CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

ccampbell-12768 Great movie! A classic. I loved the acting and the way it was filmed.

atlasmb Garbo. Barrymore. Crawford. The starpower of this cast should be enough to guarantee a celluloid success. But it's the script that makes this film one of the best of its time or any time.The Grand Hotel is the setting and it can be seen to represent many things, but primarily it represents life. The lobby and common areas are representative of public life with its social pretensions and conventions. The private rooms are, of course, the private lives.In the course of one day, we glimpse various lives that are hanging in the balance and changed forever. At least in human terms. In objective terms, nothing much ever changes and the script plays out day after day, with minor revisions, regardless of the players.The acting in this film is wonderful. Yes, Garbo might overdramatize even the smallest gesture, but what else should we expect from her? And besides, she is playing the part of a prima ballerina who thrives on attention from her public. If one reads the trivia notes in IMDb for this film, where the petty concerns and rivalries of the major players are detailed, it adds another dimension to viewing "Grand Hotel". These actors were not so different from their characters--so involved with the slightest social slight.The story is a universal one that has been told many times since, but "Grand Hotel" may have told it best.

gavin6942 A group of very different individuals staying at a luxurious hotel in Berlin deal with each of their respective dramas.Alfred Rushford Greason of Variety said the film "may not entirely please the theatregoers who were fascinated by its deft stage direction and restrained acting, but it will attract and hold the wider public to which it is now addressed." He added, "The drama unfolds with a speed that never loses its grip, even for the extreme length of nearly two hours, and there is a captivating pattern of unexpected comedy that runs through it all, always fresh and always pat." That just about sums it up, does it not? The 2004 DVD is decent, with some nice special features including a documentary and a short spoof. The only thing missing is an audio commentary, and who knows... maybe it will show up eventually.

The_Film_Cricket Without a good story to tell, Grand Hotel might be just an overwrought gathering of some of the greatest stars in the early days of Hollywood, a kind of revue of great faces without any real purpose. Yet, because this there is multiple stories, multiple characters, multiple points of interest, the movie is infinitely watchable, even today. What we get is a movable soap opera that surprisingly hasn't dated, and that may have something to do with the fact that the cast features actors who are given good material.Based on a mostly forgotten play "Menschen im Hotel" by William A. Drake from the book by Vicki Baum (who wrote the book based on her own experiences working in a hotel), Grand Hotel tells a multi-tiered story about the various goings-on at a swank Berlin hotel. The disfigured World War I veteran and permanent resident Dr. Otternschlag (Lewis Stone) describes it as "People come and go. Nothing ever happens." Actually, he's being ironic. There's plenty going on, and as the patrons gather we meet them and get involved in their various stories.We meet a Baron, Felix von Geigern (John Barrymore), once a millionaire who has now squandered his fortune and makes a living by day as a card player and at night as a jewel thief. He befriends a sickly former accountant Otto Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore) who believes he is dying and is spending his last days at the hotel.We meet an industrialist called Preysing (Wallace Beery) who is about to close a sink-or-swim business deal that, if unsuccessful, could ruin him and his family. He hires a beautiful stenographer and aspiring actress named Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford) and during a conversation she suggests that she is willing to help him if he is willing to help her out of the typing pool.Then there is Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo) a Russian ballet dancer whose career is fading. Her station in life is taking its toll and she becomes depressed, stating "I want to be alone." One night the Baron is robbing her room when she returns from an engagement and he overhears her, thinking that she is considering suicide. He confronts her, she is startled, but as they talk, they fall in love. This union does not go where we expect.All of these stories interconnect in a way that is not only clever but really quite compelling. The characters act, basically, according to their nature and their stories don't go where we expect. The most interesting is Flaemmchen, a beautiful young woman who has a mind behind her looks. There is a suggestion that she is willing to bed down with Preysing to further her career but she's no mere floozy. She also falls a little bit in love after a slight flirtation with the Baron. This is a different Joan Crawford then we're use to, young and happy and flirtatious. Crawford's legacy has been tainted by her reputation as a bitch-on-wheels and tarnished by trash like Mommie Dearest, but here we see the young Crawford. She is confident, easy-going and easy to fall in love with.Also interesting is Kringelein whom we meet as a man who seems to be nothing less than a self-pitying hypochondriac, but whose association with the Baron fuels his last days on earth with a profound sense of joy. He has an associated with Preysing. He was once under his employ and we discover, in a stunning moment, just what a rat his former employer was. This is a very dialogue driven picture taking place within confined spaces. The hotel itself is tall and circular and somewhat confined by the scope of what the camera is able to capture. Many of the rooms are lit at low levels so as to suggest the dark secrets hiding in the shadows. What is amazing is that none of this seems dry or dated. Everyone has a story to tell, and all seem to have a story that began before the camera found them.That's the true test of good writing. This could easily have been a tapestry of movie stars with nothing to do, but it's much more compelling than that. Many may see it as dated but I see a movie that peeks into a time gone by, with stars long gone. It is a timestamp on a world and on attitudes that we are never likely to see again.***1/2 (of four)