Dinner at Eight (1933)

It's interesting that this is generally considered a comedy, but it has a really hard edge. There is suicide, greed, bankruptcy and infighting. Granted, there are numerous funny lines, including one famous one about the world's oldest profession. Carole Lombard plays the selfish blonde bombshell who is in the middle of everything. The figure that is far and away the most interesting is Marie Dressler. She was always cast as the matronly character with a with control over situations. I remember her connection to another figure in this movie, Wallace Beery, the hard drinking, in sensitive boorish blowhard. They were together in "Min and Bill" and formed a combative couple that will be remembered for all of filmdom. The interesting thing is that she was a woman who usually got her way.

One has to wonder if an actress like Marie Dressler would have made it in today's Hollywood. She was great during her era, but boy, what she offers up in the acting department is totally offset by her looks. Actually, I'll correct myself for the moment by pointing to Anne Ramsey, that infamous 'Momma' that was thrown from the train in the 1987 Danny DeVito flick. But Ramsey's heyday was in the Eighties, and I can't think of anyone who might fill the current bill as a similar type actress.This film had a glittering cast, what with the likes of the Barrymores, Dressler, Beery and Harlow leading the charge. I can't necessarily say that Wallace Beery and Jean Harlow were inappropriately cast here as husband and wife because it worked for the story, but I had to suspend disbelief the whole time watching them. Knowing that they hated each other in real life was something that worked for their characters in the picture, though Harlow's Kitty Packard turned me off early on when she displayed such boorish behavior toward her maid Tina (Hilda Vaughn). I had to question why Tina would have stuck around with all the times she was called nitwit, dummy and stupid by her employer. And not just Kitty, but the lout Dan Packard (Beery) as well.Set during the Depression, the story focuses on what once wealthy, upscale glitterati find they have to deal with as their fortunes run dry. Preparing for her well heeled 'Dinner at Eight' party, Millicent Jordan (Billie Burke) is totally over the top in her remonstrations over late cancellations and assorted menu options. The story offers up classic maguffins in the characters of Lord and Lady Ferncliffe who are mentioned repeatedly but wind up as no-shows for the big party.Though nominally billed as a comedy, the humor is mostly understated and primarily dialog driven; it helps if one has a droll sense of humor. I didn't consider any of the characters to be particularly likable, I guess because each one was looking out for Number #1, which in each case was themselves. But it's not a bad little film over all, one of the better ones actually when you go all the way back to the early Thirties.

Ah the 1930's. No decade in cinema has since captured such an aurora of class and sophistication from the clothes worn to way people talk; a world so removed from our own. It feels like there is no other time period in which it was as easy to make a movie about rich people and their rich people problems without it coming off as a metaphorical dick waving display of wealth. There are few better representations of this than Dinner at Eight. With the heavenly, dream like music from the film's opening titles; the viewer is transported to a world long, long gone. All of the stories in Dinner at Eight have tragic to say the least, but Billie Burke as the socialite holding the impending dinner helps bring comic relief to the proceedings with her histrionics as well simply the sound of her voice. Aside from the largely carefree Burke, the rest of the characters don't have much to look forward to with their impending affairs, bankruptcy, failing careers and illnesses. John Barrymore's story is my favourite; the quietly tragic demise of washed up film star Larry Renault. His tender love scenes with Madge Evans are largely the opposite of the grandiose interaction with Greta Garbo in Grand Hotel; this is far more down to Earth. It's not apparent when Renault first appears just what a bad state his career is in. As his segment progresses he becomes more and more pathetic as he becomes increasingly drunk and we learn more about his current state that he is only being offered a bit part in a play, he only has seven cents on him and the ultimate blow when his manager tells him he's been a joke for years and never taken seriously as an actor; he had his good looks but he doesn't even have that anymore. The sub plot is prophetic of Barrymore's own future as he spent his last few years as a washed up actor and succumb to alcohol. There are hints in his performance to the egomaniac he would play the following year in Twentieth Century with his hotel room being littered with photographs of his own profile. With its haunting cinematography Renault's final outcome had me holding my breath with part of me wishing this could be its own film; a sort of predecessor to the story of Norman A Star Is Born.The other story line which particularly strikes me is Edmund Lowe's. Once his wife confronts him about his ongoing affair with Jean Harlow, the two have a long serious chat in which she is completely understanding and forgives him. A stark contrast to any modern romantic comedy in which two character would break up after a lengthy argument of one has betrayed the other, then get back together 20 minutes later. Are modern romantic comedies just so contrived and unreflective of real life, was adultery less frowned on back then or is it just a pre- code thing?The early 30's seems to be the one brief period in cinema history in which there was a number of older aged movie stars who box office draws; Wallace Beery, Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore. There has never been another decade like it.

Biggies meaning Gone with the Wind, Wizard of Oz and Citizen Kane.This film is so good it's just a pleasure to watch. The great part is this film is just all acting. There's no soundtrack. Just talking in "situations". It's fantastic. I've seen plenty of early 30's films and the only 2 that are truly exceptional are Dodsworth and Dinner at 8. They have no equals.Films of the early 30's had the unfortunate task of putting out fresh faces/actors into a new era of sound. Most of the films were just bad acting but a decent story. They seemed "corny". This film has outstanding acting throughout. It doesn't feel like a film from the 30's. It could easily drop in the this decade and be relevant. It's that good.I really can't say who was a standout in this but if I had to pick one actor in this, I'd have to say Marie Dressler is the one. She's a bawdy ole broad and she's not shy in this one. Remember this was pre-code stuff so you get real conversations with topics not talked about a year later when the code was coming into swing.Just get this film and watch it. It's so sad and depressing the situations all these actors in. A great screenplay and fantastic acting make for a real film experience.