richard-1787 There is a lot of melodrama in this movie, and the first part, especially when Marie Dressler is not on the screen, can be slow going. Once we get to the night of the dinner, however, it gets much better.Billie Burke's scenes, both at the news that the aspic has been dropped and when she berates her husband and daughter for coming to her with their problems when she has a dinner to give, are both funny and very sad at the same time, sad that any person could be so caught up in the superficial to get that upset over it.The scene where Lee Tracy tells off Larry Renault is also very well done. (The scene after that, John Barrymore's last, descends into real melodrama and becomes, for me, hard to watch.) After that, the scene between Jean Harlow and Wallace Berry is brilliant. It is rather like *All About Eve* in that it shows just how low human beings can descend in a desire to destroy each other.And then there is the dinner party itself. Harlow has several great moments, and looks like a million dollars, but the ugliest person on the set by far, Marie Dressler, gets the prize for her delivery of the last lines, as she walks with Harlow into Dinner at Eight.

elvircorhodzic DINNER AT EIGHT is a serious comedy drama. Hard for me to choose another description. The film shows a set of relationships in people's lives. Given the circumstances of such relationships can be real. Usually the tragicomic.The essence is incorporated in two segments. The existential and emotional. They are very close no matter how separated them. From a different perspective, this thesis would be proved correct. This movie is worth a look. Relationships are intertwined in a tragicomic story. Comedy and tragedy alternate in such continuity that the viewer realizes that nothing other than mild collapse will not happen. The collapse did not begin or end, it is the continuation of what is already known. With her existentially and emotionally evolved and continues.The acting is pretty good. Marie Dressler (Carlotta Vance)was very good. It is a kind of link in the story. Lionel and John Barrymore (Oliver Jordan & Larry Renoult) can not be bad. They just good actors. Berry and Harlow (Dan and Kitty Packard) are incredibly entertaining. Dan acting stupidly next to Kitty. Kitty is the contemplation digger and probably naked under her dress. Billie Burke (Millicent Jordan) is in a good part of the film quite tiring.In this film, the concept is clearly outclassed. Comedy and tragedy go in pairs. In this film, people should recognize. Humor, which predominates, is enveloped in one deceptive veil of inevitable tragedy that surrounds life. Honestly, I'm not thrilled as much as I thought I would be.

jwbrown3-939-210848 What a charming, witty classic. The thin veneer of Park Avenue society is crumbling in hard economic times. So many of the characters are struggling financially and each, in their own way, is hoping for their next dollar. Oliver Jordan (Lionel Barrymore) hopes to be saved from financial ruin by mining magnate Dan Packard (Wallace Beery). Packard hopes to profit from misery by buying a majority shareholding in Jordan's company. Fading actress Carlotta Vance (Marie Dressler) has returned to New York to see who she can hit for a bit of cash to fund her lifestyle. Failing alcoholic actor Larry Renault (John Barrymore) is desperately grasping at his next role, but doesn't make the cut and the consequences are tragic (if a little melodramatic). Millicent Jordan (Billy Burke) focuses on the kind of dinner party trivialities that are important to a society matron to amusing effect. Jean Harlow does a marvelous job as the dumb but beautiful trophy wife Kitty Packard. Dialogue, acting and comic timing is impeccable. There are some beautifully observed moments - especially with the maids and cooks (servants) of the rich folk. Marie Dressler gets the funniest lines by far - but Harlow and Burke come a close second in showing their comedy credentials. I was so pleasantly surprised with this one - a sparkly diamond of 1930s Hollywood.

Jeffrey Roegner Critics rolled their eyes when in 2010, the film "Valentine's Day" (and it's 2011 companion film "New Years Eve") was released, with it's star- studded cast, and measly plot lines. This film, while it had it's endearing moments, didn't work, mostly due to it's poor script, but also because it had too much going on. "Dinner At Eight" is a very early example of the same principal that "Valentine's Day" employs, and is a film that does it right. An answer to the film "Grand Hotel" from a few years earlier with similar elements, "Dinner At Eight" features an all- star cast for 1933, which includes, but is not limited to Marie Dressler (in a very memorable and perhaps show stopping role), Billie Burke (the future Glinda the Good Witch), John Barrymore (who will break your heart), Lionel Barrymore, Madge Evans, Wallace Beery, and Jean Harlow, who is divine in the role of the spoiled, self centered wife of Beery. The plot concerns Burke as a society lady who is planning a dinner for a wealthy British couple coming into town and the people she invites. The first half of "Dinner at Eight" almost plays like a series of vignettes as it expertly jumps between different story lines, telling us exactly what we need to know about these characters. Being a pre-code, depression era film, it also deals with depression era problems, and has a message about hope shoehorned in, which is of course what audiences probably needed to hear in 1933. The performances are all spectacular, but Harlow, Dressler, and John Barrymore, not to leave out the others, are standouts as well as smaller roles played by Louise Closser Hale (who died shortly after filming was completed) as society lady Hattie Loomis and Hilda Vaughn as Harlow's put upon maid, Tina. No moment in the film is dull, nor does it lag. There is a purpose to every scene and character. the story expertly moves along at a rapid pace. "Dinner at Eight" is truly a wonderful picture from start to finish, and helmed by the great George Cukor is areal treat to watch. It just goes to show you that with a good script, cast, and the right director (not to put down Garry Marshall), a film with many story lines can be done well.