Dinner at Eight (1933)

“Listen to me old-timer. I'm drunk, and I know I'm drunk but I know what I'm talking about.”

            One of my favorite ways stories are told in either films or TV shows is where there are a bunch of different characters with different stories in different places and either during or at the end of the film or TV show all those different people with their different stories come together. For some reason that way of telling a story never gets old to me. I just really enjoy it. Plenty of films in Old Hollywood used that way of storytelling including Dinner at Eight from 1933.

            The story begins with the Jordan family. The family is wealthy due to Oliver’s (Lionel Barrymore) shipping business. Millicent (Billie Burke), like many high society women during the early 20^th century and before then, is concerned about mingling with all the well known upper class sets from America and Europe. She has finally gotten a British lord and his wife to come to dinner while they are in America. She sets the dinner date for the following Friday at eight o’clock. Oliver and their daughter Paula (Madge Evans) could care less about a dinner date for the following week. Olivier is only looking forward to it because Millicent has invited an old friend of his an old actress named Carlotta Vance (Marie Dressler). Oliver is worried about his shipping business and Paula is a bunch of nerves over her fiancé coming back but not in a good way.

            At the office Oliver announces that one of their ships is not going to be able to leave on time because there is not enough cargo. It would be the first time in sixty years since his grandfather started the business that one of the company’s ships is not leaving on time. There is nothing Oliver can do someone else is taking away their business. Carlotta comes to see Oliver at the office. She tells him she is broke but she does not want to give anything up she is from the old set with traveling and knowing people and a certain lifestyle and she does not want to give that up and live permanently in America. The two reminisce about when they were younger. Oliver had proposed to her when he was twenty-one and she broke his heart. She explains that she was so much older than him but it broke her own heart as well. As Carlotta is leaving a man named Dan Packard (Wallace Beery) comes in for a meeting. Dan is wealthy business man that Oliver is looking to sell some stocks to. Dan does not want to take the stocks because Oliver’s company is old and on its way out. Secretly Dan wants to buy out the business. Oliver calls Millicent to say to invite Dan and his wife to their dinner party the following week. Millicent does not really like Dan but she obliges and gives the wife a call.

            Dan has a young wife named Kitty (Jean Harlow). It is obvious right from her first scene that Kitty only married Dan for his money. She claims to be sick and needs to stay in bed all day while waiting for the doctor to come. As she waits she eats a lot of boxes of chocolate, puts on makeup, and tries on a new hat. When Dr. Wayne Talbot comes to the house Kitty puts an act of sickness on but as soon as her maid walks out of her room she gets mad at him for not having come by to see her in days. She says she loves him and that he is the only one who loves her and that she is bored when he does not come around.

            When Dan comes home Kitty tells him that they have been invited to the dinner party. Dan refuses to go especially because he wants to buy Oliver out. They have a huge blow up which comes to an end when Kitty tells him that the British lord will be there. Dan has been trying to get in touch with the lord for two years about some business ventures.

            The following week comes along. Millicent’s perfect party begins to fall apart. The British lord and his wife have decided to head down to Florida to fish. The dinner the cook had made after she dropped it on the floor when she had to break up a vicious fight between the butler and the driver. One of her fill in guests calls her telling her he is very sick and cannot make the party. Millicent’s sister suggests inviting another old actor named Larry Renault (John Barrymore) so he can keep Carlotta company. When Millicent calls Larry he is entertaining, of the people in the world, Paula. Larry is the one that has been causing Paula some confusion and nerves. She loves him more than she loves her fiancé and would rather be with him. He tries telling her that he is all washed up, he is a drunk who cannot get any work, and all three of his wives had severe issues. Paula does not care about any of that no matter how much he tries to make her. She leave when Larry’s manager comes to the room. He is trying to get Larry a part in a new play but no one really wants him since his reputation is not what it used to be. Later on Larry completely ruins his career by yelling at a theater manager who was willing to give him a second rate part. Larry’s manager has it out with him and says that he was never a good actor and no one will want him now that he is a total drunk. Unable to handle the truths and where his life has come to Larry kills himself.

            Oliver meanwhile is not feeling well. He goes to Wayne’s office. He tells Wayne he had had a weak moment at his office after Dan had left. The prognosis is not good Oliver is dying from a thrombosis. Before the party starts that night Oliver stays in his room leaving Millicent to welcome the guests. Wayne and Millicent go up to Oliver to check on him. He lest Millicent know the truth about her husband and how he does not have much time left. Millicent is obviously upset but she makes the best of it. When Oliver tells her they are broke she immediately starts downsizing and being supportive. They walk down to the dinner party together arm in arm.

            There was so much going on in this film that I cannot possibly write because it would confuse you reading it since I am not good with getting points across in a coherent way and also not to give too much away. Now you have to go and watch Dinner at Eight!

            Dinner at Eight was a very good film. I enjoyed how all the characters were connected and what brought them to the party. I think I can officially say that I now see what so many film historians and film critics really like Jean Harlow. I am not a fan of Harlow’s but I really liked her character in this. Kitty was very funny and very tough and Harlow did a great job with being both. The story was written by Frances Marion along with a few others. I like Marion as a storyteller she wrote some of my favorite Mary Pickford films. George Cukor directed and his direction is always flawless he always knew how to get the best out his actors.

            I am very happy I finally watched Dinner at Eight. I usually see it on lists for Pre-Codes or best films of the 1930s. Dinner at Eight is absolutely worth taking the time to watch. 

