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Thursday, June 16, 2011

Tired Old Queen at the Movies: Dinner at Eight


Steve Hayes reviews the campy, star-studded 1933 classic:
An all-star cast shows up at Lionel Barrymore and Billie Burke's penthouse for George Cukor's comic masterpiece, Dinner At Eight. On the guest list is an aging actress, Marie Dressler; a rich tycoon, Wallace Beery; his chorus-girl wife, Jean Harlow; and a faded movie star, John Barrymore, who's having an affair with their daughter, Madge Evans. Also in sterling support is fast-talking Lee Tracy as Barrymore's beleaguered agent, and Hilda Vaughn as Harlow's laconic maid who resembles a man in drag. Taken from the stage hit by the Algonquin Roundtable team of George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, Dinner at Eight had the most star-studded cast since Grand Hotel the year earlier. Directed by a master, it's glamorous and witty; "They don't make 'em like that anymore!"

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