Dinner at Eight
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Movie Reviews of Dinner at Eight
Movie Review: Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
I believe Dinner at Eight is one of the all time classic movies. Jean Harlow is excellent, as are her co-stars. It's a delight to watch.Movie Review: One of the best!
Summary: 5 Stars
This classic has it all - wit, a fast-paced plot, and a stellar cast. A must-have for all!Movie Review: Iconographic Performances In Memorable Comedy-Drama
Summary: 4 Stars
MGM's 1932 GRAND HOTEL, which featured an all-star cast in a series of interweaving plotlines set against a glamorous Berlin hotel, was a tremendous success, and the studio wasted no time in acquiring DINNER AT EIGHT, a popular Broadway show by George S. Kauffman and Edna Ferber that had much the same concept and which could be given the same all-star treatment. When New York society matron and relentless social climber Millicent Jordan has the opportunity to host a dinner for members of the English aristocracy, she determines to go all out--and the film follows the lives of her soon-to-be guests over the course of a week.
Millicent (Billie Burke) is unaware that husband Oliver (Lionel Barrymore) faces both a business and medical crisis. Oliver's friend Carlotta (Marie Dressler), a stage star of yesteryear, has sold her stock in Oliver's company--which allows loudmouth business tycoon Dan Packard (Wallace Beery) the chance to cash in at Oliver's expense. By coincidence, Packard's wife Kitty (Jean Harlow) is having an affair with Oliver's doctor, Wayne Talbot (Edmund Lowe)--and if this were not complication enough, Oliver and Millicent's daughter Paula (Madge Evans) is on the verge of provoking a social scandal via an affair with aging and alcoholic movie star Larry Renault (John Barrymore.) And all of them are invited to dine.
DINNER AT EIGHT is usually described as a comedy, and it is true that there are several notable comic performances. The most famous of these are Wallace Beery and Jean Harlow, who give outrageous performances as the bickering Packards; Billie Burke and Marie Dressler also score as the harried hostess and the retired actress whose charms are long gone. Where comedy is concerned, DINNER AT EIGHT plays extremely, extremely well and can hold its own with even the best of 1930s comedy--but in truth the movie is more of a drama than a comedy, and where drama is concerned it shows its age in no uncertain terms.
For one thing, the script relies a great deal on coincidence. This adds to the fun where comedy is concerned, but it works less well for drama, and in DINNER AT EIGHT the neatness with which the parallel plots link to each other is a bit too pat. For antoher thing, there is a clash of style between the film's comic and dramatic moments, most particularly in terms of the John Barrymore sequences, where the acting seems excessively stagey. Instead of seamless, the various elements tend butt against each other in a slightly awkward way.
Even so, and whether your taste runs to acid-tongued comedy, broad melodrama, or wild farce, DINNER AT EIGHT offers a great deal to enjoy. The performances are first rate, with the comic moments a true delight; there is dark irony in John Barrymore's performance; and the set designs and costuming are nothing short of iconographic: it is impossible to think of Jean Harlow, for instance, without envisioning her against a white-on-white Modern bedroom--and that, and a great deal more, comes straight out of this film. Although the film has not been remastered, the print and sound are extremely good, and bonus features include a very good documentary on Jean Harlow, who more or less steals the show from her numerous co-stars. Recommended.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Movie Review: Five Course Performances Make This Dinner Sublime
Summary: 4 Stars
