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Show 'Dinnat Eight is smorgasbord of 30s stars Video Views J;!M.jh Wallace Beery and Jean Harlow are a feuding, nouveau riche couple in George Cukor's "Dinner at Eight." ' Dinner at Eightf This 1933 film was MGM's follow-up follow-up to its success with "Grand Hotel." And it packed even more stars into its story of a fancy dinner and the secrets of the people attending attend-ing it. " : The hostess (Billie Burke) dithers , around, anxiously preparing the af- fair for her special guests; Lord and Lady Ferncliffe even goirig so fat-as fat-as to whipping up an aspic in the shape of the British lion. H b: i Meanwhile, her husband Lionel Barrymore) is dying of d boronary . condition and someone is trying to grab his ailing shipping company by buying up stock. Unbeknownst to Barrymore, the raider is his fellow businesman Wallace Beery, who also is invited to the dinner. He'd rather not break bread with the man he's trying to ruin, but he is attracted by the chance to make contact with aristocracy. And his wife (Jean Harlow) wants to move up in society.' socie-ty.' ; viii. . The film, directed by George Cukor, gets its energy, not from the fluffy plot, but from the charisma of the all-star cast. Here, the best segment seg-ment comes from John Barrymore, in an eerily prophetic role as a fading silent star, known for .his great profile. He is preparing for a lead role in a Broadway play only to find that the only part he can get in the play is a bit role. As his agent (Lee Tracy) tells hinvl"You're a corpse and you don't know it.'? Barrymore is heartbreaking as an erratic, romantic figure shattered by facing the truth about himself. Others in the cast don't wear as well with the years.'Beery " and Harlow are amusing as th crass new-money couple. She' spends all day in bed, nibbling chocolates, while Beery follows his vague but staunch philosophy of ."gettin' out and doin' things." The comic tom-bat tom-bat between these two doesn't get a chance to warm up, however. And another star, Marie Dressier, may strike modern audiences as a Prophet" or Sartre, though his taste also ranges to The Incredible Hulk. The fifth Groover (Brian Cesak) is drunkenly unconscious through almost the whole movie. The film has its moments here and there, but its most sustained liveliness comes when the group dares Nelson to prove his courage. Impulsively, they sign him up at a parachuting school in the middle of nowhere, presided over by a gangly, buck-toothed hippie vet (Marvin J. Mclntyre) who isn't fazed by anything. The parachute jump is a delightful sequence that could almost be a great short film by itself. But the rest of "Fandango" hits the familiar notes of '60s. The Killing Hour The handcuff killer is on the loose in New York! In a typical murder, a swimmer drowns when an unknown assailant cuffs his leg to the bottom of the pool ladder and he can't get above the water line. There's a good chance he'll get away, too, considering the police talent assigned to track him. The detective on the case (Norman Parker) moonlights as a stand-up comic and impressionist, much to the consternation of his churlish superior (Kenneth McMillan) . The killings also are being exploited ex-ploited by a TV commentator (Perry King of TV's "Riptide"). However, the killings are being sensed by a psychic art student (Elizabeth Kemp), who sketches them in a series of nightmarish drawings. Her second sight is reliable. It's her first sight that seems retarded, as she falls romantically roman-tically for the opportunistic King and is cool to earnest cop Parker. In addition, Kemp is a chunky heroine who is bundled up in various unattractive unat-tractive wardrobes through the film. The acting and direction is routinely effective, but the grisly killings are the only spice in a boring suspenser. RB A Classic I Recommended Good double feature material . Time-killer For masochists only curiosity. A frowsy, lovable come-, dienne, she became popular in the last years of her life for comicdramatic com-icdramatic roles. For the most part, she's dated here, playing an old queen of the stage who's hard up for money. It's still funny, though, when she coyly sticks a finger in her cheek and pushes her whole face out of kilter. "Dinner at Eight" may be creaky in spots, but it is still fairly enjoyable. en-joyable. RR V2 Fletch Chevy Chase wisecracks his way . through the entire plot of "Fletch,"' but basically he's believable as a , detective hero. He gives jfou. the ... impression the clues are clicking " . together in his head like jigsaw, pieces. , : . Fletch is an investigative reporter working undercover on a California beach to look for evidence of a drug ; network, but he is sidetracked .by a more intriguing story. A. young executive (Tim Matheson'j hires Fletch to kill him; he says he's got a painful terminal illness and his insurance doesn't pay off for suicide. Even the popcorn-munchers in the audience can smell something rotten here, and you will probably unravel the mystery before Fletch explains it. ,-. ' w The fun lies in watching Chase slip in and out of disguises in pursuing the case. He infiltrates a hospital-noticing the heavily Jewish staff, he calls himself Dr. Rosenrosen and is dragged into an autopsy. Fleeing the cops, he hijacks a young kid's car. (It turns out the kid stole the car himself.) And he even extracts information from Matheson's rural parents, posing as an obnoxious insurance investigator ("You and your wife are presently alive?"). Chase is best when he laces the comedy with a serious undertone. When a crooked cop (Joe Don Baker) shoves a gun to his face in one scene, Fletch's wisecracks keep coming, but you can see his sudden scared recognition that he could get blown away. "Fletch"'s main trouble is repetition. Fletch's best trick is to pose as a lawyer, federal inspector, etc. just long enough to wheedle information out of someone. This is .fun, but less so after you see the bit seven times. The other characters are all blandly intriguing on a television level. The heroine, played by Dana Wheeler-Nicholson is a $ good example nice, but unremarkable. Chase needs some j colorful characters to play against. ii"Fletch" is attractive enough to make you wish for a good sequel. r h Note: Since Fletch does some ,r, investigating around Provo, this j .film easily wins the award for most Utah jokes in a recent movie. , ("Utah isn't exactly a place you go jjto visit to escape boredom," says a h character.) -RB u yi , :' . 1 2 Fandango "Fandango" has so much routine material, I'm not sure it's worth sit- JV (IV I ting through for the well-done segments spotted through the picture. pic-ture. In the story, set in 1971, five fraternity buddies take a crosscountry cross-country fling before three of them must report for induction. Kevin Costner is the laid-back rebel who goads the group, called the Groovers, for some reason. He exhibits a jaded charm that thins out fast because Costner and the script despite dream sequences ".(-'.v : a . that show he once had "deeper feelings" feel-ings" don't supply a great deal of shading to the character. Judd Nelson is the hysterical square who opposes Costner's wild ideas. Sam Robards plays a kid who ducked out on his wedding' and wonders if he should join Costner in fleeing the draft to Canada . Rounding out the group is Chuck Bush, an big, amiable water buffalo who is usually seen reading "The |