DINNER AT EIGHT (1933)

One of the great entertainments in the brief interregnum between Early Talkies & prime Golden Age Hollywood.* And why not, with that lineup of writers* & actors under producer David O. Selznick (proving his bona fides to new boss/father-in-law Louis B. Mayer) & new to M-G-M director George Cukor (affirming his bona fides to Selznick). Organized around a society dinner given at the height of the Depression by fluttery Billie Burke, unaware that husband Lionel Barrymore’s business & health are failing or that daughter Madge Evans is about to dump fiancé Phillips Holmes for the once dashing/now hopelessly alcoholic actor John Barrymore. Plus she’s forced to invite crass, classless nouveau riche couple from Hell Wallace Beery & Jean Harlow as a business favor to her husband, along with eccentric musical comedy star (retired) Marie Dressler. The mixture of high & low comedy with real tragic desperation (financial & romantic) is peerless, with Dressler & Harlow often painfully funny (and Dressler showing her genius at switching moods in an instant when life turn serious). With everyone wearing a different mask to meet every situation, no one more so than John Barrymore in an astonishing perf that runs the gamut from faux British elocution to nasty drunk & anti-Semitic taunts to pathetic sobbing breakdown. (But missing from our Coca-Cola tie-in magazine ad. Not Jack’s beverage of choice.) Without a laugh, tear or dramatic shudder missed under Cukor’s steady gaze, it's one of the real champs.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *So why no Oscar® noms? Maybe because it came out during Oscar’s 'Leap Year,' 1932 - ‘34, a year & a half stretch to synch up eligibility dates with the calendar year.

DOUBLE-BILL: The Beery/Harlow characters, along with her ‘hands-on’ physician Edmund Lowe are the obvious inspiration for Broderick Crawford, Judy Holliday & William Holden in BORN YESTERDAY/’50, also directed by Cukor.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Frances Marion, Herman Mankiewicz & Donald Ogden Stewart adapting the George Kaufman/Edna Ferber B’way hit; an All-Star writing team to match an All-Star cast.