking a page from Tati, this is neorealist comedy, purposefully lacking a director's guiding eye: look here, look there.

Still, propelled by Sellers's insane brio, this late display of blackface provided some guilty chuckles, and at least one enduring catchphrase (the immortal 'Birdie num-num').

"[16] (Edwards has run into similar later criticism for his inclusion of Mickey Rooney's overbroad Japanese caricature in Breakfast at Tiffany's).

The Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was a fan and was very fond of repeating Bakshi's line "In India we don't think who we are, we know who we are!

[21] Additionally, for his film The Alien, Indian director Satyajit Ray was planning on casting Sellers as a Marwari businessman.

Ray was a fan of Sellers, and believed he could convincingly portray Indian characters based on his performances in The Party and The Millionairess.