Dinner at Eight (1933)

A lot of fun.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

An early film from George Cukor from the 30's. More a filmed stage play than a piece of celluloid. The character appearances are more like stage entries than camera set-ups but what can you do when the early days of cinema were the beginnings of a learning curve of what could be done rather than what could not. Anyway, a dinner date is coming up & the various ho-polloi of the New York upper-crust are meeting for a meal. Various story lines are told w/o anything resembling depth & the cast is more than up to snuff for the cause. Wallace Beery & Jean Harlow are fantastic as the bickering couple, we get 2 Barrymore's (John & Lionel, Drew's grandfather & great uncle) & the priceless Marie Dressler who steals the show as a once grand dame of the stage now having to deal w/actual life.

At the very opening I was a little put off by Billie Burke and her scatty society party - then enter the marvelous Lionel Barrymore as her shipping magnate husband who, unbeknown to her, is embroiled in serious financial problems, he gives her character much needed balance. Next I had to get over Wallace Beery and Jean Harlow. I actually thought I was going to have difficulty getting through the entrée let alone reaching dessert!, very pleased I persevered, for as soon as this picture finished I was planning my second sitting...Don't give up!. If you are new to looking at vintage sound films and you fail to enjoy this classic, then rest assured the fault could be all yours. Here is virtual perfection in every facet of motion picture artistry... Start with a good story, follow through with a good screenplay adaptation and you end up with excellence. Add to this a peerless cast of hand picked professionals, guided by the watchful eye of a solid director and you have an unforgettable soufflé....What an additional treat to see the two Barrymore Bros in the same film. While they never share a scene together the impact is potent. You'll get little more from me here, so treat yourself to a large helping of... Great perceptive writing by prolific novelist: Edna Ferber and acclaimed veteran Herman J.Mankiewicz (Citizen Kane '41 ~ It's A Wonderful World '39) ~ Screenplay: another respected veteran, Francis Marion ~ Director: George Cukor (too many other works to name) ~ Acting: (everyone who was anyone at the time) ~ Cinematography: William Daniels (The Naked City '48) ~ Producer: David O. Selznick ~ Music: Dr William Axt. The experienced viewer of classics will delight in it all, others may have to persevere just a 'tinsy' bit to gain a more than generous serving by the close of the evening. Should not be missed!.KenR...............

Ah the 1930's. No decade in cinema has since captured such an aurora of class and sophistication from the clothes worn to way people talk; a world so removed from our own. It feels like there is no other time period in which it was as easy to make a movie about rich people and their rich people problems without it coming off as a metaphorical dick waving display of wealth. There are few better representations of this than Dinner at Eight. With the heavenly, dream like music from the film's opening titles; the viewer is transported to a world long, long gone. All of the stories in Dinner at Eight have tragic to say the least, but Billie Burke as the socialite holding the impending dinner helps bring comic relief to the proceedings with her histrionics as well simply the sound of her voice. Aside from the largely carefree Burke, the rest of the characters don't have much to look forward to with their impending affairs, bankruptcy, failing careers and illnesses. John Barrymore's story is my favourite; the quietly tragic demise of washed up film star Larry Renault. His tender love scenes with Madge Evans are largely the opposite of the grandiose interaction with Greta Garbo in Grand Hotel; this is far more down to Earth. It's not apparent when Renault first appears just what a bad state his career is in. As his segment progresses he becomes more and more pathetic as he becomes increasingly drunk and we learn more about his current state that he is only being offered a bit part in a play, he only has seven cents on him and the ultimate blow when his manager tells him he's been a joke for years and never taken seriously as an actor; he had his good looks but he doesn't even have that anymore. The sub plot is prophetic of Barrymore's own future as he spent his last few years as a washed up actor and succumb to alcohol. There are hints in his performance to the egomaniac he would play the following year in Twentieth Century with his hotel room being littered with photographs of his own profile. With its haunting cinematography Renault's final outcome had me holding my breath with part of me wishing this could be its own film; a sort of predecessor to the story of Norman A Star Is Born.The other story line which particularly strikes me is Edmund Lowe's. Once his wife confronts him about his ongoing affair with Jean Harlow, the two have a long serious chat in which she is completely understanding and forgives him. A stark contrast to any modern romantic comedy in which two character would break up after a lengthy argument of one has betrayed the other, then get back together 20 minutes later. Are modern romantic comedies just so contrived and unreflective of real life, was adultery less frowned on back then or is it just a pre- code thing?The early 30's seems to be the one brief period in cinema history in which there was a number of older aged movie stars who box office draws; Wallace Beery, Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore. There has never been another decade like it.

My mother and I watched most of this movie, expecting it to be a comedy (from what the box said). Comedy? There was not a single laugh or even smile to be had. The movie ranged from boring to unpleasant, and there were plenty of big stars but nary a likable or sympathetic character in the lot.The movie stars a wealthy New York woman who wants to throw a dinner party for the purpose of social advancement, with her husband reluctantly going along. She invites over a wealthy British couple who are coming to the United States, and invites a number of other people to have the proper number, as well as the right mixture of males and females. But everyone has some sort of dark secret; the couple's daughter, who has a fiancée, has fallen in love with an actor whose career is failing; the husband's company is in serious financial trouble; a former actress is also in financial difficulty; a bullying former miner is secretly buying out the husband's company's stock, and his wife is having an affair; and this is just a sample of the betrayals and intrigues that are going on.This could have had the makings of a comedy, but we found no jokes or any other reasons to laugh. Nor did we end up caring what happened to any of the characters in the story. Pass up this dinner invitation.