I prefer Dinner at Eight (1933).
MGM had so many stars that many of their movies had all star casts, even when that was not the initial intention l.
upload foto png
It's funny that you make a post about
Dinner at Eight, when I was literally just thinking how I needed to say exactly what it is I love about this film. It is easily one of my favorite Pre-Code movies, and for a lot of different reasons. It is had a gallery of top stars, namely Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Billie Burke, Lee Tracy, and Edmund Lowe, all at varying peaks of their respective careers. Although the film has some delicious comedic moments, I can also defend the film has some exquisite melodramatic pieces. So even is the movie's comedy-drama balance that it's almost unfair that modern filmdom looks back on this production as merely a comedy.
My favorite subplot involves Wallace Beery and Jean Harlow as a bickering husband and wife. He's a ruthless, nasty businessman wanting to move up the corporate ladder at any cost, while she's a sharp-tongued, love-starved woman who's carrying on an affair with her doctor. Their pieces together are delicious; I love how the fight, yell, and practically beat the crap out of one another, figuratively speaking. It's interesting because she eventually has a hand up on him, especially when she threatens to expose all his dirty dealings so he will loose any chance at a seat in the Washington senate. This kind of thing could have only happened in Pre-Code Hollywood; had it been made after the Production Code was more strictly enforced in 1934, never would it have been approved for Harlow's character to be condoned for her adultery.
This is the only picture I've seen Marie Dressler in, although she was the biggest box office in the early 1930s. While I find her particularly interesting and perfectly suited for her role her as a has-been stage actress, I have absolutely no desire to watch any of her other films. I've read about her other movies, but none of them intrigue me to want to see more of her elsewhere. John Barrymore, whose career was slowly drying up, is as handsome as ever here, as a movie actor who's "not so hot since the talkies came in". It really offers a slice of art imitating life when this is said about John Barrymore's character, considering his real-life professional career was increasingly irrelevant to Hollywood and the American movie-going public.
I absolutely adore Billie Burke and Lionel Barrymore as a couple here. She's ideal as the semi-snotty, socially driven society wife, while he plays the dying millionaire who has grown continuously unhappy. In some ways, Lionel Barrymore's character here is similar to the role he had in
Grand Hotel the previous year, where he also played a dying wealthy man. He was perfectly suited for that type of character, and I thoroughly enjoy how he and Burke play off of one another. The rest of the performances are almost letter-perfect, and I haven't any major complaint about the film at all.
I've always preferred
Dinner at Eight over
Grand Hotel. While I have a soft spot for both, I like how
Dinner at Eight is more American, and how all the stories and characters are connected for a dinner party that we come to assume ─ at some point through the picture ─ we'll probably never really get to see. It's all rolled together for a deliciously dose of old-style dramedy that I find particularly addicting.