Dinner at Eight (1933 film)

New York society matron Millicent Jordan (Billie Burke) receives word that Lord and Lady Ferncliffe have accepted her invitation to dinner. She is overjoyed by this social coup, but her husband Oliver (Lionel Barrymore), a shipping magnate, finds Ferncliffe boring. Their daughter, Paula (Madge Evans) is preoccupied with the impending return of her fiancé, Ernest DeGraff (Phillips Holmes), from Europe.

Oliver asks Millicent to invite legendary stage actress Carlotta Vance (Marie Dressler), who has just arrived from Europe. Carlotta comes to his office, and they reminisce: Oliver asked her to marry him the day he turned 21 (She is older.) When she refused, he turned to work. In her heyday, Carlotta's lovers showered her with stock and gems. The Jordan stock was the only one she paid for herself. Now she must sell, but Oliver lacks the funds. His business has been struck hard by the Depression. Magnate Dan Packard (Wallace Beery), a former miner, agrees to consider helping Oliver, but later brags to his wife, Kitty (Jean Harlow), that he plans to take over Jordan Shipping.

Oliver convinces Millicent to invite the Packards. Kitty, who is young, beautiful, ill-mannered and socially ambitious, eagerly accepts. Dan refuses to go, but changes his mind when he finds out that Lord Ferncliffe, “the richest man in England,” will attend.

On the morning of her dinner, Millicent loses her extra man. She telephones Larry Renault (John Barrymore), a former silent screen star recently profiled in the newspaper, and extends a last-minute invitation, unaware that Paula is in his room.

Paula adores Larry and cannot imagine life with Ernest now. Their affair has lasted almost a month. He wants to break it off. He is 47, Paula 19. He abandoned his first wife; the second, drunk, drove her car over a cliff; he is still married to the third, now a great star. There have been countless affairs. He is burned out. “This is the first decent thing I have done in my life,” he says. Paula refuses to listen, declaring that she will tell her family tonight. Carlotta sees Paula leaving Larry's room.

A hardened alcoholic, Larry is on the brink of collapse. His agent, Max Kane (Lee Tracy), tells him that the stage play he was counting on has a new producer, Jo Stengel (Jean Hersholt). Stengel has put another actor in the lead but is willing to consider Larry in a character part.

The Jordans' physician and friend Dr. Wayne Talbot (Edmund Lowe) has been carrying on with Kitty while pretending to tend to her feigned illnesses. On the day of the dinner, his wife, Lucy (Karen Morley), discovers him in a compromising telephone call with Kitty. Lucy still loves him, and he wants to change. They kiss, and Oliver is rushed into the office. Amyl nitrite restores him, but Oliver wisely deduces the seriousness of his illness. Talbot tells his nurse the diagnosis: thrombosis of the coronary artery. Oliver has a few years—or a few days. At home, Oliver tells Millicent that he feels rotten and needs to rest, but she is too hysterical to hear because, among several disasters, the Ferncliffes have cancelled.

Meanwhile, Kitty and Dan have a vicious fight. Threatened with divorce, she tells him to choose between his Cabinet appointment and a career-stopping revelation from her about his crooked dealings. He must save the Jordan line—and treat her with more respect. She wins this round because Dan doesn't know the name of her lover. Her maid, Tina (Hilda Vaughan), who does, proceeds to blackmail her.

When Max returns. Larry alienates Stengel, who leaves. Max chastises Larry with the truth and leaves; the hotel manager tells Larry to leave tomorrow. Larry turns on his gas fireplace, reclines to show off his famous profile, and waits to die.

The dinner guests arrive at the Jordans'. Carlotta tells Paula about Larry and comforts the weeping girl. Oliver has an attack. Millicent learns about his illness and the business. First she weeps, then she springs into action, planning their future. Downstairs, Kitty forces Dan to tell Oliver that he has saved the Jordan line.

Going in to dinner, Kitty remarks,  “ I was reading a book the other day”, and Carlotta does a superb double-take. The book said that machinery is going to take the place of every profession. Carlotta scans Kitty from head to toe and takes her arm: "Oh my dear, that's something you never need worry about."  .[3][4][5]

Lobby card

Jean Harlow as Kitty Packard in Dinner at Eight

• Marie Dressler as Carlotta Vance
• John Barrymore as Larry Renault
• Wallace Beery as Dan Packard
• Jean Harlow as Kitty Packard, Dan's wife
• Lionel Barrymore as Oliver Jordan
• Lee Tracy as Max Kane, Larry Renault's agent
• Edmund Lowe as Dr. Wayne Talbot
• Billie Burke as Millicent Jordan, Oliver's wife
• Madge Evans as Paula Jordan, the Jordans' daughter
• Jean Hersholt as Jo Stengel, a theatrical producer
• Karen Morley as Lucy Talbot, Wayne Talbot's wife
• Louise Closser Hale, as Hattie Loomis, Millie's cousin
• Phillips Holmes as Ernest DeGraff, Paula Jordan's fiancé
• May Robson as Mrs. Wendel, the Jordans' cook

