Come to Dinner (1933)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Roy Mack

Writers:

Eddie Moran (story)
A. Dorian Otvos (story)

Genre:

Comedy | Short

Plot:

MGM's all-star feature Dinner at Eight (1933) is parodied in this comic short, in which a cast of unidentified look-alike actors impersonate Lionel Barrymore, Marie Dressler, Jean Harlow, et al. |

Plot Keywords:

Dinner | Broadway Brevity | High Society | Parody | Adultery

Cast

Flavia Arcaro	...	Carlotta Prance (uncredited)
Herschel Mayall	...	(uncredited)
Margot Stevenson	...	(uncredited)
Clinton Sundberg	...	(uncredited)

Runtime:

USA:22 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:G | USA:Not Rated

Company:

Vitaphone Corporation, The

Trivia:

Vitaphone production reel nos. 1636-1637.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Dinner at Eight (1933)

Soundtrack:

Don't Blame Me

Appetizer as Good as the Main Course

This is a wildly funny satire on the classic comedy/drama DINNER AT EIGHT. This short was released by Warner Bros. and possibly was filmed in New York given the lack of film credits for the few known members of the cast at the time and the professional performances. The entire cast gives wickedly dead-on burlesques of the famous stars of the film and the film's famous scenes and lines. The satire is so sharp is hard to believe this film was made in the 1930's even with it's black-and-whiteness, it's venomously delicious wit is closer to post-1970's humor and it seems like a Saturday NIGHT LIVE skit on the classic film. Sadly, the film does not credit the gifted cast although a few of the performers are slightly known and had either later film credits or worked in silent movies. Best of all is the superb Flavia Arcaro in a devastating parody of Marie Dressler's Carlotta Vance. Miss Arcaro was apparently a stage actress of some renown in the early years of the century and also appeared in a number of 1910's silent films. It's a crime she apparently didn't go to Hollywood in the 1930's and pursue a career as a character actress because she would have been one of the era's best and that was the greatest era of all for character players. This little short has happily now surfaced as a bonus feature on the DVD to the very movie is spoofs, you may wonder which you enjoy the most after seeing it.