Director: Edmund Goulding
Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Leads: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore
Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Leads: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore
"Grand Hotel...always the same. People come, people go. Nothing ever happens." - Dr Otternschlag
Setting
Grand Hotel, Berlin, Germany
The Plot
The entirety of the film is set in the Grand Hotel in Berlin, covering a few days in the life of a hotel and the antics of the various guests.
We have the famous ballerina Grusinskaya [Garbo], who seems to have passed her peak career-wise until she falls in love and does the best performance of her life…which we never get to see since that happens outside the hotel.
Joan Crawford plays stenographer (and almost call girl) Miss Flaemmchen, who falls in love with the Baron who fell in love with Grusinskaya…lost? So was I for a bit!
The terminally ill Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore) decides to spend his life savings and live it up in luxury…despite the best efforts of his boss General Director Preysing (Wallace Beery) and his new friend the Baron (Lionel’s real-life brother John Barrymore).
The entirety of the film is set in the Grand Hotel in Berlin, covering a few days in the life of a hotel and the antics of the various guests.
We have the famous ballerina Grusinskaya [Garbo], who seems to have passed her peak career-wise until she falls in love and does the best performance of her life…which we never get to see since that happens outside the hotel.
Joan Crawford plays stenographer (and almost call girl) Miss Flaemmchen, who falls in love with the Baron who fell in love with Grusinskaya…lost? So was I for a bit!
The terminally ill Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore) decides to spend his life savings and live it up in luxury…despite the best efforts of his boss General Director Preysing (Wallace Beery) and his new friend the Baron (Lionel’s real-life brother John Barrymore).
The Review
The film is non-stop action, cutting from storyline to storyline with speed. Eventually it settles down as the story lines intertwine and we can focus on more than one character at a time.
Grusinskaya returns from the theatre having abandoned her performance, and utters her famous line “I want to be alone”. Ah, so that’s where Garbo’s famous line comes from! Intending to commit suicide, she falls in love with the Baron who talks her out of it…which would have been very gentlemanly if the reason he was in the room had not been that he had just robbed her and hidden himself behind a curtain when she unexpectedly returned.
Despite their efforts to avoid upstaging by never putting Garbo and Crawford in the same scene, the show was stolen (for me at least) by Crawford with her radiant smile and expressive face. She fell in love with the Baron when he asked her out, she was then matched with the dying Otto Kringelein before being bought "call girl-style" by her boss and then it all gets messy. This was 1932 after all, feminism was decades away.
The film ends with some dramatic irony from the war-wounded, drunk and world-weary Dr Otternschlag (Lewis Stone), stating “Grand Hotel. Always the same. People come, people go. Nothing ever happens.”…somewhat oblivious to the dramas we had just spent 108 minutes watching.
The film was highly enjoyable; though I certainly hit the ground running at the start…this may set a record for the number of characters introduced in such a short space of time!
Grusinskaya returns from the theatre having abandoned her performance, and utters her famous line “I want to be alone”. Ah, so that’s where Garbo’s famous line comes from! Intending to commit suicide, she falls in love with the Baron who talks her out of it…which would have been very gentlemanly if the reason he was in the room had not been that he had just robbed her and hidden himself behind a curtain when she unexpectedly returned.
Despite their efforts to avoid upstaging by never putting Garbo and Crawford in the same scene, the show was stolen (for me at least) by Crawford with her radiant smile and expressive face. She fell in love with the Baron when he asked her out, she was then matched with the dying Otto Kringelein before being bought "call girl-style" by her boss and then it all gets messy. This was 1932 after all, feminism was decades away.
The film ends with some dramatic irony from the war-wounded, drunk and world-weary Dr Otternschlag (Lewis Stone), stating “Grand Hotel. Always the same. People come, people go. Nothing ever happens.”…somewhat oblivious to the dramas we had just spent 108 minutes watching.
The film was highly enjoyable; though I certainly hit the ground running at the start…this may set a record for the number of characters introduced in such a short space of time!
I did feel sorry for the meek and humble Kringelein, the only truly genuine guy in the film, who had never really experienced life until he found his was nearing an end and just wanted a friend. His fascination with everything, even the 24-hour hot/cold running water, gave him a childlike innocence.
The Baron bounced between being a friend, lover, thief and backstabber. He was well played by John Barrymore, though I felt his character’s storyline was ended too conveniently, it just ended without any tying up of loose ends. The sight of his dog Adolphus obliviously watching his phone ring out after his death was touching.
"Thank the Stars for a Great Entertainment" screamed the tagline...hmmm...really? Grammar aside, it is non-descriptive and boring. I reckon “If These Walls Could Talk” would be a much better tag line for this film, as the hotel itself would be the only character who would know all that went on. There again it's 1932, just say "Greta Garbo" or "Joan Crawford" and you've filled enough cinemas to pay for it all.
Overall it was good fun to watch though it didn't really flow smoothly or come to a decent conclusion. Once or twice I was left wondering where exactly the plot was going (and even, in fact, what the plot really was). Two characters left happy but everyone else left with unfinished stories; that is normal in real life, especially for a hotel with all their short-term occupants, but as an audience it’s a little irritating. Grrrr…I like my packages neatly wrapped!
The Baron bounced between being a friend, lover, thief and backstabber. He was well played by John Barrymore, though I felt his character’s storyline was ended too conveniently, it just ended without any tying up of loose ends. The sight of his dog Adolphus obliviously watching his phone ring out after his death was touching.
"Thank the Stars for a Great Entertainment" screamed the tagline...hmmm...really? Grammar aside, it is non-descriptive and boring. I reckon “If These Walls Could Talk” would be a much better tag line for this film, as the hotel itself would be the only character who would know all that went on. There again it's 1932, just say "Greta Garbo" or "Joan Crawford" and you've filled enough cinemas to pay for it all.
Overall it was good fun to watch though it didn't really flow smoothly or come to a decent conclusion. Once or twice I was left wondering where exactly the plot was going (and even, in fact, what the plot really was). Two characters left happy but everyone else left with unfinished stories; that is normal in real life, especially for a hotel with all their short-term occupants, but as an audience it’s a little irritating. Grrrr…I like my packages neatly wrapped!
If you have special features including a short film "Nothing Ever Happens"...it's an hysterical spoof of Grand Hotel and a fun way to end the film once you've seen it!
The Slap
This goes to General Director Preysing…for lack of empathy for his sick employee, extra-marital efforts and being an overall pompous git. Oh and he killed someone too, which isn't very nice at all!
Louisiana Flip
Fill a shaker half full with ice cubes and add:
7 parts white rum
1 part Cointreau (or Triple Sec)
1 part Grenadine
1 part orange juice
1 egg yolk
Serve in high Champagne glasses. (here are some more while you're playing bartender)
It’s little wonder this concoction has Mr Kringelein peering into the mirror stating “You’re drunk, Mr Kringelein” before going to bed and falling out of it in a cocoon of bedding! I think I’ll go make one now...
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