DINNER AT EIGHT—THEATRE WITH REAL LEGS

I’VE JUST WATCHED DINNER AT EIGHT for the third time on Turner Classic Movies, and this 1933 flick continues to delight. Its 3:01 trailer at IMDb serves as a fine plot summary. Succiently, to quote IMBD: “Affluent Millicent and Oliver Jordan throw a dinner party for a handful of wealthy and/or well-born acquaintances, each of whom has much to reveal.” 

Real Legs. Not counting this pre-Code comedy-drama, there are at least nine variations on this theme: in chronological order, the original George S. Kaufman/Edna Ferber 1932 Broadway play on which the movie is closely based; a 1933 London stage production; a 1934 Come to Dinner Broadway parody; a 1955 CBS television version; a 1966 Broadway revival; a 2002 Broadway revival; a 1989 remake for television (with Lauren Bacall portraying a living-beyond-her-means trash novelist); a 1993 homage in the third episode of Frasier; and a 2017 William Bolcom opera.    

Its Appeal. The New York Times Book of Movies quotes Mourdant Hall’s August 24, 1933, review: “The picture clings as closely as possible to the original…. 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. It is one of those rare pictures that keeps you in your seat until the final fade-out, for nobody wants to miss one of the scintillating lines.” 

Indeed, in The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, David Thomson quotes one of the closing lines (and one of my favorites): Over-the-hill stage actress Carlotta (portrayed by Marie Dressler) does a wonderful double-take when gold-digger Kitty (played by Jean Harlow) says she’s been reading a book. Carlotta “listens skeptically… that machinery will take the place of every profession,” looks Kitty up and down, and murmurs, “Oh my dear, that is something you never need worry about.”

“I was reading a book the other day…” Image from YouTube.

David Thomson says, “Louis B. Mayer reckoned that he had only ever had three great actors (apart from himself): Garbo, Tracy, and Dressler. 

An Operatic Dinner. I recall William Bolcom for his sympathetic piano accompaniment of wife/mezzo-soprano Joan Morris. 

Image from YouTube.

But Bolcom is also a composer: He won a Pulitzer in 1988 for his 12 New Etudes for Piano. In 1994 he was named Ross Lee Finney Distinguished University Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan. In 2006 he was awarded the National Medal of the Arts. 

And he has composed four operas: Wikipedia recounts, “Three of them, McTeague, A View from the Bridge, and A Wedding were commissioned and premiered by the Lyric Opera of Chicago and conducted by Dennis Russell Davies…. His fourth opera, Dinner at Eight, composed with librettist Mark Campbell, based on the George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber play of the same name, was premiered March 11, 2017, by the commissioning organization, Minnesota Opera.

Here’s a trailer for the Minnesota Opera production. Image from YouTube.

Talk about legs. And arias, duets, and ensemble pieces. ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2023