Dinner at Eight (1933)

An ensemble is invited to participate in a dinner date, but before that happens, we spend a few days with them individually, or in various combinations.

Some of them will cancel or drop off, and others will be added to complete the party.

The cast includes the shipping magnate (Lionel Barrymore) with a failing business; his society matron wife (Billie Burke) who is organizing the event; the teenage daughter (Madge Evans) who is soon to get married, but in the meantime is having an affair with an aged, alcoholic, has-been actor (John Barrymore); the boorish but shrewd, nouveau riche magnate (Wallace Beery) who reluctantly has agreed to look at a proposal he is secretly desiring to get,; his wife (Jean Harlow) who is having a secret affair with her doctor (Edmund Lowe) and will soon be blackmailed by her much-abused maid (Hilda Vaughn); the retired, elderly actress (Marie Dressler) the magnate had a crush on as a young man, and who is now penniless (actually, because of the Depression, most are) and looking to cash in some bonds.

A sort of Dinner with Godot, with a dinner that never seems to get there.

A bit of drama, a bit of comedy, (mostly in the careless insults that keep getting thrown about,) and a bit of tragedy.

Pre-Code elements include lingerie, alcohol, smoking, shameless adultery & suicide.

A stellar cast at their best, this could easily be a worthy Best Picture; but 1932-33 were a couple of years with particularly tough competition.