RyothChatty ridiculous rating

2hotFeature one of my absolute favorites!

Tockinit not horrible nor great

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Robert J. Maxwell This is one of those multi-narrative, all-star movies about diverse people being their dynamic selves in a vast enclosed space, missing only Max von Sydow as the resident psychiatrist. And, man, this is one grand hotel -- the St. Gregory in New Orleans, where twelve presidents have stayed. It's huge, it's rococo, it's prohibitively expensive except for presidents, people on expense accounts, CEOs of major corporations, and my plumber, Dan.But there's a rub. The St. Gregory may be the ne plus ultra of elegance but it's old fashioned and it's losing money. The crusty owner of the place, Douglas, refuses to change. He's stuck in the eternal zugzwang. He's known all his employees for years, he likes the marble pillars and the over-sized fountain in the lobby, and he endorses his policy of segregation. He doesn't understand all this new stuff, "unions, civil rights, indoor baseball -- MOTELS." His general manager, the skilled and savvy Rod Taylor, understands it but would like to preserve what he can of the traditional opulence while adapting to changing circumstances. Unfortunately, he's the victim of a plot that drags him away by the gonads from his post at the hotel, allowing some chicanery by a potential buyer to take place. But it's too complicated to get into.Rod Taylor is reassuringly himself, handsome, robustly masculine. I saw him in a recent movie and he's aged magnificently. His eyeballs bulge, his face is now one flab upon another, and his ears are those of the African elephant. He looks great. Catherine Spaak is the reformed spy. She's conventionally attractive, her features are inexpressive but her voice carries an infinity of subtexts. Comic relief is provided by Karl Malden as the hotel thief who scurries from room to room, pocketing cash, expensive watches, jewelry, and whatnot. He's fine too in an amusing role, with his bulbous nose and clownish smile. His last act, as he's being led away in cuffs by the police, is to pocket a hotel ash tray.For what it's worth, the Statler Hotel School at Cornell was about the most prestigious in the country, though you don't hear much about it outside of hotel management circles. Snobby and even semi-snobby universities have always been a little ashamed of their specialized programs. The thing is to be a proud, defiant liberal arts college. It took Harvard a couple of hundred years to finally establish a school of medicine or law. More pragmatic schools have no such difficulty. The old, fancy universities, in resisting specialization, were much in the position of old Melvyn Douglas, owner of the St. Gregory. There's a curious shot of the ancient, creaking potentate complaining about "all this new stuff" while the camera lingers on his fat, elderly dog who shifts slightly to a more comfortable position. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, you know.It's unusual -- I realize that -- but I'd like to dedicate this poor review to Zani. You'll notice I used the word "zugzwang" earlier. I'd never heard of the damned thing before she told me what it meant. (It's from German and means "pulled in two different directions.") Zani, I can -- excuse me, I'm all choked up -- I can't thank you enough. For me -- sob -- for me, the world wouldn't exist without that word. (Sniff.)

ijonesiii HOTEL was the 1967 all star soap opera based on the novel by Arthur Hailey revolving around the goings-on at an old, yet elegant New Orleans hotel called the Saint Gregory. Basically, this is just a grounded version of Hailey's later AIRPORT, only not quite as interesting, but pleasant to look at with a competent enough cast. Rod Taylor plays Peter McDermott, the hard-nosed, but compassionate manager of the hotel. Melvyn Douglas plays Warren Trent, the owner of the hotel, trying to conceal his concern about a possible buyout from Kevin McCarthy as O'Keefe, who arrives with his mistress (the plastic Catherine Spaak), who falls in love with McDermott in about five minutes. Michael Rennie and a still gorgeous Merle Oberon play a Duke and Duchess staying in the hotel who are concealing an accident they were involved in and are being blackmailed by house detective Richard Conte and Karl Malden is amusing as Keycase, a thief and conman working the hotel. OK, it's not GRAND HOTEL...it's not even AIRPORT...but there are worse ways to spend two hours.

silverscreen888 "Hotel" was a very popular novel by Arthur Hailey. It told the story of the last days of the St. Gregory Hotel, an historic edifice in New Orleans, and of those who run it, visit it, covet it and try to use it for their own purposes. The conception of the screenplay that Wendell Mayes based on the novel is probably even better than the lovely execution of this cinematic gem; but that is only true I suggest because the idea was very clever indeed. The plot line concerns the hotel's aging owner, the great Melvyn Douglas, his young manager ably played by Rod Taylor, the man who wants to buy the hotel, Kevin McCarthy, and others such as troubled guests Michael Rennie and Merle Oberon, hotel thief Karl Malden, hotel detective Richard Conte, and the girl who comes into Rod Taylor's life, attractive but weak actress Catherine Spaak, plus many others touched by the edifice's power and struggling with the question of its future. These include Alfred Ryder, Harry Hickox, Ken Lynch, Clinton Sundberg, Roy Roberts, Tol Avery, Davis Roberts, Carmen McRae and many more. The art decoration by Casey O'Dell is memorable; the film has a very spacious look and fine fluid camera-work by director Richard Quine. The plot to expose Douglas as a racist that eventually ruins all deals to save the place from being sold and "modernized"or razed is equally memorable; so is the search for a murderer, Malden as a hot prowl "key-case" bandit who speaks no dialogue, and the use of the city of New Orleans as more than background to the hotel's past, present and future. Even the music is quite good. The movie lacks strong style, but voids gloss and achieves something quite unusual I assert; it becomes better than its material because it is functional, clean, intelligent--a sort of modern-architected house that provides a space for sparkling things to happen within. If it lack great meaning, this dramatic look at people's lives being lived in a fascinating building is one of the best of its sort since "Weekend at the Waldorf". For many reasons, it is a low-key but well-paced film that I can watch many times with pleasure.

meslick I didn't even want to watch this movie, but once it caught my attention I couldn't get away. It's basically about all the different characters you can find in a hotel, all bumping into each other as they do what they do. You get a feel for all the sideshows going on in a hotel.