Rent Dinner at Eight (1933)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Millicent Jordan (Billie Burke) is pre-occupied with the plans she is making for a high-class dinner party. Her husband Oliver (Lionel Barrymore) is in failing health, and he is also worried because someone is trying to buy up the stock in his shipping business - even his old friend Carlotta (Marie Dressler) wants to sell her stock. Hoping to get help from businessman Dan Packard (Wallace Beery), he persuades Millicent, against her wishes, to invite Packard and his wife to the dinner. As Oliver's problems get worse, Millicent is increasingly quick-tempered because the plans for the party are not going smoothly. As the time for the dinner approaches, it appears that the hosts and the guests will all have plenty on their minds. - Actors:
- Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Lee Tracy, Edmund Lowe, Billie Burke, Madge Evans, Jean Hersholt, Karen Morley, Louise Closser Hale, Phillips Holmes, May Robson, Grant Mitchell, Phoebe Foster, Elizabeth Patterson, Hilda Vaughn, Harry Beresford, Edwin Maxwell
- Directors:
- George Cukor
- Producers:
- David O. Selznick
- Writers:
- Frances Marion, Herman J. Mankiewicz, George S. Kaufman, Edna Ferber, Donald Ogden Stewart, John Meehan
- Aka:
- Dinner at 8
- Studio:
- Warner
- Genres:
- Classics, Comedy, Drama
- Collections:
- Top 100 AFI Laughs, Top Films
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Reviews (1) of Dinner at Eight
Comedy Drama. - Dinner at Eight review by Steve
After their success with Grand Hotel in '32, MGM released this in its image; another all star comedy drama based on a Broadway play. It retains many of the crew, and some of the stars in similar roles. So there's Lionel Barrymore as a dying entrepreneur. Wallace Beery returns as the bumptious capitalist. John Barrymore plays another bankrupt washout.
But this is much better, mostly because MGM's ace director George Cukor is in charge. He gets more disciplined performances from his stars. John Barrymore is especially poignant as an egotistical, alcoholic actor, which must have felt close to home. And there's Jean Harlow as a sexy gold-digger and Marie Dressler as the sardonic observer.
The support is fine too, with Billie Burke a stand out as a ditzy social climber who hosts a dinner for some visiting aristocrats and invites all of her diverse acquaintances. We see the ensemble cast preparing for the event, with comedy from Harlow and Beery as quarrelling nouveau-riche, and heartbreak from Barrymore.
It's precode so there are some skintight satin gowns for Harlow- by Adrian. Cukor benefits from an excellent script adapted from George Kaufman and Edna Thurber's stage play which is funny and satirical. And we observe that the best laid plans of mere mortals are ultimately futile! Particularly in the depression.