“DINNER AT EIGHT.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20298, 7 May 1934, Page 3

“DINNER AT EIGHT.”

Great Stage Play Brought to Screen. “ Dinner at Eight,” which began at the Regent Theatre on Saturday, provides plenty of material for the arguments of that school of thought which believes that stage plays can be successfully transferred to the screen. One of the most successful New York productions of recent years, this collaborated effort of George S. Kaufman and Edna Berber, is brilliant proof- that stage plays can be made into first-class films if producers resist the temptation to improve on the restrained limits of the stage with the more flexible medium of the camera. Luckily there is nothing in “ Dinner at Eight ” which can be improved by the wider range of the camera, and in the new medium it is still a great play, and an even greater picture. The producers have not meddled with its brilliant dialogue in any way, and its novel plot and dramatic climax are now brought before an even wider audience. The only advantage which the screen production has over the play is in the outstanding brilliance of its cast. “ Dinner at Eight ” is played by an array of actors and actresses which could not have been equalled on the stage. Some of them have been on the stage, but their screen fame is even greater, and it is an unusual event to have in one picture a list of screen names beginning with Marie Dressier, ending with Jean Ilersholt and including John and Lionel Barrymore. The result is a series of striking characterisations fully in keeping with the high reputation of the stage production. “ Dinner at Eight ” is simple in its conception and masterly in its execution. It follows the style popular among modern authors and playwrights of taking a number of people and putting their lives beneath a most critical examination before some great event. A dinner at eight o’clock is the event, and before the sliding doors of the dining-room close behind the guests the audience has been given a dramatic and revealing glimpse into their lives during the few hours before dinner. Amongst a cast of brilliant players. Marie Dressier and Jean Harlow stand out in their respecj tive characterisations of a veteran ! actress and the common wife of a self- ! made man. John Barrvmore gives the j best male performance as an egotistical screen star whose vanity will not let him see that his career is finished.

The third Bobbv Jones picture in the series, “ How to Break Ninety,” is devoted to hip action, and its influence on the golfer’s swing.