Dining Together (1951)

★★★★★ · I'll probably never get these 10 minutes back. · Spuzz · 2003-04-18

Think if you will, if you've watched everything on this site, a combination of 'Date With Your Family' and 'A Visit To Santa', and mix in 'A Day Of Giving' and you'll get a good clue of how BAD this ATROCIOUS film is. Absurdly paced and acted, with the most god awful sing-song narration ever found anywhere, it's sure to cause indigestion watching this 'family' prepare for Thanksgiving. With a background of gawdawful piano music, the narrator informs us of how 'fun' good table manners are. This film gives me the total creeps. See it for your self, this is a MUST SEE on the site.

★★★★★ · It's nice to be lobotomized · Visaman · 2004-11-16

This film has Edward D. Wood Jr. stamped all over it. I wouldn't be surprised if Bella Lugosi was the narrator, and the piano player was from Reefer Madness. Pull the strings indeed.

★★★★★ · What was the purpose? · LatinGal · 2008-03-22

I think some reviewers may have missed the point. If you pay attention to the pauses, the questions the narrator asks make sense. Very likely, this film was used as a sort of final exam or test for a home economics course on manners. Probably the students were supposed to listen and indicate a correct answer on an answer sheet, or later write something about the faux pas they saw, or discuss them. That would account for the narrator not giving any answers to the questions: the audience had probably already been taught the 'correct' thing to do in class, and this was a test to see what they…

★★★★ · Once upon A Time · ERD · 2006-07-18

Behavioral patterns changes with passing generations. Many people now will find the table manners of 1951 a little too stuffy and formal.(How many men help a woman into her seat now)At the time this film was made, it was a good instructional film for juveniles. The narrator over enunciates and talks at a slow tempo because he is addressing little children. (That was the style then)I feel the actors did well, especially the children. This film, like many of the Prelinger films, should be watch with historical interest and perspective.

★★★★ · American blue collar gothic and constraints · FromAztlan · 2006-07-16

Made with the best intentions and a straight face, this film is a world that has gone by, and serves as a relic of 1950s upward climbing. You'd think that people would already know good manners, but this film might have been intended for the lower strata of our 1950s society. The music makes it different. It has a yearning-like quality about it. Technically bad but suited to the stifling environment of this family's dinner table that could extend to public life as well. The underlying messages are these: This is how an AMERICAN family behaves. You will conform and then be happy. "Mother knows…

★★★★ · Very Odd Film - Even For 1950 · JayKay49 · 2011-12-23

By the 1950's, children were not typically expected to be so staid except in certain situations (in churches and funeral homes; in the homes of uptight relatives or friends, often childless people). This movie is so bizarre. And how on earth do you make a film about table manners for kids without mentioning the most important thing: keep your damned fingers out of your nose! But one thing I can relate to is the fact that there was certainly no shortage of reindeer sweaters for boys (you'll also see the Johnson boy wearing one in that film about Thanksgiving sans turykey, also made in 1951). I…