Grand Hotel (1932) - film review

Nothing ever happens at the Grand Hotel in Berlin – so says the disfigured, world-weary Dr Otternschlag.  How wrong he is.  The ruthless industrialist Preysing prepares himself for a crucial meeting with a rival firm, and is ready to use any means to achieve a successful merger.  His stenographer, Flaemmchen, is on the look out for a man who will change her life for the better.  The prima ballerina Grusinskaya refuses to dance and instead mopes in her room, contemplating suicide.  Otto Kringelein, one of Preysing’s downtrodden employees, checks into the hotel for one last fling, knowing that he is soon to die from an incurable illness.  Unfamiliar with hotel etiquette, Kringelein makes a welcome friend in Baron Felix von Geigern, who turns out to be a down-at-heel thief.  Whilst attempting to steal Grusinskaya’s pearl necklace, the Baron sees the miserable dancer is about to kill herself.  He shows himself and immediately falls in love with her.  Grusinskaya is equally taken with her unexpected knight errant.  For once in her life, she is happy.  Unfortunately, the drama is far from over...

One of the all-time classics of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Grand Hotel is famously the first American film to use an ensemble cast made up of some of the leading film actors of the day.  Whilst the formula may have been used on many occasions since, few films achieve the pure cinematic magic that comes from the bringing together of such iconic performers as Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore.  The two-dimensional characterisation and some execrably corny dialogue date it somewhat, but the film still has great entertainment value.  This is where we get to hear Garbo’s most celebrated line "I want to be alone", so appropriate for Hollywood’s most reclusive actress.

Whilst the film (based on the popular novel Menschen im Hotel by Vicki Baum) is superbly directed by Edmund Goulding and beautifully shot, it is unquestionably the performances that sell the film.  Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford make an extraordinary contrast – Garbo the iconic screen goddess of the silent era, very expressive and intense, Crawford much more earthy and naturalistic, but just as alluring.  The famous Barrymore bothers are equally contrasting – Lionel as a sympathetic comedy character, John as the archetypal matinee idol into whose arms delectable young women are apt to swoon.  Wallace Beery plays the only antipathetic character – a bullying capitalist who, with his camp German accent and exaggerated gestures, ends up looking like a pantomime villain who needs his daily quota of boos and hisses very badly indeed.

Grand Hotel was a huge gamble for MGM, whose executives were uncertain whether they would recoup the enormous production cost that arose from its ambitious art deco sets (which look impressive even by today’s standards) and the expensive all-star cast.  As it turned out, thanks to a well-orchestrated publicity campaign, the film was a huge commercial success.  It won the Best Picture Oscar in 1932 – the only film to win the award without being nominated in any other category.  It inspired many re-makes – most notably Robert Z. Leonard’s Weekend at the Waldorf (1945), starring Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner and Walter Pidgeon, although few of these match the sheer style and enjoyment value of the 1932 MGM original.

© James Travers 2008

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