Metro Goldwyn Mayer's 1932 all-star all-boring flop Grand Hotel has two very unique distinctions. One, it was the first film to use not just one or two stars in the main character roles, but several. And two, it was the first - and so far only - film to win the Academy's top prize without garnering any other nominations (Only The Broadway Melody (1933) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) come close, winning the best picture and no others awards, with four and eight nominations total respectively.)
Grand Hotel tells a story of a lonely ballerina, Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo), a in-debt Baron, Baron Felix von Geigern (John Barrymore), terminally ill bookkeeper Otto Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore), lovely stenographer Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford) and a wealthy, heartless industrial magnate, Preysing (Wallace Beery), who all come together and interact one weekend at - you guessed it - the Grand Hotel.
One might say that "...it doesn't take much to see that the problems of several little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world," and they would be true.
Grusinskaya. the ballerina, is tired of playing to half-empty houses and feels she is too old to continue. She wants to die. Meanwhile, Baron von Geigern needs money to pay off his gambling debts, so he chums up to hotel guests and steals their money.
Kringelein, a mousy, timid bookkeeper, is dieing, and came to the hotel for one last major fling. Meanwhile his boss, Preysing, is at the same hotel trying to make it with the stenographer.
Grand Hotel is basically a two-hour soap opera set in a hotel. The characters are all dull and boring; the only good acting comes from Lionel Barrymore, the timid bookkeeper, who manages to change his character from a man bent on dieing to a man who wants to live his final days on Earth to the fullest. The quality of the film's actors is what really saves this picture; without them, it wouldn't even be worth viewing at all.
Grand Hotel is a good, not great film, but it does have its moments. MGM did a good job promoting the film (they must have spent a bundle on it), which may have helped it win the Oscar. The film should never have won best picture.
Movies it was nominated with for Best Picture:
Arrowsmith (1931), Bad Girl (1931), The Champ (1931), Five Star Final (1931),
One Hour with You (1932), Shanghai Express (1932), The Smiling Lieutenant (1931)
Is the movie worth your time to watch?
6/10 13-01-07
