View Single Post
Old 07-07-2018, 07:21 PM   #264
sabotai
General Manager
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: The Satellite of Love
Dinner at Eight (1933)



Directed By: George Cukor
Written By: Frances Marion, Herman J. Mankiewicz
Starring: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Billie Burke
Length: 113 min.
Genre: Drama


See, I thought the actress who played Glinda, the Good Witch of the North(Billie Burke), in The Wizard of Oz talked that way because the Good Witch was supposed to majestic ... nope, that's just how see talks.

Oliver (Lionel Barrymore) is the head of a shipping company that's falling on hard times. Every one is, it is the Great Depression after all. He wants Dan Packard (Wallace Beery) to buy some stock to help the company out, but he says he'll consider it but doesn't commit. Meanwhile, Oliver's wife, Glinda the Good Witch of the North, decides to throw a dinner party and invites the top of their social ladder.

The movie is mostly about the intertwined social connections of the guests for the dinner party. There's Kitty (Jean Harlow) who is Dan Packard's wife, but is having an affair with a doctor who is also invited to the dinner party. Oliver and Glinda's daughter is secretly involved with Larry Renault (John Barrymore), a movie star - also invited to the party. Carlotta Vance (Marie Dressler) is a former stage star who currently lives in Europe but is in town for financial reasons and is a former love interest for Oliver's - and the interest doesn't seem to have faded by the way he interacts with her.

And so it's one whole mess. Most of the characters are once wealthy people who have fallen on bad times. I can see how it appealed to the masses for its time. A bunch of once wealthy people trying to continue to live like they're wealthy, usually ending in a terrible consequence. Larry Renault can't take not being on top so much that he kills himself.

Overall, the movie didn't do much for me.

My Rating: 5/10
IMDB User Rating: 7.8/10 (6k votes)
Rotten Tomatoes: 100% Critics (17-0), 74% of Audience (3.7 / 5 ; 2k votes)
sabotai is offline   Reply With Quote