George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber’s chitty-chatty 1932 Broadway stage play “Dinner at Eight” was turned into a film in 1933. MGM gave it the first class treatment with producer David O. Selznick and director George Cukor (“What Price Hollywood?” 1932) in charge, and Frances Marion and Herman J. Mankiewicz penning the brilliant screenplay.
The subject matter at the dinner table includes some Depression-era business talk as well as somewhat surprising frankness about and depictions of extra-marital relationships. This is typical of the film industry’s “Pre-Code” era, from the start of talkies in 1927 to the mandatory enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code in July, 1934. It was in effect until 1968.
Selznick used some of Metro’s top talent for this picture: John Barrymore, Marie Dressler, Wallace Berry, Jean Harlow, Billie Burke, Lionel Barrymore, Jean Hersholt, Mary Robson, Lee Tracy, Edmund Lowe, Madge Evans, Karen Morley, Phillips Holmes, and Louise Closser Hale. The watchable “Dinner at Eight” was very good escapist entertainment for Depression Era audiences and a big success at the box office for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Dinner at Eight (1933)
cinema
My Review
George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber’s chitty-chatty 1932 Broadway stage play “Dinner at Eight” was turned into a film in 1933. MGM gave it the first class treatment with producer David O. Selznick and director George Cukor (“What Price Hollywood?” 1932) in charge, and Frances Marion and Herman J. Mankiewicz penning the brilliant screenplay.
The subject matter at the dinner table includes some Depression-era business talk as well as somewhat surprising frankness about and depictions of extra-marital relationships. This is typical of the film industry’s “Pre-Code” era, from the start of talkies in 1927 to the mandatory enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code in July, 1934. It was in effect until 1968.
Selznick used some of Metro’s top talent for this picture: John Barrymore, Marie Dressler, Wallace Berry, Jean Harlow, Billie Burke, Lionel Barrymore, Jean Hersholt, Mary Robson, Lee Tracy, Edmund Lowe, Madge Evans, Karen Morley, Phillips Holmes, and Louise Closser Hale. The watchable “Dinner at Eight” was very good escapist entertainment for Depression Era audiences and a big success at the box office for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.