Dinner at Eight
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Movie Reviews of Dinner at Eight
Movie Review: Harlow Dressler feast - depression gold
Summary: 5 Stars
In the 21st Century, "Dinner at Eight" still entertains as a model of ensemble acting. Released in 1933 as an all star blockbuster, the film is set indelibly in the Depression. The plot revolves around the complex and intertwined lives of a group of mainly selfish and promiscuous people invited to the home of Lionel Barrymore, a bankrupt shipping magnate, and his frivolous wife, Billie Burke, for "Dinner at Eight".
Director George Cukor faultlessly mixes tragedy and humour into an irresistable cocktail. If the drama is a bit corny in spots (mainly the lines of Madge Evans), the humour is not and every scene with Jean Harlow or Marie Dressler is timeless. Dressler mugs, pouts and manipulates her rubber face creating an hilarious portrayal of an over the hill star. Savor her dialogue and mannerisms for this is overacting/scene stealing at its most accomplished; note in particular, her hilarious encounter with Elisabeth Patterson which is as memorable as the ending with Jean Harlow. All of Harlow's scenes with Wallace Beery are great too. Their shrill antagonism as they hurl the insults at each other is hysterical. John Barrymore adds an almost autobiographical portrait as the finished matinee idol and he is superb. Lionel Barrymore is very sympathetic, avoiding the overacting which often spoilt his performances. Billie Burke also has a very good part as the selfish and harried wife and she too is marvellous. Her scene when she finally explodes with exasperation is a stand out. Also, note Karen Morley's moving scene as the doctor's wife. She underacts to perfection.
The DVD print has not been restored but is good enough i.e. grainy in parts and with at least one visible tear. For once, an MGM DVD contains some worthwhile extras: there is a very funny short which takes the film off cleverly and a moving documentary about Jean Harlow narrated by a mannered and posturing Sharon Stone. The DVD is OK value but better if purchased as part of the Comedy Classics set.
Movie Review: Jean Harlow Sizzles in Dinner at Eight
Summary: 5 Stars
Dinner at Eight is one of the earliest films I have had the pleasure to see. It certainly was a product of its times--the Great Depression, replete with financial empires on the brink, aging theater stars, gold-digging vixens, and wealthy patricians seemingly immune to the tremendous suffering all around them.
The terrific cast are a great ensemble, but the character who really steals their thunder is Kitty, played by a delightfully brassy Jean Harlow. Harlow delivers one caustic, unforgettable zinger after another, calling her husband "a big slug . . . a crook", informing him she's an "introvert who has to spend her day introvertin'"; she lets her maid know she's a "dummy . . . a nitwit" and informs the audience during a row with the dissolute fanancier who is her husband that "I'm going to be a lady if it kills me!"
The plot is skillfully fleshed out with a great script, and the viewer soon learns that the Jordan Shipping Line is poised to sink, and Harlow's amoral husband is skulking around to seize the wreckage, in the guise of saving the family business. His duplicitous behavior makes him a deserving recepient of Kitty's blackmail that, while wicked, manages to save the Jordan family from financial ruin.
I particularly enjoyed a scene in which the cook informs the Jordan matriarch, after we've seen Mrs. Jordan jump giddily over a jello-mold shaped to look like the royal British lion, that the "aspic" has been destroyed. And why? Because the cook was forced to drop it during a knifefight between two butlers over the maid, who we can hear crying in the distance.
It is truly a delightful film and fans of old Hollywood will not be disappointed!
Movie Review: Five Star DVD of a Five Star Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm glad to see virtual unanimity of approval of this classic film, so I won't rehash how great the cast is, or the story, or the great double-take near the end. The comments I have to add are few:
Notice who the first billed performer is? It's Marie Dressler, 65 years old and the highest paid actress in the 1930s. We shall be charitable and say it wasn't because of her looks -- though she'd agree -- and I wonder if any movie made in Hollywood today or in the future would dare give lead billing to a woman over 30.
This movie reminds me of many other classic movies, beginning with John Barrymore's excellent self-destructing alcoholic (cf. Ray Milland, "Lost Weekend"); Jean Harlow's constant sniping at Wallace Beery (cf. Judy Holliday and Broderick Crawford in "Born Yesterday"); and Dressler's wilting Carlotta Vance (see also Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard").
What hasn't been discussed a lot (but has been mentioned) is the DVD, and it's worthy of the movie. Besides the good to very good transfer, there's an original trailer. Better yet is the inclusion of Warner Bros. spoof "Come to Dinner", a short comedy featuring impersonators of all the cast members of "Dinner at Eight". It's amazing how sharp satire could be in 1933, one year before the Hays Code started to be enforced. And last, but not least, is a documentary about Jean Harlow, hosted by protege blonde siren Sharon Stone, and providing an interesting insight into an actress who was taken from us far too early.
Movie Review: DINNER IS SERVED....
Summary: 5 Stars
Priceless cast in one of the best films of the '30's. A socialite frantically tries to pull off an A-list dinner party as everything crumbles around her at the last minute. Billie Burke (a few years from her turn as Glinda the Good Witch in "The Wizard of Oz") is matchless as the fluttery Mrs.Jordan, the wealthy matron. The A-list cast includes Marie Dressler as a faded stage star, both Barrymores Lionel and John, and Jean Harlow as the social-climbing wife of Wallace Beery. The George S.Kaufman-Edna Ferber comedy-drama (based on the play) is good on the screen with George Cukor directing the multi-layered plot and sub-plots that somehow never get confusing. There's too much going on in "Dinner at Eight" to go into but suffice it to say it's as completely satisfying now as it was in 1934. A classic to be treasured. While the acting is top notch all round, it's Dressler as Carlotta Vance and Harlow who pull out the stops and nearly walk off with the film. Their meeting at the end results in one of the funniest lines in movie history expertly delivered by Dressler. A must for vintage film collectors. The DVD print is fine. Enjoy.Movie Review: "Dinner for Always"
Summary: 5 Stars
My fellow reviewers have already written so much, and so incisively, that all I want to add is this: As far as I'm concerned, THIS movie represents just what "Old Hollywood" could do, when not hampered by censors or infatuated with over-the-top "messages." And yet there ARE signposts: for all the laughs, Cukor doesn't let us off scot-free. Bankruptcy, blackmail, suicide --Cukor helps us through the darker times and makes us giggle here and there, but the final shot of the dining room doors closing for dinner is both natural and very forboding: we're afraid for these people, even the chiseler (Berry? or Beery? sorry) and the gold digger (Harlow, who was never better). But don't get the wrong idea -- DON"T get turned off!! There are plenty of laughs here for those who go for the verbal/sophisticate brand of humor (tho. there are a few hints of slapstic, equally funny).
Well, for someone who'd claimed to not have much to say, I've written quite a bit -- as I read over what I've, I haven't said anything notably insightful. Just see the movie -- it's one of the best.