Antonius Block
The intersecting stories of guests at the Grand Hotel in Berlin has a star-studded cast, direction from Edmund Goulding which feels modern, and a script that meanders in interesting ways. It also manages to make a few subtle observations about life.I've never really quite fallen under Greta Garbo's spell, but she's well-cast here as the flighty ballerina who becomes despondent, but then falls for an ardent fan (John Barrymore). Barrymore is not just a fan, though, he's a thief and smooth operator. Just moments before he's hitting on a stenographer (Joan Crawford) with lines like "I don't suppose you'd take some dictation from me sometime, would you?" He's then in Garbo's room to steal her pearl necklace, but is interrupted when she and her retinue suddenly return, one by one. It's a fantastic scene, one of many that will keep you wondering where the film is going.John's real-life brother Lionel Barrymore is also here, as a man who has a terminal illness, and is therefore 'living it up' while he can. He revels in drinking, gambling, and telling off the executive (Wallace Beery) of the organization he once slaved in. I had to look up the 'Louisiana Flip' drink he enjoys and keeps wanting to push on others. His performance is a little simpering, but ultimately endearing, as he's realized how transient life is, and yet isn't at all bitter about his fate. His raving, somewhat drunken toast, "Drink to life, to the magnificent, dangerous, brief, brief, wonderful life," is brilliant, and it's telling that his fellow card players don't pay all that much attention to him as they just want to file past and exit.Beery is fantastic, and it's through his character that 'Grand Hotel' makes interesting social criticisms. He starts off assuring an associate that he must maintain his integrity during a critical business negotiation, but then as it falls apart, compromises himself. He's married, but begins paying undue attention to his stenographer (Crawford), wants her to travel with him, and through a sizable cash gift, soon has her planning to stay the night with him before doing that. As he's confronted by Lionel Barrymore's character, it's clear that he's a corporate elite, out of touch with his workers and completely unsympathetic to them. Lastly, when he does something wrong (being deliberately vague here), he tries to get others to lie for him to cover it up. It turns out he has zero integrity after all. The film shows us the importance of having money - Crawford's character needs it to make ends meet, John Barrymore's character needs it to be free from an entanglement, Lionel Barrymore's character has it and is able to enjoy life as a result, and it's an important part of both Garbo and Beery's standing. On the other hand, the film shows us the importance of acting honorably. Crawford doesn't want to exploit Lionel Barrymore, and neither does John Barrymore. Garbo and Lionel Barrymore are both generous, offering to help others.Director Goulding includes overhead shots in interesting ways - looking down the concentric floors of the hotel to the lobby below, above the hotel switchboard operators, and at the front desk. This, along with the sardonic commentary from a doctor wounded in the war (Lewis Stone), helps emphasize how this hubbub of activity is just a very small piece of the world. Life goes on all around us, all over the world, it comes and goes and all is transient, it's born anew by the wife of the porter (Jean Hersholt) who anxiously awaits, and in the next set of guests who come in to the hotel at the end.
mark.waltz
I cannot watch this movie anymore without hearing those lyrics of the title song from the 1990 Broadway musical. "People come, people go. Where there's life overflowing. Come begin in old Berlin. You're in the Grand Hotel!" The musical allowed the major characters to flow in for dramatic introductions, identified by the embittered partially blind doctor. "Nothing ever happens!", he says dramatically in both the movie and the musical, but you're hearing that from a man going through life with one eye shut. Lewis Stone, so wise as Judge Hardy, fails to convince in character. There's plenty happening in the most opulent hotel in all of 1930's Germany, a shell of itself after a world war, and at a turning point in it's history. Scary for many here, facing their mortality through their immorality.The two immoral characters here are nobleman (and a thief!) John Barrymore and sadistic businessman Wallace Beery. Dying clerk Lionel Barrymore is the most vulnerable, wanting one last fling with life, and finding more than he bargained for. Typist Joan Crawford gets a rare glimpse of heaven on Earth, and finds hell, exploited by Beery and finding supposed romance with John Barrymore. Her friendship with Lionel Barrymore is the one honest relationship in the film, outside of ballerina Greta Garbo and her devoted companion, Rafaela Ottiano. Authors of the musical were so taken by Ottiano that they named the character in the musical after her. Then there's hotel clerk Jean Hersholt, waiting for the news on his wife, in the hospital preparing to give birth. It's a minor part of the story, with the focus on Barrymore's (John that is...) seductions of both Crawford and Garbo. The two divas never cross paths or seem to be aware of the other's presence. Of the two, it's Crawford who is the most natural. Something in Garbo's performance indicates that she was pretty bored, wanting to be alone like her character, although through camera on her works its magic to fool the audience into thinking she's fully in character. Crawford shines in her energy, and her big eyes never more alluring. This has so much going for it that it is extremely difficult to find any fault. Truly a gem in pretty much every detail.
christopher-underwood
Watching this last night, I was rather surprised to discover that I had never seen it before and also that it is really rather good. I know everybody says it is but I rather expected it to creak a bit, overstay its welcome, be a little too stagey but it is fine. Helped enormously by Joan Crawford who puts in the most sparkling performance and helps get the film off to a roaring start. I found the introduction of Greta Garbo less convincing but gradually warmed to her as she mellowed from the overwrought prima donna to love struck beauty. The Barrymore's, Lionel and John are fantastic and together with the rest of the cast help to keep this ever interesting and amusing film together. The script is perfect and well shared out amongst the fine array of talent, again helping to keep an even flow so that unlike other films of this period there is no plodding centre section and the ending is so sudden and splendid, one is inevitably left with a smile on the face. I can see myself watching this again.