The cast also includes

TCM.com says that the character of Carlotta was inspired by the popular stage and silent film actress Maxine Elliott, citing the March 13, 1940 obituary in the New York Times.[6]

Marie Dressler died in 1934 of cancer. She was recovering from surgery when Dinner at Eight began filming.[7]

Joan Crawford was considered for the part of Paula Jordan. Clark Gable was considered for the part of Dr. Wayne Talbot.[7]

Carlotta Vance's dog, Tarzan , had his name changed from Mussolini, by MGM executives afraid of offending.[7]

According to Director George Cukor, John Barrymore created the character Larry Renault using memories of his father-in-law, Maurice Costello, his brother-in-law, Lowell Sherman, and himself.[7]

Dinner at Eight proved to be popular at the box office. According to MGM records the film earned $1,398,000 in the US and Canada and $758,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $998,000.[1][8]

With regard to its reception by critics in 1933, Dinner at Eight received very high marks from many of the film industry's leading reviewers. Mordaunt Hall, the widely read critic for The New York Times, admired the screenplay's thoughtful but "fast-moving" blend of drama and "flip dialogue", crediting it as a skillful adaptation of George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber's script for the stage production, which had opened on Broadway the previous year. Hall also generally praised the performances of the film's star-studded cast, drawing special attention to the work of Marie Dressler, Billie Burke, John Barrymore, Wallace Berry, and Jean Harlow:

This Dinner at Eight has a cast of twenty-five, and among the players are most of the stellar lights of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, besides a few borrowed from other companies. It is one of those rare pictures which keeps you in your seat until the final fade-out, for nobody wants to miss one of the scintillating lines.

It is a fast-moving narrative with its humor and tragedy, one that offers a greater variety of characterizations than have been witnessed in any other picture...A strong line of drama courses through the story notwithstanding the flip dialogue. The picture runs along with a steady flow of unusually well knit incidents, which are woven together most expertly toward the end. This is owing to the fine writing of Mr. Kaufman and Miss Ferber...Veteran players of the stage, who have since been won over to talking pictures, are the principal assets in this film. It is a great pleasure to behold Marie Dressler away from her usual roles, dressed in the height of fashion and given lines that aroused gales of mirth from the first-night audience...

Miss Dressler is splendid as the wise Carlotta. Miss Burke's contribution to the story is all one could wish. She is the personification of an anxious hostess at one moment and subsequently a deeply disappointed woman. John Barrymore tackles his role with his usual artistry. His acting during Larry's last moments is most effective. Mr. Beery fits into the role of Dan Packard as though it were written especially for him and Miss Harlow makes the most of the part of Kitty.[9]

In its review, Variety also praised the film's storyline and performances. It highlighted Dressler's role as well, although the influential entertainment trade weekly focused its compliments chiefly on Harlow's portrayal of Kitty:

The story grips from beginning to end with never relaxing tension, its sombre moments relieved by lighter touches into a fascinating mosaic for nearly two hours...Acting honors probably will go to Miss Dressler and Miss Harlow, the latter taking hold of her fat role and making it stand out, even in this distinguished company by the astonishingly well balanced treatment of Kitty, the canny little hussy who hooks a hard-bitten and unscrupulous millionaire and then makes him lay down and roll over. By long odds the best thing Miss Harlow has done to date.[10]

In 2000, American Film Institute included the film in the list AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs (#85).[11]

Come to Dinner, 22 minutes in length, is a 1934 Broadway Brevity parody of Dinner at Eight using look-alike actors.[12][13] It is included in the 2005 Warner Video DVD of Dinner at Eight.

A television film remake starring Lauren Bacall, Charles Durning, Ellen Greene, Harry Hamlin, John Mahoney and Marsha Mason was broadcast on TNT Channel on December 11, 1989. It was directed by Ron Lagomarsino.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dinner at Eight (film).

• Dinner at Eight at AllMovie
• Dinner at Eight at the TCM Movie Database
• Dinner at Eight on IMDb
• Dinner at Eight at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Dinner at Eight on The Campbell Playhouse: February 18, 1940
• Cukor and main cast after wrap enjoy Coca Cola -- minus Wallace Beery and John Barrymore