Dinner at Eight (1933) on Netflix
Millicent Jordan plans a dinner for Lord and Lady Ferncliffe. Her husband Oliver, a shipping magnate, faces financial trouble, and their daughter Paula awaits her fiancé Ernest DeGraff.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb7.5/109,818 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes91%
Trailer
Plot summary
Millicent Jordan, a New York society hostess, is overjoyed when Lord and Lady Ferncliffe accept her invitation to dinner. Her husband Oliver, who runs a shipping line, is worried: the Depression has hurt his business, and Carlotta Vance, a stage actress from Europe who was once his lover, wants to sell her stock in it. Oliver asks the mining magnate Dan Packard to take over some of his stocks; Dan's wife Kitty eagerly accepts Millicent's dinner invitation, and Dan decides to attend once he hears the Ferncliffes will be there. Millicent telephones Larry Renault, a former silent film actor, as a last-minute extra man for Carlotta, not knowing that her daughter Paula has been having an affair with him. Larry tells Paula the age gap makes the affair hopeless; she refuses to listen.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Dinner at Eight (1933)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- MGM executives renamed the dog belonging to Carlotta Vance, calling it Tarzan instead of Mussolini, because they were afraid of offending the Italian leader.
- Before casting, Joan Crawford was considered for the part of Paula Jordan, and Clark Gable was considered for the part of Dr. Wayne Talbot.
- George Cukor said John Barrymore built the character of Larry Renault out of memories of his father-in-law Maurice Costello, his brother-in-law Lowell Sherman, and himself.
- The character of Carlotta Vance was inspired by the stage and silent film actress Maxine Elliott, according to TCM.com, which cited her March 13, 1940, obituary in The New York Times.
