Dinner at Eight (1933)

Director:

George Cukor

Writers:

Frances Marion (screenplay) and
Herman J. Mankiewicz (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

12 January 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Social climbing Millicent and Oliver Jordan throw a dinner for a bunch of New York society types, each of whom has much to reveal.

Plot Keywords:

Dinner Party | New York | Blackmail | Ensemble Cast | Millionaire

Cast

Marie Dressler	...	Carlotta Vance
John Barrymore	...	Larry Renault
Wallace Beery	...	Dan Packard
Jean Harlow	...	Kitty Packard
Lionel Barrymore	...	Oliver Jordan
Lee Tracy	...	Max Kane
Edmund Lowe	...	Dr. Wayne Talbot
Billie Burke	...	Millicent Jordan
Madge Evans	...	Paula Jordan
Jean Hersholt	...	Jo Stengel
Karen Morley	...	Mrs. Lucy Talbot
Louise Closser Hale	...	Hattie Loomis
Phillips Holmes	...	Ernest DeGraff
May Robson	...	Mrs. Wendel
Grant Mitchell	...	Ed Loomis

Runtime:

111 min (Turner library print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Canada:G (video rating) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Australia:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #2284-R: 15 May 1936 for re-release) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The dowager character played by Marie Dressler is reportedly based on actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell, for whom George Bernard Shaw wrote the role of Eliza Doolittle in the play "Pygmalion", the basis for the musical My Fair Lady (1964). Mrs. Campbell was legendary for her inappropriate remarks, and she failed dismally in an attempt at a Hollywood film career.

Quotes:

Kitty: I've told you a million times not to talk to me when I'm doing my lashes!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Lana Turner... a Daughter's Memoir (2001) (TV)

Soundtrack:

I Loved You Then As I Love You Now

Deeeeelicious!

When you gather together the great stars of the early 30's, give them a great script, a great director and let them have their head, you get "Dinner at Eight". This is a delightful film which bridges the gap between comedy and drama. Granted, it is a little dated but that it only a minor inconvenience to those of us who love this movie.

You would be hard pressed to find another actress who could play the part of Carlotta Vance with such panache as Marie Dressler.......she is magnificent. She may give the best performance in the film but she has stiff competition from the rest of this star-studded cast.

I find John Barrymore's performance particularly good as it seems to mirror his own career and problems with alcohol. Arranging himself in the right light to capture the great profile one last time is poignant. I am not a Wallace Beery fan but he is spot on as the vulgar, grasping business man with wonderful Jean Harlow as his slutty wife. She is a treat and of course, no one can forget her exchange with Dressler at the end of the film when she announces that she was reading a book! The lovely Billie Burke, who made a film career out of dithering society women (although she was a former Follies beauty and wife of Flo Ziegfeld)is a delight. Lionel Barrymore plays it pretty straight as her long suffering, tragically ill husband. Edmund Lowe passes muster as the philandering doctor and the rest of the supporting cast is as good as it gets.

They don't make 'em like this anymore. It's a movie lovers paradise!