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

“The time to make up your mind about people is never.” 

            I have seen The Philadelphia Story once before this. The first time I really did not think anything of it I thought it was good but that was all. This time around I again thought it was good and I now have an opinion on the acting. I do not think The Philadelphia Story is the best film from any of the main cast members but it is good and I like seeing all the actors working together.

            Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) and C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) married impulsively. When the film opens he is walking out the door when she bends one of his golf clubs and then he pushes her in the face onto the floor. Two years later Tracy is set to marry a man named George Kittredge who absolutely adores her. Tracy is not interested in publicity at all she does not want her wedding splashed all over the place while George wants it to be announced and at least one photo from the wedding in the paper. George is nouveau riche while Tracy’s family comes from a long line of distinguished rich people. He plans to run for government but Tracy does not want him to do that because of publicity.

            Dexter has taken a job with the gossip magazine Spy. The magazine’s editor Sidney Kidd has Dexter get into Tracy’s wedding along with reporter Macaulay “Mike” Conner (James Stewart) and photographer Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey).  Mike is not happy about having to report like a gossip columnist. He is an author and wants to publish meaningful books but he knows what unfortunately pays the bills. Dexter takes the reporter and the photographer to the Lord house saying he has an invitation from Tracy’s brother Junior who is away in South America.

            Dexter’s presence at the Lord house is uncomfortable at best for Tracy and her mother. Her younger sister Dinah though is absolutely thrilled to have him she missed him. Tracy quickly knows what Dexter is up to so she decides to play a trick with Mike and Liz when she first meets them, she even gets Dinah to join in the joke.

            Throughout the day Tracy is faced with so many uncertainties. Dexter keeps talking to her sentimentally about their marriage and how happy they were together when they were not fighting. Mike is nothing but sweet to Tracy and she is sweet to him in return. That night Mike gets very drunk. He goes to Dexter’s house at four in the morning to talk to him about Tracy and their whole deal about covering their wedding. Dexter does not want to write the story any more than Mike and Liz want to cover it. Mike drunkenly lets slip that Sidney was given an award he should not have gotten and Dexter decides to use this as blackmail to not publish the story.

            Mike goes back to the house along with a drunken Tracy. The two continue drinking and talking outside her house until all hours of the morning. She had written George a letter telling him she cannot marry him they are so different they would not work. Tracy drags Mike to go swimming like she and Dexter used to do after parties. Both Dexter and George show up at the house to see Tracy. They arrive just as Mike is bringing Tracy back to the house after she fell asleep. He brings her up to her room for the night.

            The next morning Tracy and Mike are horribly hung over. She wakes up thinking that she did something she should not have with Mike the night before. Dexter has a talk with her about marrying George and her feelings and emotions get all stirred up. George shows up anyway in his suit in case Tracy should change her mind but he eventually sees he cannot marry her.

            In the end Tracy remarries Dexter and Mike sees that Liz loves and cares for him a lot.

            Sorry for the crappy review, I watched the film on Monday with my grandma and I did not have my notebook to write down notes on the film. I forget most of it and the details. Maybe I do not remember it because I kind of find the film forgettable. There are plenty of scenes that were funny like Mike going to Dexter’s house drunk off his rocker and his time with Tracy in the backyard.

            Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn have a strange chemistry. They made three films before this one together which I have seen and I think they had a strange romantic chemistry. I think that comes from Hepburn because she was the most unromantic leading lady that it is hard to see her acting as if she has to be romantically or sexually attracted to the opposite sex. Cary Grant could have had chemistry with a stick he was so romantic and such a good actor. I mean come on, Ingrid Bergman said she wanted to get with Grant and Ginger Rogers wrote in book that she often wonders if she would have married him if she was available when they met on the beach one time while they were both on vacation. The man just oozed charm and was so handsome. Their lack of chemistry could have been due to their characters as well because it seemed like Hepburn and James Stewart had great chemistry in their scenes together. James Stewart was just awesome in this film. I am not a huge fan of his he gets on my nerves too much in his films but I was loving him here he was so funny and so full of angst. I was cracking up with him when he goes to Dexter’s house drunk. I read that he adlibbed his hiccups and did not tell Cary Grant. You can see that Grant wants to laugh so bad but he keeps his composure. Those too were very funny together I can just imagine the outtakes they must have been cracking each other up so much. Stewart won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in this film and he completely deserved it. The Philadelphia Story is considered Katharine Hepburn’s best film. I will agree with that even though she does tend to over act in some scenes.      The film is based off the stage play of the same name that was written for Hepburn. I have issues with her after reading a biography of her, I could see what issues of her life the story was addressing. To me this just made her look like a spoiled not very good actress who needed to give her acting a boost. Hepburn had a lot of ego issues and this was just one of them.

            Ruth Hussey with her quickness saying her lines steals all her scenes. I have never seen her in a film before this and I like her a lot I would like to see her in more films. Liz was a good character she was the sane one in the middle of the chaos. Roland Young as Tracy’s uncle Willie was hilarious. He was an old playboy and went around pinching all the girls’ behinds. He even got Liz in a scene.

             The Philadelphia Story is not a bad film in the slightest it is very well written and extremely well acted by the entire cast. But there are points in the film where it became a bit boring to sit through. Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart continually test my patience whenever I watch them in films and did so a few times here. The Philadelphia Story is worth watching for the cast at least once and for if you want to call yourself a classic movie fan.