Dinner at Eight
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Movie Reviews of Dinner at Eight
Movie Review: Star-studded cast, impeccable acting and great drama as well as comedy. As fresh today as it was in 1933.
Summary: 5 Stars
My mother used to use the expression "dinner at eight" to refer to the high-drama that always precedes the launching of a party. She must have seen this 1933 film and it obviously influenced her for her entire life. It wasn't until last night, however, that I, myself, saw this film on DVD. And I must say that I can now well understand the effect it had on my mother and on her generation.
I've heard tales, read books and seen films about the Great Depression on America and what life was like in 1933. But this film is neither a documentary about those times, nor a writer's analysis. "Dinner at Eight" is the real thing. It put me right there in the time and the place and, even though times have changed, the human drama is timeless. Originally, it was a play written by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber and really does seem like a film version of a play, even though it was adapted for the screen. All of the scenes are set indoors and people make their entrances and exits through doorways rather than just letting the scene fade out. Produced by David O. Selznick and directed by George Cukor, the cast is a star studded one, the acting is impeccable, and the impact is still there, even after all these years.
The cast reads like a who's who of Hollywood stardom. Billy Burke and Lionel Barrymore are a wealthy couple planning a dinner party. But their fortune is fading and Wallace Beery and his low-class trophy wife Jean Harlow represent the opportunistic newly rich upstarts. The wealthy family's daughter is in love with a has-been actor played by John Barrymore. And Marie Dressler is magnificent as a aging once-beautiful famous actress. They are all getting ready for the dinner, and their intersecting stories are soon to be combined. How it all plays out is as fresh today as it was in 1933.
Yes, there are differences. There was no plastic surgery in those days. With the exception of Jean Harlow, the actors look like regular people, not movie stars, and the older ones have lines in their faces and sagging chins. The doctor smokes cigarettes. Everyone drinks. And the telephone is the most modern technological item. The culture was changing too. We can see that in the way the wealthy Americans are courting English aristocracy even though the depression is invading all of their lives. There is love, death, grief and despair. But there are also some hilariously funny moments. The pace is fast. There is not a dull moment. And then, after all the personalities are developed, the plot is defined and some complex issues reconciled, everyone forces a smile and the dinner is served.
I loved the film. And I was also delighted by the special 47-minute feature made in 1993 about Jean Harlow's life. Narrated by Sharon Stone, the tragic story is fascinating and tragic. I learned a lot as I never knew any of the details of Jean Harlow's life. There is also a short spoof of the film and a very good trailer. All and all, I must say that watching this DVD was a wonderful experience. It was nice spending an evening in 1933. And it was even nicer to know that this is available to everyone on DVD. I highly recommend it.
Movie Review: stunning character studies with comedy and tragedy that is as good as it gets
Summary: 5 Stars
Dinner At Eight is an outstanding movie with great acting, a fine plot even if a bit complicated, and a wonderful cast! The movie held my attention every step of the way; and it's a much more artistic film with much more social commentary than I expected.
When the action begins, Millicent Jordan (Billie Burke) is obsessively planning a dinner party. Unbeknownst to Millicent, her husband Oliver Jordan (Lionel Barrymore) is suffering from serious, life threatening heart problems--and their steamship freighter enterprise is going broke after a century-long life of being the family business.
As if that weren't enough, there's plenty more people with serious financial and personal problems that showcase human foibles as well the toll the depression took on even the wealthiest of people after the stock market crash. We meet Carlotta Vance (Marie Dressler), an older actress who is broke. Carlotta sells her stock in the Jordan shipping business to stay alive; and she's not the only one selling her stock on that fateful day when so much of the Jordan stock is sold that the family fortune just might be in jeopardy. There is Wayne Talbot (Edmund Lowe) and his wife Lucy (Karen Morley) who tolerates Wayne's never-ending marital infidelities; and we also see that the only people climbing up the ladder are the comparatively crude and unsophisticated couple Dan and Kitty Packard (Wallace Beery and Jean Harlow).
Throughout the movie there are vignettes that display how cruel life can be. There is a rather long scene in which we see the poignant suffering of a man who was huge in silent pictures and who has gone broke and "washed up" now that the "talkies" are in style. John Barrymore brilliantly plays Larry Renault and his story is told with great care and sophistication. I admire the way George Cukor directed Larry Renault's part of the story.
Of course, the plot can go anywhere from here--how will Larry Renault handle the fact that he's through in show business? What happens when Lucy Talbot catches her husband Wayne cheating on her yet again--this time with Kitty Packard? How do the Packards even manage to stay together--they fight all the time. Moreover, when and how will Millicent Jordan ever come back down to Earth and realize that there are many things in life that are infinitely more important than her dinner party? No plot spoilers, here, folks--you'll just have to watch the movie to find out!
The DVD's best extra is a Sharon Stone hosted featurette on Jean Harlow which is very well done. The Vitaphone short "Come To Dinner" is amusing as well.
Dinner At Eight is a film that has so many wonderful actors and so much depth and meaning that it simply must be seen to be truly appreciated. I highly recommend this film for fans of the actors and classic movie buffs will cherish this DVD for years to come.
Movie Review: Confirm your invitation now
Summary: 5 Stars
The black cloud of the Great Depression shadows every scene and every character in DINNER AT EIGHT, George Cukor's brilliant adaptation of the hit Broadway play (it didn't hurt that the play was written by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, or screenwrit by Frances Marion and Herman Mankiewicz. This is a smart and slick production.) I write that with a trace of wonderment. I remember the comedy - I saw this movie years ago - but the serious undertones, the prominent minor chords, I didn't remember, and they caught me by surprise.
