AWARDS AND HONORS

In 2000 the American Film Institute named Dinner at Eight number 85 on its list of the top 100 Comedy Movies of all time in American cinema.

Dinner at Eight was named one of the 10 best films of 1933 by both the New York Times and Film Daily.

THE CRITIC'S CORNER - DINNER AT EIGHT (1933)

"The story grips from beginning to end with never relaxing tension, its somber moments relieved by lighter touches into a fascinating mosaic for nearly two hours...Acting honors probably will go to Miss Dressler and Miss Harlow, the latter taking hold of her fat role and making it stand out, even in this distinguished company."
- Variety

"It lives up to every expectation. It is one of those rare pictures which keeps you in your seat until the final fade-out, for nobody wants to miss one of the scintillating lines."
- The New York Times

"As a frame for juxtapositional drama of the type that came into fashion with Grand Hotel [1932], a fashionable dinner party is ideal. As a frame for one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's all-star casts, the play by Edna Ferber and George Kaufman which was produced in Manhattan last winter was even better. The actors in Dinner at Eight selected by MGM's new producer David Selznick, make the cast of MGM's Grand Hotel, produced by Irving Thalberg, look like a road company, make the picture-less biting but more comprehensive than the play-superb entertainment. Under Director George Cukor, John Barrymore (Larry Renault), Lionel Barrymore (Oliver Jordan), Marie Dressler (Carlotta Vance), Jean Harlow (Kitty Packard), Wallace Beery (Dan Packard), Lee Tracy (Renault's agent), Billie Burke (Millicent Jordan), Edmund Lowe (Dr. Talbot) and Karen Morley (Mrs. Talbot), supported by such $1,000-a-week celebrities as Phillips Holmes, Jean Hersholt, Madge Evans, Grant Mitchell and the late Louise Closser Hale, perform brilliantly and avoid each others' toes."
- Time Magazine

"...a great picture-you can't afford to miss it...among all these great performers it is little Jean Harlow who stands out...Harlow is magnificent."
- New York Daily Mirror

"Jean Harlow, with her bee-stung pucker and her tinny voice, at her comic best. George Cukor directed this witty, much improved version of the Edna Ferber-George S. Kaufman play..."
- Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies

"The acting, camerawork, and sets are faultless. This is one of Cukor's strongest and most memorable films."
- Georges Sadoul, Dictionary of Films

"...one of the best Hollywood films of the early thirties, notable for the ingenious construction and deft exposition of its multi-stranded story, the brilliance of its dialogue and characterizations, with virtuoso performances by some of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's top stars, and the skill of Cukor's direction."
- The Oxford Companion to Film

"A great serious-at-the-core comedy, masterfully directed by George Cukor and performed by a once-in-a-lifetime ensemble...despite the presence of great male stars, Burke, Harlow, and especially Dressler steal the film - their performances are comic gems."
- Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic

"Artificial but compelling pattern play from a Broadway success."
- Halliwell's Film & Video Guide

"The laughs are mainly at the expense of the nouveau riche couple, a comedy of manners in which Harlow reveals her natural gift for humour and Beery confirms his status as the definitive boor. But the film also reflects the vagaries of the 1930s social scene, and John Barrymore virtually plays himself as the all-time lush. Perfect viewing for a wet Saturday afternoon."
- TimeOut Film Guide

"...Many of Cukor's most revered movies have a problem or two that often go unmentioned, perhaps because that would spoil the fun...In Dinner at Eight, it's the strain toward drama that doesn't pay off. Dinner at Eight offers economic ruin, ill health, and suicide amidst the champagne-spritzed repartee, but the drama stands apart because it is not of the equivalent excellence of the movie's social comedy...It doesn't diminish the joy of watching Dinner at Eight to suggest that its many parts don't always mesh. It is ultimately a triumph of type casting the crème de la crème....MGM had stars, and knew how to use them. "
- Matthew Kennedy, Bright Lights Film Journal

"The proscenium arch that marks the difference between theater and film doesn't get obliterated in George Cukor's Dinner at Eight, where most scenes take place in static medium shots that follow actors around as they gobble through reams of dialogue. Multiple narratives are thrown together like a cinematic mix tape involving guests preparing for a high-class soiree thrown by Millicent Jordan (Billie Burke). It's immediately apparent which of these stories Cukor is interested in. The others fall flat, and he merely ploughs through them indiscriminately. If the viewer regards each subplot as short films unto themselves, adding up to a potent final scene that strings them taut, the experience will prove more engaging. Dinner at Eight is a treasure hunt for great scenes, or banal scenes with occasionally great moments."
- Jeremiah Kipp, Slant Magazine

Compiled by Andrea Passafiume