Dinner At Eight (1933) Director: George Cukor
“I’ve told you a million times not to talk to me while I’m doing my lashes!”
★★★☆☆
Dinner At Eight is an amusing romp, albeit a somewhat stressful and morbid movie. Dinner At Eight weaves together interconnected stories and plot-lines which culminates, appropriately, in a “dinner at eight.” Inspired by the “all-star” cast and plot of the Grand Hotel, Dinner At Eight is an amusing comedy starring big Hollywood names like Jon Barrymore, Marie Dressler, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, and others. It tells the story of shipping magnate and business owner Oliver Jordan and his anxious wife, Millicent, who is planning to throw a dinner next Thursday. She was informed that a powerful couple they met in England last year would be visiting, the Ferncliffes. Meanwhile their daughter, Paula, is unenthusiastic about the return of her fiance Ernest. We discover that Paula is having an affair with Larry, a washed up silent film star.
As context, the great depression is in full swing and Jordan Shipping is struggling as many wish to sell their stock, including Carlotta Vance, a now retired former stage actress. Dan Packard, a mining magnate whose wife has been cheating on him with Dr. Talbot, is interested in acquiring Jordann Shipping. Before, Larry commits suicide by gas in his room when he loses another major starring role, it is discovered that Oliver has heart thrombosis, the Ferncliffes cancel on dinner. In the end of this swirling drama of interconnected conflicts, the guests all proceed to dinner. As a strange point of fact, Dinner at Eight received no Academy Award nominations in 1933.
Credits:
- Directed by: George Cukor
- Screenplay by: Frances Marion, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Donald Ogden Stewart (Additional Dialogue)
- Based on: Dinner at Eight by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber
- Produced by: David O. Selznick
- Starring:
- Marie Dressler…..Carlotta Vance
- John Barrymore…..Larry Renault
- Wallace Beery…..Dan Packard
- Jean Harlow…..Kitty Packard, Dan’s wife
- Lionel Barrymore…..Oliver Jordan
- Lee Tracy…..Max Kane, Larry Renault’s agent
- Edmund Lowe…..Dr. Wayne Talbot
- Billie Burke…..Millicent Jordan, Oliver’s wife
- Cinematography: William H. Daniels
- Edited by: Ben Lewis
- Music by: William Axt
- Distributed by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer