Dinner at Eight

Moments of great wit, mostly Marie Dressler, and moments of great pathos. Great stars. A true classic that can't be missed.

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Though not his first film, "Dinner at Eight" really put director George Cukor on the map as an important filmmaker. Based on the play, the film is a crisp and smart commentary on the rich and what they believe is important. It's dialogue sparkles, and the cast shines brightly with every part. It also shows how the rich deal with tragic moments. The film manages to be very funny while circling dramatic plot developments. Jean Harlowe is wonderful at playing a dumb blonde with smart undertones. John Barrymore is at his best, even though he seems to be playing himself. A real early masterpiece.

A 1933 film that holds up when viewed today. How odd that it wasn't even nominated for an Academy Award. It could be because it was similar to Grand Hotel which won Best Picture the year before. It really is more of a comedy/melodrama than a pure comedy, since there is much tragedy unfolding during the movie. Marie Dressler is broke, silent filmstar John Barrymore is washed up and an alcoholic, and Lionel Barrymore is in danger of losing his shipping business. The only ones doing well are Wallace Beery and Jean Harlow. Packard (Beery) is a self made millionaire with no ethics and his wife is a gold digger with eyes for another man, her doctor. The Depression-era messaging is that rules of life have changed in ways that never occurred before. The vice of opportunistic social-climbing Packards is rewarded while those playing by the rules of the past have nothing but memories. Billie Burke's performance is hilarious and many say Jean Harlow steals this film but Marie Dressler's comic touches help make it in my opinion.

My mother and I watched most of this movie, expecting it to be a comedy (from what the box said). Comedy? There was not a single laugh or even smile to be had. The movie ranged from boring to unpleasant, and there were plenty of big stars but nary a likable or sympathetic character in the lot. The movie stars a wealthy New York woman who wants to throw a dinner party for the purpose of social advancement, with her husband reluctantly going along. She invites over a wealthy British couple who are coming to the United States, and invites a number of other people to have the proper number, as well as the right mixture of males and females. But everyone has some sort of dark secret; the couple's daughter, who has a fiancée, has fallen in love with an actor whose career is failing; the husband's company is in serious financial trouble; a former actress is also in financial difficulty; a bullying former miner is secretly buying out the husband's company's stock, and his wife is having an affair; and this is just a sample of the betrayals and intrigues that are going on. This could have had the makings of a comedy, but we found no jokes or any other reasons to laugh. Nor did we end up caring what happened to any of the characters in the story. Pass up this dinner invitation.

Excellent drama, even though there isn't much of a plot. The performances are good - particularly John Barrymore's and Jean Harlowe's - and the dialogue is sharp.

All-star cast with an interesting script helps make "Dinner at Eight" one of the reigning classics of the Golden Age. Stage bound but well-written and enjoyable.

I feel like it was meant to be primarily a comedy, but really maybe audiences in 1933 laughed at this but constantly the jokes fell flat for me. It wasn't an awful movie and the performances when not trying to be comedic are well executed, but you can tell this was adapted from a stage play - since instead of showing us things that happen, we're constantly being told whats happened.

Dark pre-code comedy with great performances

Sensational! This is comedy at its finest. Poignant and endearing but but also slapstick and irony. This is one of those classics that true classic film lovers make sure to buy and keep on their shelf. I will say that a lot of jokes are about what was going on during that day. The references to the people on the benches, for example, are those made homeless in 1929 which was only a few years behind them. Even if you're not up on your history, the jokes are truly timeless. If you keep an eye open too, you can see a flash of Jean Harlow's bare breast when she gets out of bed and heads in the direction of her vanity. It's only for a faint second. Everyone in this film played their parts to perfection. Jean truly was a woman who was destined for greatness, it's really too bad her life ended so shortly. Marie Dressler is a treasure here. The problem with stage actresses is that they're forgotten. There is no TCM for stage. The only time we can enjoy Ms. Dressler is when she happened to accept a film role, which was rare. That's really too bad. Her performance here knocked my socks off. I was mesmerized by her eyes and manner. What an actress! Just thinking about her performance now makes me want to go and watch it. Anyway, I highly recommend it.