The comedy is indeed memorable. Jean Harlow, up until then more or less a platinum sexpot in a tight skirt who gave little indication she could act her way out of a paper bag practically steals the movie as the bored and socially ambitious wife of boorish businessman Wallace Beery. As good as Harlow is, Beery matches against her well - have a bickering couple ever been this much fun? - and Marie Dressler, as the rather aged and worse for wear stage actress, is just as good in her scenes. Dressler was cast against type in the sort of role Ava Gardner took after she'd worked her way through an ocean of booze and an arena full of matadors. In Dressler's character's youth her beauty was so overwhelming that foolish young men - the Lionel Barrymore character was such a one - routinely rashly proposed marriage to her. Dressler had a long stage and film career but was no Sarah Bernhardt or Theda Bara, and audiences in 1932 would have known that. What she had was exquisite comic timing and a baedeker of facial expressions.
Cast uncomfortably TO type is John Barrymore as the alcoholic, washed-up actor Larry Renault. Renault receives an invitation for dinner (at eight), and therefore we're allowed to observe him behind closed doors. What we see may make fans of Barrymore squirm a bit. A cad and a drunkard, Renault is also a ham whose looks are going - one character remember him as having a `great profile,' if for no other reason than to drive the verisimilitude nail in a little deeper. In short, he's a ham who finds job offers drying up at an alarming rate. The scenes with the Renault character aren't the most pleasant in the movie, but if you're a fan of John Barrymore you'll find them fascinating, and maybe even a little courageous.
The extras on this disk include a trailer, a Sharon Stone hosted profile on Jean Harlow that satisfied my curiosity about the actress, and the Vitaphone short parody "Come to Dinner." I thought the short was kind of flat. DINNER AT EIGHT is so witty and comedy-filled already that "Come to Dinner" suffers in comparison. It's interesting, and that's about it, although it doesn't detract from my strong recommendation for this disk.
Movie Review: One of the great sophisticated pre-code films
Summary: 5 Stars
"Dinner at Eight" is a 1933 film that still holds up when viewed by today's audiences. How odd that it wasn't even nominated for an Academy Award. This could be because it is quite similar in form to "Grand Hotel", which won the Best Picture Oscar the year before. It really is more of a comedy/melodrama than pure comedy, since there is much tragedy unfolding during the movie. Aging star Carlotta Vance (Marie Dressler) is broke, silent film star Larry Renault (John Barrymore) is "washed up" and a hopeless alcoholic, and Oliver Jordan (Lionel Barrymore) is in danger of losing his shipping business. While these people are all struggling, the only characters that are doing well are the reptilian Dan and Kitty Packard (Wallace Beery and Jean Harlow). Dan Packard is a self-made millionaire with no ethics, and his wife is a gold digger with eyes for another man - her personal physician. The lives of the players all intertwine in ways that are unknown to them, with the depression-era message being that the rules of life have changed in ways that had never occurred in the U.S. before. The vice of the opportunistic social-climbing Packards is rewarded, while the well-heeled of yesteryear, playing by the rules of the past, have nothing but their memories and faded finery left to comfort them.
Of course, there are plenty of comic moments. Billie Burke's performance as Mrs. Jordon is hilarious as her prime concern is that her carefully planned dinner party is coming apart before her very eyes. She comes across as a kinder, gentler Marie Antoinette when she acts like the accidental destruction of her centerpiece dish, a lion-shaped aspic, is the end of the world. Although many have said that Jean Harlow steals this picture, and her talents do shine through, I think Marie Dressler's comic touches really help make the film. For example, when a forty-something secretary mentions that she saw Dressler's character perform "when she was a little girl." Dressler replies that the two must get together some evening and discuss the Civil War. Dressler also makes the very last scene of the movie. As everyone is going into dinner, she finds herself in conversation with Harlow's character. First off, she does a hilarious double-take when Harlow mentions she's been reading a book. Next,Harlow tells Marie Dressler how this book she has been reading says that machinery will soon take over every profession. Marie Dressler looks Jean Harlow up and down as only she could do and says "My dear I don't think you need to worry about that."
Movie Review: A Star Studded Hollywood Classic!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am grateful that Dinner At Eight is finally on DVD. This is a truly classic film which is as fresh as it was when it was released in 1934. I am an ardent Jean Harlow fan and she was a very gifted comedienne and no mere sex symbol. George Cukor said to her on the set, "When I first saw you, I thought you were hopeless." But Cukor said later that "she played comedy as easy as a chicken lays an egg!" Jean Harlow may look glamourous but she puts everything into the role of Kitty Packard that was written into it. She plays dumb to her husband's corrupt plans but proves to be more intelligent than one would ever guess. This a highlight in her brief life and career. She received rave reviews when the film was originally released and many critics stated that she stole the film from the stellar cast. Her fights with Wallace Beery are priceless and her one scene with Marie Dressler (who adored Jean and admired her talent enormously) is a perfect ending to a great film. I am puzzled that this film was not nominated for Best Picture! Marie Dressler is a delight in this film as she is in every sound film I have seen her in. Her comedic timing is perfection and she steals every scene she is in. Besides Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Marie Dressler we also have the magnificent Billie Burke, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Madge Evans, Lee Tracy, Louise Closser Hale, Philip Holmes, Hilda Vaughn who is great as Harlow's maid Tina!. Cukor's direction is superb cutting from one story to another just when the viewer is wondering what is going on with a certain character. The sets are gorgeous and the script is great. I hope that Turner will soon release more Jean Harlow films. Make certain to see her in "Platinum Blonde" and "Libeled Lady". She died so young. At age 26 on June 7th, 1937. Like the great Carole Lombard, she left a legacy of timeless screen performances which are as fresh today as they were when they were filmed. "Dinner At Eight" is a milestone in her brief but brilliant career.