Back home

Dinner at Eight

122 votes

An ambitious New York socialite plans an extravagant dinner party as her businessman husband, Oliver, contends with financial woes, causing a lot of tension between the couple. Meanwhile, their high-society friends and associates, including the gruff Dan Packard and his sultry spouse, Kitty, contend with their own entanglements, leading to revelations at the much-anticipated dinner.

Status: Released

Released Date: 1933-12-22

Runtime: 111 mins

Director: George Cukor

Writer: John Meehan

Spoken language: English

Genres: Comedy, Drama

Original title: Dinner at Eight

Production Companies: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Production Countries: United States of America

Cast

Marie Dressler

John Barrymore

Wallace Beery

Jean Harlow

Lionel Barrymore

Lee Tracy

Edmund Lowe

Billie Burke

Madge Evans

Jean Hersholt

Karen Morley

Louise Closser Hale

Phillips Holmes

May Robson

Reviews

barrymost

One of great director George Cukor's best films, Dinner at Eight is a prime example of a Pre-Code era classic, and an excellent star vehicle for the combined multifarious talents of Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Brothers Barrymore (Lionel and John), Jean Harlow, and Billie Burke, among others. Coupled with the great acting is the offbeat and alternately dramatic and humorous story line of the flighty hostess who plans an extravagant dinner party for a wealthy and highly-esteemed British couple who never do show up. The audience is introduced one by one to the various guests, as well as the host and hostess, and by the conclusion of the film, the viewer knows how and why each of them has chosen whether or not to accept the invitation, with each character's situation shown in an intimate, behind-the-scenes manner. Would I recommend? Yes, but please, don't go into this thinking you're in for a hyper, all-out screwball comedy. It's not. It's a comedy/drama leaning more toward the latter, and it's very...different. That's all.

2019-08-10

talisencrw

Excellent. Part of my TCM Jean Harlow 4-pack, and the bonus feature-length doc on Harlow's short life and career is exemplary. Highly recommended to any Pre-Code connoisseurs--and I know you're out there...

2016-08-13

Recommendations

3.2

Heist

2001-11-09

Joe Moore has a job he loves. He's a thief. His job goes sour when he gets caught on security camera

2.7

Eddie

1996-05-31

Eddie is a New York limo driver and a fanatical follower of the New York Knicks professional basketb

2.9

Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen

2004-02-17

After moving to New Jersey, Lola bags a coveted role in a school play, which earns her the wrath of

3.9

Mysterious Skin

2005-03-30

A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a

3.3

French Fried Vacation

1978-11-11

Holidaymakers arriving in a Club Med camp on the Ivory Coast are determined to forget their everyday

3.3

Greta

2019-02-28

A young woman returns a lonely widow’s lost purse, leading to an unlikely relationship between the t

3.3

Tommy

1975-03-19

After a series of traumatic childhood events, a psychosomatically deaf, dumb and blind boy becomes a

3.6

Pusher II

2004-12-25

Tonny is released from prison - again. This time he has his mind set on changing his broken down lif

2.8

Popeye

1980-12-12

Popeye is a super-strong, spinach-scarfing sailor man who's searching for his father. During a storm

3.3

Into the Night

1985-02-22

Ed Okin used to have a boring life. He used to have trouble getting to sleep. Then one night, he met

3.7

A Bittersweet Life

2005-04-01

Kim Sun-woo is an enforcer and manager for a hotel owned by a cold, calculative crime boss, Kang who

3.7

The Odd Couple

1968-05-16

In New York, Felix, a neurotic news writer who just broke up with his wife, is urged by his chaotic

3.6

Blood Simple

1985-01-18

The owner of a seedy small-town Texas bar discovers that one of his employees is having an affair wi

3.5

Bullets Over Broadway

1994-10-14

After young playwright, David Shayne obtains funding for his play from gangster Nick Valenti, Nick's

Memories of Murder

2003-04-25

A sadistic serial rapist and murderer of young women terrorizes a small province in 1980s South Kore

3.4

High Society

1956-07-17

With socialite Tracy Lord about to remarry, her ex-husband - with the help of a sympathetic reporter

4.5

Matkina spoveď

1938-06-10

3.4

Old Men in New Cars: In China They Eat Dogs II

2002-07-12

The last wish of the dying "Monk" is for his foster child, Harald, to find his real son, Ludvig. But

2.9

The Tuxedo

2002-09-27

Cabbie-turned-chauffeur Jimmy Tong learns there is really only one rule when you work for playboy mi

3.9

Network

1976-11-27

When veteran anchorman Howard Beale is forced to retire his 25-year post because of his age, he anno