"What do you do in the Grand Hotel? Eat. Sleep. Loaf around. Flirt a little. Dance a little. A hundred doors leading to one hall, and no one knows anything about the person next to them. And when you leave, someone occupies your room, lies in your bed, and that's the end."
In the opulent setting of the Grand Hotel in Berlin, the lives of five strangers are dramatically altered as their lust for love, life, money and power draws them one to another. The aging and fragile ballerina, Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo), is renewed when she meets and quickly falls for the dashing Baron Felix von Gaigern (John Barrymore). A true gentleman, elegant and handsome, Gaigern turns to stealing in order to pay for his gambling debts. He befriends a bookkeeper, Otto Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore) who has chosen the Grand Hotel to live out his last days in total luxury. It is at the hotel that he runs into and is able to finally confront his greedy and cold hearted employer, General Director Preysing (Wallace Beery) who is in Berlin to close a major business deal he desperately needs. Preysing employs the services of an ambitious and beautiful stenographer, Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford) who, before his chance encounter with the ballerina, had caught the eye of the Baron. Flaemmchen finds her adventure through Otto, however, as they plan to fly off to Paris leaving the dramatic events of the previous two days behind them.
"The Grand Hotel. Always the same. People come. People go...nothing ever happens." The cynical observation of Dr. Otternschlag, a permanent resident of the Grand Hotel.
Interesting Facts
This is the only film to win Best Picture without receiving even a nomination in any other category.
With 5 of MGM's top tiered stars, Director, Edmund Goulding, became known as the "Lion Tamer" for his ability to work with the temperamental actors.
Knowing Garbo's hatred of tardiness and Marlene Deitrich, Crawford would often play Deitrich albums and arrive late on the set.
Greta Garbo is one of the few actors to successfully make the transition from Silent films into Sound.
Garbo insisted on having red light on the set to create a romantic vibe. Initially she turned down the role, feeling that, at 27, she was too old to play a ballerina.
Scenes featuring Greta Garbo were added after the preview in order to ensure that Joan Crawford would not quit the film before production was complete. (You don't want to get her angry with a coat hanger near by).
Garbo's famous line "I want to be alone" is number 30 of the top 100 movie quotes according to AFI
This is the second Best Picture winner to be adapted from a German novel.
Nic: From the beginning of our venture I have found the plots to be so one dimensional. And yet you could pick up a play and find rich story lines with strong characters with depth, there was subtext, all the elements. Now this film seems to have all those elements and interestingly enough was actually based on a play.
Cin: Well Nic, you need to remember theatre had been around alot longer than film so it's only natural that it would be more mature in it's plot lines
Nic: But why would that be? Why, just because it's on film, the stories be so much simpler?
Cin: I think because they were coming out of the silent film era so they were trying to figure out how to do it because silent film had such simple story lines so it was a natural progression. That's my guess
Nic: I really enjoyed this one
Cin: Me too. I was shocked though. The ending shocked me I wasn't ready for it, lots of little twists and turns.
Nic: Yeah, it really took it to another level.
Cin: I loved Joan Crawford and John Barrymore.
Nic: And the relationship between Garbo and Barrymore was so...appealing.
Cin: Youthful, grand
Nic: This film made me think of "Crash"
Cin: haven't seen it
Nic: Well we will be in about a year or two, but it follows different peoples lives which overlap through tragic events. I read in wiki that this very type of storyline is actually referred to as a Grand Hotel theme
Cin: Hmm
Nic: Yeah John Barrymore has a really nice presence on screen
Cin: Sure does, very layered perfomance actually
Nic: Without being melodramatic or telling
Cin: mmm
Nic: And yeah, Crawford was great. I really liked her character. This felt real to me which I didn't expect from a 1930's movie.
Cin: I'm trying to look up that Oscar girl* to see her comments on it..... "There isn't much to say about this film. It's simply something to be watched and enjoyed"
Nic: Yeah, I would agree with that. Any great acting moments stand out to you?
Cin: Well you know there's that big famous line which (Garbo) did quite well, "I want to be alone". I'll have to use that sometime.
Cin: We have almost 90 members to our Facebook group. That's exciting.
Nic: So as I mentioned to you earlier today, we need to come up with a rating system and I thought, in keeping with the "Date with Oscar" theme, our rating scale should be based on how we would end the date...so I give this a, "Hey Oscar, did you want to come up for a drink?"
Cin: Oh yes, I would definitely invite Oscar up.
Nic: Good thing, cause up to this point I was thinking about losing his number.
*I happened upon another blog - mydatewithoscar@blogspot.com - the other day. And here I thought we were so original. Oh well.
