Don's Party is a 1976 film from Australia directed by Bruce Beresford.
It is an adaptation of David Williamson's 1971 play, with Williamson adapting his own script. The setting is Oct. 25, 1969, the date of an Australian national election
. The Labor Party (the Australian left-wing party, comparable to Britain's Labor or America's Democrats) is confident of victory over the right-wing Liberal Party and a return to power after 20 years of Liberal governments. A group of friends, almost all Labor supporters, assemble to watch the returns. They are:
- The hosts, Don and Kath Henderson (John Hargreaves and Jeanie Drynan), parents to a baby boy. Don once thought he'd be a great novelist but now he's a schoolteacher. Don and Kath's marriage seems to be extremely frosty.
- Grainger Cooley (Harold Hopkins), a lawyer in his late thirties, and Susan (Claire Binney), his girlfriend. Cooley is loud and crude and sex-obsessed. Susan, barely half his age, is a dark-haired, curvaceous sexpot.
- Mal (Ray Barrett), Don's old school buddy, and his wife Jenny (Pat Bishop). Mal makes more money than Don but also spends it. Mal is just as sex-obsessed as Cooley but not as successful at it, and his marriage to Jenny is even more bitter than Don's with Kath.
- Simon (Graeme Blundell), who works for a plastics company, and his wife Jody (Veroinica Lang). They don't fit in very well, as they are both Liberal voters attending a party full of Labor supporters. Simon, a conservative, proper type, fits in even less well with the vibe of raucous celebration and profane sex talk at the party.
- Mack (Graham Kennedy), an engineer and photographer. Recently separated from his wife, and the only solo guest.
- Evan (Kit Taylor) and Kerry (Candy Raymond). He's a dentist and she's an artist. Evan's a socialist so even more left-wing than the Labor supporters that have congregated at Don's house, but he still isn't very comfortable there. The sultry Kerry draws the attention of all the men, much to Evan's consternation.
Don and his fellow Labor voters drink and eat and drink some more, and most of the men try to get into the pants of Susan, Jody, and Kerry. As the evening wears on it becomes clear that the Liberals are going to narrowly cling to power. Even more alcohol is consumed, infidelities are committed, the mood grows darker, and soon uncomfortable truths are being expressed and relationships are being torn apart.
In 2011 playwright Williamson wrote a theatrical sequel, Don Parties On, in which most of the guests from Don's Party reassemble to watch the returns for the 2010 Australian election roll in.
Tropes:
- As Himself: Prime Minster John Gorton, whose party narrowly won the election, appears briefly as himself in an early scene.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: Mal is driven by insecurity over having a small wiener. He says he can't give his wife an orgasm, and Jenny says she doesn't have orgasms because she's worrying about him worrying about his small wiener.
- Comforting Comforter: Everybody winds up going home after the disastrous ending to the party except for Mack, who is sleeping it off on the Hendersons' living room floor the next morning. Don covers him with a jacket.
- Creator Cameo: Bruce Beresford is a worker at the liquor store that Don visits for supplies in the opening moments of the film.
- Election Day Episode: A bunch of friends get together to watch the returns on the night of the 1969 election.
- Ethical Slut: Susan insists on asking Kath before having sex with Don. Kath, who is not at all interested in swinging or free love, responds only with stony silence.
- Extremely Short Timespan: A little bit less than 24 hours, from the afternoon of the Oct. 25, 1969 election, to early the following morning.
- Fanservice: A lot of nudity. Curvaceous Susan gets fully nude, Kerry and Jody both get topless, and Don, Cooley, Mack, and Mal all take their clothes off to go skinnydipping in the neighbors' pool, although in the case of the doughy Mack and Mal it maybe more Fan Disservice.
- Foregone Conclusion: Given how many years later it came out, no one in the audience is in any doubt about who won the 1969 election. Only the characters are yet to learn the result.
- Groin Attack: Jody knees Mal in the balls after he won't take his hand off her butt while they're dancing.
- Hitler Cam: Don is lying on the floor with his upper body on a beanbag cusion when Evan comes back, extremely angry, looking to give Cooley a beatdown for sleeping with his wife.
- Last-Second Word Swap: Mack is discussing Jody, who is sexy, but whose Liberal Party support he disapproves of.Mack: She needs a good, long, hard...talking to.
- Male Frontal Nudity: From Don after he goes skinnydipping in the neighbors' pool. None of the men who dove into the pool are all that concerned about putting their clothes back on, much to the women's displeasure.
- Ms. Red Ink: Although Mal makes a lot more money than Don, he had to borrow from Don, because Jenny spends it all. Jenny had a swimming pool installed after Mal borrowed $500 from Don.
- Out with a Bang: Cooley claims this is how his father died.Cooley: By the time they got him dressed, they couldn't put his teeth back in.
- Skinnydipping: Susan, Don, Cooley, Mack, and Mal climb a fence to go skinnydipping in the neighbors' pool.
- What's He Got That I Ain't Got?!: Mal sees Susan climbing all over Don and is offended that she has shown no interest in him.Mal: I want a bit of sausage. What's he got that I haven't got?
Susan: Sex appeal.
