The Algonquin Round Table: The Ten Year Lunch

1st watched 11/2/2002 - 5 out of 10(Dir-Aviva Slesin): Sometimes witty, but altogether un-spectacular account of the men and women who were associated with a daily luncheon at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. These were men and women who had great influence in the writings of the times and probably spurned many freedom of thought and women's rights movements, but instead we get almost an outsiders point of view of people like Dorothy Parker and George S. Kaufman who were well-known but almost consistently unhappy people in their lives. The subject matter was probably intriguing and endearing to many Hollywood people and therefore won a Best Documentary Oscar in 1987, but the competition must have been slight that year. The research I'm sure was taxing and took a lot of time, but to only get 60 minutes out of some of the most influential people(supposedly) of the 20's tells me something. I'm sure the Biography channel could get a good two hours out of any of the individuals by themselves, that encompassed the round table. Basically there just wasn't enough impassioned content for me to recommend this documentary.

When a group of high-spirited young American war correspondents arrived home from France in 1919, they celebrated with lunch at Manhattan's Algonquin Hotel, fitting comfortably round a little table for eight. That table would soon acquire an enduring legend to match the Café Royal of Oscar Wilde and Frank Harris. One after another, the new luminaries of the Twenties - Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, George S. Kaufman - found it to be their spiritual home, and it became virtually the canteen of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker.

Sumptuous entertainment it was not; many of the regulars were short of money (Vanity Fair paid peanuts). But the hotel manager had a soft spot for good writers, and the admission ticket was wit - the more savage and spontaneous, the better. At any moment, the table might become the scene of a verbal jousting tournament, and it was only a matter of time before someone dubbed it The Vicious Circle.

How it could have survived ten years without blowing apart seems amazing. But we should remember that Prohibition was in force throughout that decade (though frequently ignored: President Harding was serving alcohol in the White House), and it seems that only one of the twenty or so Algonquins mentioned here was a heavy drinker. We're not talking Hemingway or Scott Fitzgerald - both notably absent from the round table. But the film unaccountably leaves out any mention of food and drink, or anything else about the legendary hotel and restaurant.

Also, behind the professional rivalries, the Algonquin set do actually seem to have been fairly agreeable and well-adjusted people, though happy marriages are a bit thin on the ground. So for example, the civilised Marx Brother, Harpo, was welcomed in, while Groucho was not (apparently chafing about it, in defiance of his famous philosophy about clubs!)

In the end, the film rests mostly on fairly conventional interviews, with sons and daughters of the original set, spiced with some lively home movies (silent, of course) backed with rather too much of those predictably loud Charleston numbers we have come to expect.

I saw this delightful documentary when I stayed at the Algonquin Hotel, as it's shown continuously on something called 'the Algonquin channel'. I wish it had been longer, too---there were so many people I'd love to have heard more about---but the film contains some remarkable footage of the Algonquites; Marc Connelly, for instance, is a lovable curmudgeon and one of the highlights of the film. LUNCH makes a nice companion piece to WIT'S END, James R. Gaines' history of the Vicious Circle. Both the film and Gaines' book evoke the period well. I enjoyed it a lot and would love to have a copy of my own. Does anyone know where I can obtain one? Thanks!

I,like Tommi above, taped this years ago off of PBS and my copy is very well worn.

Why is this not on DVD??? It is such a superb documentary, and one that absolutely entertains as well as informs. Friends of mine have begged to see it over and over.

Further, it won the Academy Award as best Doc!!!! What gives? There are enough one-liners in the first hour from Dorothy Parker and crew that for zinger fodder alone it should stand tall!! But it also presents such a perfect glimpse into that rarefied, wonderful world of the Jazz Age, between the wars and in the best city on the planet. This film shows WHY New York was and remains what it is.

This little film is simply a delight. I don't think it's available commercially, but has been shown on TV. I taped it back in 1992, and my copy is almost used up. One of the best documentaries ever filmed. Really, really very good.