“I vant to be alone.” Greta Garbo is a goddess of cinema. I love Grand Hotel. I liked the drama and Art Deco style. Dinner at Eight is good too but Grand Hotel is a worthy Oscar winner.

I definitely prefer Grand Hotel (which is not to say I'm entirely enthusiastic about the film overall, as certain things about it don't click with me).

I don't know what my exact issue is with Dinner at Eight, but haven't felt like watching it in recent years. I used to love it, years ago, though for some reason it eventually wound up falling out of favour.

Personally I preferred 'Dinner at Eight', I gave GH a 6/10 & DAE an 8/10. It's been a while since I 've seen both of them so I can't say exactly why maybe it's because I prefer the cast in 'Dinner' more even though they have some actors in common?

I've rated both movies solidly 7, but feeling like DaE is strictly 7, and GH something like 7.3 (mainly because I like more people in the cast better and the striking Art Deco look of the production). 7 is a rating I give when I don't love (and may consider there to be disappointing/annoying/tiresome things in) a movie, but that I see plenty in it to appreciate and respect.

Grand Hotel does have the edge because of the hotel setting, while Dinner at Eight is a dinner party. Both are fine to me.

Da8 and GH remind me of a lot of plays and early musicals. Just a big ensemble putting on a show. Plus those films could appeal broadly, if you didn't care for one actor there was another you might like.

Close call... both are good, neither an absolute favourite. I guess Grand Hotel has stayed with me more although I do recall finding Dinner at Eight quite funny at times.

I've always liked both films very much, though perhaps Dinner at Eight slightly more. That's how I felt until now, the more I think about it, the more they seem almost exactly equal in my estimation. I like them both in different ways for different reasons.

I like Da8 more for its story line, but I like certain things about GH more for the type of character interaction. I like John Barrymore better in GH than I did in Da8, and I like the fact that the Barrymore brothers get to act together, whereas they had no scenes together in Da8. I like Jean Harlow, and I like Wallace Beery more in Da8. Concerning Lionel's performances, I don't have a preference because he's equally brilliant in both films.

Lastly, I think that GH had an overall better ending. I like the fact that Lionel Barrymore and Joan Crawford end up together, going off to see the world and have a good time for the last few months that Lionel's character will live. That's as opposed to Da8, which ended with all the principal characters sitting down to the title dinner, and felt like it needed more closure.

So, all things considered, I enjoy both films equally for different reasons.

I like the comedy of DaE; Harlow or Dressler in comedy are always a good thing! For some reason though, Billie Burke's flutteriness in that annoys me - though I always like and enjoy her in general.

Harlow definitely! I should check out some more of Marie Dressler's films at some point; I haven't seen her in anything else yet. I rather liked Billie Burke in this, and in general, but one movie in which she did annoy me was Topper.

I've seen Billie Burke in a drama (Christopher Strong, 1933) in which she didn't go the fluttery route and was impressed by how wonderfully she came off giving a strong straight dramatic performance - which she didn't often do otherwise.

Marie Dressler starred or had prominent featured roles in numerous films of the first few years of the sound era, though, sadly, died in 1934, while at the peak of her career. (She also was in many silent films.) Jean Harlow died in 1937. Seems hard to think, watching DaE, that neither of those two ladies was much longer of this world. (Also Louise Closser Hale, who plays last-minute dinner guest Hattie in DaE, died in 1933.)