Dinner at Eight
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Actor: Jean Harlow, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Marie Dressler, Wallace BeeryBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 111 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-03-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of Dinner at Eight
DVD Review: Great performances from MGM's top stars of the 30s
Summary: 3 Stars
Dinner at Eight was one of the earliest star studded blockbusters. It followed the tremendous success of "Grand Hotel" the year before, and has several carryovers - John and Lionel Barrymore, Jean Hersholt, and Wallace Beery as actors, and William Daniels as the cinematographer with William Axt providing the score. To this they added Jean Harlow, Marie Dressler, Lee Tracy, Edmund Lowe, and Billie Burke.
The film is based on the Broadway play of the same name by George S Kaufman and Edna Ferber. It was adapted to the screen by Herman Mankiewicz, Frances Marion, and Donald Stewart.
This was a powerhouse of talent -
* Wallace Beery had been nominated as Best Actor for his role in "The Big House" (1930) and won for "The Champ" (1932),
* The Barrymores were Broadway royalty and had just appeared together in "Rasputin" (1932) as well as "Grand Hotel" (1932), John had an enormous success with "Svengali" (1931) and Lionel had won the Best Actor for "A Free Soul" (1930).
* Marie Dressler won the Oscar in 1930 for "Min and Bill" (Beery was the co-star) and was nominated again in 1932 for "Emma".
* Jean Harlow was MGM's hottest rising star with enormous successes in "Platinum Blonde" (1931), "The Beast of the City" (1932), "Scarface" (1932), "Red Dust" (1932) and "Red Headed Woman" (1932).
Look for Jean Hersholt who makes a brief appearance as John Barrymore's producer. Also note that John and Lionel never play a scene together. This was not uncommon. The brothers often feuded and could go months without speaking to each other. Many of the screen appearances have them working independently.
Often spoken of as a comedy, (e.g., AFI ranks it #85 in its list of 100 top comedies) buyer beware - the comedy is about as sporadic as the gulps for air of a drowning man, and the plot of the film resembles people being sucked down the social and economic drain. This is a Depression era melodrama, not a comedy, even if it is interspersed with the occasional laugh. Here's a brief overview of some of the main characters -
* A third generation shipping magnet (Lionel Barrymore) whose health is failing and whose business is on the rocks.
* A greedy and less than honest businessman (Beery) who stays in an adulterous union to pursue his political career.
* A drunken, womanizing, suicidal, actor (John Barrymore) whose best days are past him and who is on the verge of bankruptcy.
* A self absorbed housewife (Billie Burke) who is more concerned with her dinner party than her husband's health and her daughter's scandalous affair.
Not exactly light faire.
George Cukor (1899-1983) directs. Cukor was nominated 5 times for an Oscar and won once ("My Fair Lady") in 1964. He's best known for his comedies ( "The Philadelphia Story", "Adams Rib", "Born Yesterday", "Pat and Mike") but was equally capable with drama ("Romeo and Juliet", "A Star is Born", "Gaslight"). He's famous for saying "Don't just do something, stand there!" All things considered, this is one of Cukor's poorer efforts. Basically he has decided to treat the film as a play, and shoots it accordingly.
This was David Selznick's (1902-1965) first film for MGM after leaving RKO (where he worked with Cukor). Selznick would go on to produce such Oscar nominated classics as "Viva Villa" (1934), "David Copperfield" (1935), "Anna Karenina" (1935), "A Tale of Two Cities" (1935), "A Star is Born", and, of course, "GWTW" (1939). For a Selznick film the production values are exceedingly poor, even down to the trappings of the rich and famous.
Williams Daniels (1901-70) is the cinematographer. Daniels was a favorite of Erich von Stroheim and also Greta Garbo who used him in all but 2 of her films. Daniels lensed more than 150 films. He was nominated 3 times ("Anna Christie", "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", "How the West was Won") and won once ("Naked City" in 1948). Daniels camerawork follows Cukor's lead - you are watching a play.
"Dinner at Eight" is one of those interesting 1930s films that shows its heritage from the silent era. Dressler and John Barrymore provide excellent examples of silent screen acting, and while it works well on the sound stage since they were both great actors at their core, silent or sound, it is essentially silent screen acting. The camera work is also very much like the standard silent film - a static camera that rarely moves, focused on medium shots for 30 seconds of more, with the occasional two shot. Actors exit and enter while the static camera remains motionless, as if we were watching a play. What is remarkable about this film is that a year earlier, in "Grand Hotel", the camera work is modern and fluid and yet it's also an MGM film and also photographed by Daniels.
What is strange is that while the camera work is vintage 20s, there is virtually no background music. William Axt (1888-1959) was primarily a silent film composer, working on films like "The Mark of Zorro" (1922), "Greed" (1924), "Ben Hur" (1925),and "While the City Sleeps" (1928). He continued working through 1940 when he retired.
"Dinner at Eight" was #2 at the box office. The New York Times and Film Daily said it was one of the 10 best films of the year.
1933 was a good year for films. Box office hits were Mae West's "I'm no Angel" and "She Done Him Wrong", Roby Keeler and Dick Powell in "42nd Street", "King Kong", and Garbo in "Queen Christina". The Oscar winners were "The Private Life of Henry VIII" (Actor), "Morning Glory" (Actress) and "Cavalcade" (Picture). Other notable films released that year included the Marx Brothers' "Duck Soup", Laurel and Hardy's classic "Sons of the Desert", and "The Invisible Man". Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made their film duo debut in "Flying Down to Rio". FWIW - 1933 was the year that Walt Disney referred to the gold statue as an "Oscar" when he won it for "The Three Little Pigs".
Despite the poor camerawork, the depressing script, and the lack of any background music, the film contains marvelous performances. Marie Dressler is a hoot, and Jean Harlow, in addition to being Harlow, gets a chance to shape her comedic skills which would emerge more strongly as time went on. John Barrymore gives a tremendous performance, especially in his final scene by the fireplace, and Billie Burke is hilarious as the oblivious housewife whose world is crumbling around her while her biggest worry is that she will have to serve crabmeat instead of aspic as her appetizer.
Description of Dinner at Eight
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