Robert De Niro made his film debut in the movie The Wedding Party (1969), although it was actually filmed earlier in 1963 and released later.
Many people associate De Niro’s early breakthrough with Greetings (1968), also directed by Brian De Palma, because it was released earlier and gained more attention.
His career truly exploded after Mean Streets (1973) with Martin Scorsese, beginning one of the most famous actor–director collaborations in film history.
The Wedding Party is an American independent black-and-white comedy farce co-directed, written, produced, and edited by Brian De Palma, Wilford Leach, and Cynthia Munroe. It was shot in 1963 (on a budget of about $43,000) as a collaborative project involving Sarah Lawrence College theater professor Leach and two of his students (De Palma and Munroe). Due to a legal dispute over rights and final cut, it was not released until April 9, 1969, in New York City, after De Palma’s Greetings (1968) and after Robert De Niro had started gaining notice. The on-screen copyright year is 1966. It was later distributed by companies including Troma Entertainment and Ajay Film Company.
The film follows Charlie (Charles Pfluger), a young groom who arrives at the wealthy Fish family’s estate on Shelter Island, New York, two days before his wedding to Josephine (Jill Clayburgh). He is accompanied by his groomsmen and friends Cecil (Robert De Niro) and Alistair (William Finley).
Charlie quickly develops cold feet amid the eccentric, judgmental relatives, social rituals, and pressures of the pre-wedding events (stag party, rehearsal, dinner, etc.). His friends encourage him to bail, and he considers sabotage or other ways out, while the story satirizes wedding etiquette and social pretensions (including title cards quoting a fictional etiquette book, “The Compleat Bridegroom”). The tone is manic, experimental, and influenced by the French New Wave and Richard Lester-style comedy, with quick cuts, speeded-up sequences, and an improvisational feel.
It is an early, formative work for De Palma (he later noted realizing on this set that he knew more about filmmaking than his mentor Leach) and marks the screen debuts of De Niro and Clayburgh, plus early appearances by future De Palma collaborators Finley and Salt. It is often viewed as a messy but interesting precursor to De Palma’s later style and as a historical curiosity rather than a polished classic.
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