Dinner for One (1963)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

"Dinner for One" is an 18-minute movie and it's a West German production despite being completely in English (apart from the introduction). It was made over 50 years ago, back in 1963, and the original is in black-and-white, which is actually not a given anymore in the 1960s. However, there are also colored versions out there. The two lead actors are English and for both of them, it's easily their most famous work. Same can be said about director Heinz Dunkhase, who only made one other film.This film gets shown every year on the 31st of December many times on different television channels. It has really become a classic. However, I must say I do not find it that funny. The whole idea about the butler getting more and more drunk (and accordingly the non-existent guests as well) becomes repetitive fairly quickly and there is not any humor to Miss Sophie at all. I do not think this film somehow deserves its current status as a classic movie that everybody knows of. At least that is the case here in Germany. I do not think it's famous at all in England, let alone in the United States and they certainly got it right. Thumbs down from me.

I hadn't heard of this short film a couple of hours ago, then there was an item on BBC Radio Four about how just about everybody in Germany watched it every New Years Eve. None of the British contributors found it remotely amusing but they did say it was on YouTube and that it was only ten minutes long... given that information I had to check it out for myself! Having seen it I'm surprised that it is considered a classic anywhere but equally it wasn't that bad either. The plot is simple; the elderly Miss Sophie is hosting a dinner party for her four friends... the joke is that none of them are present! As the dinner progresses James the butler serves each course to Miss Sophie then pours drinks for everybody and takes the part of each person in turn to return Miss Sophie's toasts with inevitable results.There are chuckles to be had as Freddie Frinton's James gets increasingly drunk although however the gag about him tripping over the tiger skin rug is rather spoilt by the fact that he tripped over it before he'd touched a drop! The rather suggestive ending was clearly meant to be funny but just seemed creepy to me. This was interesting to watch as a curiosity but it certainly won't become a tradition for me.I have since learnt that there are two versions made the same year with the same cast; this is the Swiss version; there is also a longer German version with a German narration, presumably that is the version they watch!

In Denmark, this is the ESSENCE of New Years Eve. Aired every year (except one which I bet the TV station regrets because it was stormed by angry viewers) this is what really spells New Year's Eve in danish! Aired since god knows when, it's simply not new year until you've seen this!I know that the same thing is true for Germany and a lot of other countries.Trivia: Freddie Frinton (The Butler) wouldn't even participate in the skit in Germany in the first place, but eventually agreed, as long as it was kept in English. To this date it's one of the few non-dubbed movies in German television

"Dinner for One" looks at the story of Miss Sophie (played by May Warden) who is celebrating her 90th birthday. She has invited four of her friends to her party - Sir Toby, Admiral von Schneider, Mr Pommeroy and Mr Winterbottom - all of whom have died years ago. So her butler James (played by the great late Freddie Frinton) serves Miss Sophie her dinner while serving drinks to the "guests" (and also acting as those guests), all with hilarious results.For me, it's always "the same procedure as last year" - turn on the TV and just reel back with laughter for the next 20 minutes. Even when I told a friend about the sketch (which he'd never heard of), he was laughing hard as well!Even 20 minutes after it's finished, my face would still be aching from all the laughter. To be honest, it's THE ultimate comedy sketch of them all.It's so funny, I'd rather rate it 11 out of 10.