Dinner at Eight

A stage play put to film. Now, I'm a sucker for soundtracks and sound design, but when they first put sound on film, it resulted in a major setback. Rather than focus on the cinematic elements, films were dragged down by an endless barrage of boring conversations. Point in case: Dinner at Eight.

The Jordans are throwing a dinner party because some wealthy lords from England are visiting their city. And so they invite over a bunch of people to throw a good old-fashioned party. Of course, everyone there has their reason for joining, and not everyone attends with the best of intentions.

It's a standard farce, the kind of play where everything happens in one or two rooms and various characters keep entering through doors. The conversations are boring, the performances are middling and the runtime is excessive. This is the exact opposite of what I want to see in a film, the only thing saving it from utter direness is the light tone.