Kitty rather likes the idea of blossoming out in society, while Dan's heart is set on being a big gun in politics. There is hardly a moment while they are at home when the air is not filled with acrimonious accusations and retorts. His brother John is best as Larry Renauld, the motion picture actor who brags of having earned $8,000 a week at one time, while he has only 7 cents to his name.The scenes depicting Dan Packard, played by Wallace Beery, and Kitty, his ash-blonde wife, acted by Jean Harlow, are filled with gruff fun. Jordan, whose mind is more concerned about money matters and his steamship line than his wife's dinner. Jordan think that her dinner is going to be a memorable fiasco.Lionel Barrymore fills the part of Mr. An orchestra is ordered, extra servants hired and, when the morning of the dinner comes around, an aspic in the form of a lion is made. A week before the dinner in honor of the Ferncliffes, she is worrying about the affair, making sure that there will not be the slightest hitch. Carlotta has her Pekingese dogs, one of which boasts of the name of Tarzan.Another stage favorite of old is Billie Burke, who appears as the handsome Mrs. When one woman, obviously well on in years, hints that she was a child when she first saw Carlotta, the former actress ends the conversation by suggesting that they talk about the Civil War. Carlotta is a woman of much common sense who has a retort for every quip made to her. It is a great pleasure to behold Marie Dressler away from her usual rôles, dressed in the height of fashion and given lines that aroused gales of mirth from the first-night audience.Miss Dressier acts Carlotta Vance, the stage beauty of the mauve decade. Kaufman and Miss Ferber, and it might easily be said that the wonder would be that anybody could go askew in turning such a play into pictorial form.Veteran players of the stage, who have since been won over to talking pictures, are the principal assets in this film. The picture runs along with a steady flow of unusually well knit incidents, which are woven together most expertly toward the end. Oliver Jordan, the snobbish hostess, who is wrapped up in the dinner she is giving for Lord and Lady Ferncliffe, to the scheming Dan Packard and his wife, Kitty, who in the play was said to talk "pure spearmint." But there is a reason in all cases for inviting the guests.A strong line of drama courses through the story notwithstanding the flip dialogue. Some are polished and others decidedly rough and ready. It is one of those rare pictures which keeps you in your seat until the final fade-out, for nobody wants to miss one of the scintillating lines.It is a fast-moving narrative with its humor and tragedy, one that offers a greater variety of characterizations than have been witnessed in any other picture. Cukor and others responsible for the offering.This "Dinner at Eight" has a cast of twenty-five, and among the players are most of the stellar lights of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, besides a few borrowed from other companies. The picture clings as closely as possible to the original, and the many opportunities along cinematic lines have been fully appreciated by Mr. Kaufman and Edna Ferber have been lost in the general shuffle. And it lives up to every expectation, even though a few of the unforgettable lines penned by George S. With its remarkable array of histrionic talent and with George Cukor at the helm, the film adaption of the play, "Dinner at Eight," which was offered last night by Metro-Croldwyn-Mayer at the Astor, could scarcely help being successful.
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