"Dinner at Eight" (1933)

"Dinner at Eight" (1933), directed by George Cukor, 4 stars

“Nothing can be done. That's the unfortunate thing about death. It's so terribly final. Even the young can't do anything about it.” – Carlotta Vance

This depression era gem, which sits at number 85 on the American Film Institute’s (AFI’s) top comedies (100 Years, 100 Laughs), explores both the idyllic and the carnal qualities of young love, the jaded, depressed, and corrupt side of the more mature set, and betrayals of various sorts that plague young and old alike.  Although characterized by AFI and others as a comedy—and it certainly does have its fair share of farcical wits about it—the fact that infidelity, bullying, financial ruin, heart disease, and suicide are all critical plot points, I consider the film more of a drama.  For some characters things do end well, but for others, not so much.

The studio certainly didn’t advertise it as a comedy—at least not in its posters or previews.  MGM’s publicity department concentrated instead on the film’s stellar cast.  “The riches of the entire dramatic world gathered for one stupendous screen entertainment.”  So says the original trailer for the film, further professing that it even dwarfs MGM’s own “Grand Hotel," released the year before with many of the same actors.

The invitation to dinner certainly does extend to several of the biggest names in the entertainment industry in the early 1930s.  Most prominent are John Barrymore as Larry Renault, an actor once known for his “great profile” and now unable to get even small, supporting parts, Lee Tracy in the thankless role of Max Kane, Renault’s supportive, fast talking agent, Wallace Beery as Dan Packard, a rough-hewn and unscrupulous financier, Jean Harlow as Kitty, Packard’s young, fast, and free-spirited platinum-blonde wife, Lionel Barrymore as Oliver Jordan, a sickly shipping tycoon with his business on the rocks, and Billie Burke as Millicent, Jordan’s next-to-neurotic wife whose dinner plans set most of the plot in motion.  Oh, yes, there’s also Marie Dressler as Carlotta Vance, grande dame of the New York stage, who is wise, wizened, and not nearly as well-off as her fading finery would have everyone believe.

A quick plot summary: An eponymous 8pm dinner is being given by the Jordan’s for the esteemed Lord and Lady Ferncliffe.  Things go badly right away.  Carlotta, Oliver Jordan’s former lover and erstwhile Broadway star, drops by to borrow money just as the Jordan’s shipping line is discovered to be in severe financial straits.  Dan Packard, the person Jordan looks to for succor, sees this instead as an opportunity to suck up the stock at a rock bottom price.  The Jordan’s daughter has recently become enamored of an aging alcoholic stage actor, and horror of horrors, there is an uneven number of dinner guests now that Carlotta is on the scene.

The major actors in the film are so spot on in their roles that one gets the distinct impression that the original play (or at least, the modified screenplay) was written specifically with them in mind, Larry Renault, the John Barrymore character, most particularly.  I’ve watched and enjoyed the film at least twice before, but I liked it more than ever this time.  Perhaps, this was because I saw it for the first time in a theater, on a large screen, and surrounded by an audience.  But I suspect that my increased pleasure derived even more from the attention I paid to the difference of opinions expressed by the free-spirited youthful dinner guests and their boxed-in elders. As I’m not getting any younger, I was able to appreciate both perspectives much better now than in the past.