MGM, the studio with "more stars than there are in heaven" had only recently proved their point by putting six of their top talents in one film; "Grand Hotel" (1932). A clean sweep at the Oscars, the success prompted David O. Selznick - then a rival producer on the backlot - to devise his own all star melodrama of merit with "Dinner At Eight" (1933). The plot is threadbare but serviceable. Affluent hostess, Millicent Jordon (Billie Burke) is so enraptured at the prospect of throwing the society party of the decade that she eschews all other concerns in favor of the frivolities associated with such a swank soiree. Her roster of guests include the boorish social climber, Dan Packard (Wallace Beery) and his much younger wife of hot body but low class, Kitty (Jean Harlow), aging grand dame of the theater, Carlotta Vance (Marie Dressler), family physician, Dr. Wayne Talbot (Edmund Lowe) and desperate has-been movie actor, Larry Renault (John Barrymore). Millicent's husband, the kind-hearted, good natured Oliver (Lionel Barrymore) has just discovered that he is fatally ill. However, acknowledging his wife's lack of feeling for anyone but herself, Oliver decides to forego divulging his diagnosis, presumably until after the party. What is most engaging and impressive about Selznick's take on the all star spectacle is that, unlike "Grand Hotel", he does not afford any one actor particular preference or even attempt to evenly space their on screen time. Rather, there is a strange sense - particularly from a star system as galvanic as MGM's - that the people being observed are just common folk on route to a flashy night on the town. The film also gives DVD audiences their only chance to admire the comedic stylings of one of Vaudeville's most gifted former actresses - Marie Dressler. In girth, stature and poignancy, Dressler is at her personal zenith - delving high comedy and low melodrama with equal panache. At one point in the evening, after having been told by Harlow's character that a book has explained that machinery is going to take the place of every profession, Dressler casually eyes the sultry Harlow from head to toe before commenting, "Oh my dear, that's one thing you need never worry about."
Warner Bros. DVD treatment of this classic star vehicle is about on par with their lack luster previous treatment of "Grand Hotel". Although the gray scale can exhibit some nicely balanced contrasts, solid blacks and clean whites, more often there is a sense that contrast levels are a tad too low and blacks are more deep gray than black. There is, at times, an excessive amount of age related artifacts for an image that is rarely smooth or easy on the eyes. Film grain is also obtrusive. The audio has been cleaned up but exhibits a fairly noticeable background hiss throughout. The Sharon Stone hosted bio on Harlow - which is all too brief, and a short subject: "Come to Dinner" are all the extras you get. A shame.
Movie Review: High society during Great Depression
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie was adapted from the work of George Kaufman and Edna Ferber by Frances Marion and Herman Mankiewicz, casting some of the best names in Hollywood. Brilliantly directed by George Cukor, the story is a character study of four individuals during depression era (1933), affected by love, greed, possible poverty, and infidelity. John Barrymore offers one of his finest performances as a down and out actor, Larry Renault, caught up with drinking, and in desperation commits suicide as he has no other way to go in a world that doesn't accept losers. Lionel Barrymore offers another great performance as Oliver Jordan, a shipping magnate and the CEO of a company, which is in financial ruins, and it is close to collapse unless a financier helps to save the company. Burdened with his heart problems, and his scatterbrained high-society wife, Millicent Jordan (Billie Burke) preoccupied with hosting a dinner party for rich and famous, and his only daughter in love with much older Larry Renault, is confronted with the realities of the Great Depression. Dan Packard (Wallace Beery) plays a devious and crooked financier who plots to gain from Oliver Jordan's company, and his unfaithful wife, Kitty Packard (Jean Harlow) who threatens him to do a good deed by spilling beans about his dirty scheme to Oliver Jordan, when Dan likes to file for divorce because of her infidelity. Marie Dressler as an aging star, Carlotta Vance is very entertaining; in spite of her own insecurities, she offers her wisdom to Paula Jordan (Madge Evans), when she gives her the news that her lover, Larry Renault committed suicide, and to Kitty Packard in the film's final scene.
If you are a fan of Jean Harlow, don't expect much from this movie as she is in a supporting role. Nevertheless she has offered a great performance in the company some of the Hollywood's greatest stars. With regards to the fans of John Barrymore, it is ironic that his final years in real life was somewhat similar to the character of Larry Renault as his addiction to alcohol and possibly Alzheimer's disease had significant impact on his movie career.