NFR Project: 'Dinner at Eight' (1933)

 

NFR Project: ‘Dinner at Eight’

Dir: George Cukor

Scr: Frances Marion, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Donald Ogden Stewart

Pho: William H. Daniels

Ed: Ben Lewis

113 min.

Hollywood was always looking for new material. For as many original screenplays that were out there, there were as many based on a book or a play. Dinner at Eight is one of the latter.

The basis for the screenplay was the successful play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. Kaufman was a playwriting genius, a celebrated maker of stage plays who put his name on dozen of productions; Ferber was an admired author (she wrote the novel from which Show Boat was made) who was moving into playwriting.

Dinner at Eight is a filmed play, in the best sense of that phrase. Given the strong source material, the script was a magnet for great actors, leading to the all-star cast of this ensemble dramedy. Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, John Barrymore, Jean Harlow, Billie Burke, Lee Tracy, and Edmund Lowe form a constellation of fine performances.

The story deals with the aspirations of a diverse group of urban American people, all brought together for a fancy dinner party for a visiting English lord and lady. (The lord and lady are never shown; in fact, they never make it to the party.) The hostess doesn’t know that her husband is severely ill. The parents don’t know their daughter is having an affair with a washed-up actor. One capitalist seeks to steal away the other’s business. His wife is having an affair.

This complex of plots weaves its way skillfully to the end, intermingling the participants freely. Director Cukor was known as an actor’s director, and he directs very unobtrusively, letting the performance carry the movie. Dressler, in one of her last films, is flagrantly witty; John Barrymore plays a part that, sadly, presaged his later career – an alcoholic and unemployable actor, a laughing stock.

The real fireworks erupt between Harlow and Beery, as they battle it out while dressing for dinner. Harlow plays the not-so-dumb blonde with relish.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt h.to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Employees Entrance.