Rating: NR
Genre: Comedy Drama
Release Date: 03/01/2005
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD1
Run Time: 111 Minutes
Distributor/Studio: Warner Home Video

Based on the Broadway hit by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, Dinner at Eight is a near-flawless comedy/drama with an all-star cast at the peak of their talents. Social butterfly Mrs. Oliver Jordan (Billie Burke) arranges a dinner party that will benefit the busines of her husband (Lionel Barrymore). Among the invited are a crooked executive (Wallace Beery), who is in the process of ruining Jordan; his wife (Jean Harlow), who is carrying on an affair with a doctor (Edmund Lowe); a fading matinee idol (John Barrymore), who has squandered his fortune on liquor and is romantically involved with the Jordan daughter (Madge Evans); and a venerable stage actress (Marie Dressler), who since losing all her money has become a "professional guest." Nothing goes as planned, due to various suicides, double-crosses, compromises, fatal illness, and servant problems. But dinner is served precisely at eight. The script by Herman Mankiewicz, Frances Marion, and Donald Ogden Stewart is a virtual enclyopedia of witty lines and scenes, right down to the unforgettable closing gag.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Cast:
Marie Dressler - Carlotta Vance
John Barrymore - Larry Renault
Wallace Beery - Dan Packard
Jean Harlow - Kitty Packard
Lionel Barrymore - Oliver Jordan
Billie Burke - Mrs. Oliver Jordan
Lee Tracy - Max Kane
Edmund Lowe - Dr. Wayne Talbot
Madge Evans - Paula Jordan
Jean Hersholt - Joe Stengel
Karen Morley - Mrs. Wayne Talbot
Louise Closser Hale - Hattie Loomis
Phillips Holmes - Ernest DeGraff
May Robson - Mrs. Wendel, The Cook
Grant Mitchell - Ed Loomis
Phoebe Foster - Miss Alden
Elizabeth Patterson - Miss Copeland
Hilda Vaughn - Tina, Mrs. Packard's Maid
Harry Beresford - Fosdick
Edwin Maxwell - Mr. Fitch, the Hotel Manager
John Davidson - Mr. Hatfield, the Assistant Manager
Edward Woods - Eddie
George Baxter - Gustave the Butler
Herman Bing - The Waiter
Anna Duncan - Dora the Maid

Production:
George Cukor - Director
David O. Selznick - Producer
Dr. William Axt - Composer
Ben Lewis - Editor
Herman Mankiewicz Frances Marion Donald Ogden Stewart - Screen Writer
Hobe Erwin Fred Hope - Set Designer
Cedric Gibbons - Art Director
Fred Hope - Art Director
Hobe Erwin - Art Director
William H. Daniels - Cinematographer
Adrian - Costume Designer
George S. Kaufman - Play Author
Edna Ferber - Play Author

The Man Who Came to Dinner
    Bette Davis / NR / 1941
You Can't Take It With You
    Jean Arthur / NR / 1938
The Awful Truth
    Cary Grant / NR / 1937
Twentieth Century
    John Barrymore / NR / 1934
Stage Door
    Katharine Hepburn / NR / 1937
Grand Hotel [P&S]
    Greta Garbo / NR / 1932
It Happened One Night
    Clark Gable / NR / 1934
Holiday
    Katharine Hepburn / NR / 1938
The Palm Beach Story
    Claudette Colbert / NR / 1942
The Lady Eve
    Henry Fonda / NR / 1941

1933 Film Daily

1933 New York Times