Plot Intro
Five very different people collide together during their stay at the famous Grand Hotel in Berlin. Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo) is a disenchanted dancer, worried about her audience numbers, but finds new life when she falls in love with an aristocratic Baron (John Barrymore) who is secretly bankrupt and resorting to thievery in the hotel. A millionaire businessman, Preysing (Wallace Beery) employs and lusts after a young stenographer (Joan Crawford), while one of his employees (Lionel Barrymore), who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, is spending his life savings on the holiday of a lifetime.
Doug says...
Finally! The first film in our series without shuddering jump-cuts, odd cutaways or inexplicable plot points! It’s taken until 1932, but the film-makers have got their game-face on and are at last presenting us with a decently edited, carefully plotted film!
So there are downsides: it’s the first time I’ve ever seen Joan Crawford in action and I have to say I prefer her when she’s played by Faye Dunaway. But in general, this is a huge step up in terms of performance and film-editing. I was going to put Greta Garbo in my list of ‘not so great things’ because boy does that woman overact, but I couldn’t do it. There is something so magnetic about her presence that all of the wild flailing in flared linen sleeves can’t undo her star power.
The plot is simple and very classic ‘Stately Home Drama’ - people come and go, and so do their dramas. But we’re not made to feel that the individual dramas of the people are the focus here - in fact something much larger is. There’s no mistake to this hotel being based in 1932 Berlin. In 1932, a certain German politician was rapidly rising to power - to take the role of Chancellor in 1933. His name, of course, was Adolf Hitler. And while there was a lot of support for him, there was a wariness too. There’s no question as to why the true villain of this film is the only overtly German one (the adulterous, condescending Herr Preysing). Yup, it’s the German-hating period of the Oscars!
This film would be a light piece of frippery were it not for several specific elements. The first is the lack of catharsis - when Garbo’s dancer character ends the film not knowing about a crucial plot-point we are left, pitying her but also dreading her future discovery of the fact. We see Joan Crawford’s character openly submit to what appears to be near-prostitution. We see (for the first time) the working class people’s drama: one hotel porter is worried about his wife’s being in labour. And the most important thing of the whole shebang is Mr Kringelein, beautifully played by Lionel Barrymore.
A seeming ‘comic character’ (side-note: the amount of unfunny comic characters - usually with a stutter - so far in our list of films is sadly suggestive of Hollywood’s lack of imagination) - Mr Kringelein is a terminally ill clerk who’s come to blow his hard-earned savings at the Grand Hotel. He starts off insignificant but through a series of speeches and scenes, he becomes the beating heart of the film - standing up for justice, and the overruling of class’ privilege. It is through him that we view this expensive frippery-filled world, and through the people he likes and dislikes that we too warm to or distrust characters.
What begins as a light comedy of manners becomes something far richer, with Mr Kringelein’s view of this glittering but sometimes false world becoming a portent of Germany’s ominous future ahead.
Highlight
Kringelein’s drunken yet powerful speech: ‘Life, gentlemen, is wonderful but very dangerous. You must have courage for it, then it’s wonderful.’
Lowlight
Joan Crawford’s acting skills. I expected more, Joan. Bring me the axe…
Mark
7.5/10
It is interesting that while our first Oscar winner, Wings, had a clearly-defined, linear plot, all of our subsequent winners so far have presented a more episodic, anthological plot structure. They have had starring actors, but accompanied by large ensemble casts, and numerous interwoven stories and sequences all based around one particular theme or setting, whether it be the backstage antics of Broadway shows, the First World War, or the development of Oklahoma City.
Grand Hotel continues this trend, but set within the opulent surroundings of a luxury hotel in Berlin. The central themes seem to be fame and fortune- what these concepts truly mean, and what they are worth. Whether a fallen aristocrat is thieving from hotel rooms to make his way in life, an ageing dancer is worrying about her dwindling audiences, a businessman is desperately trying to make dealings that maintain his empire, or a stenographer/office clerk are seeking out ways in which to keep their head above water, the characters are entirely preoccupied with what they can make of their life both in finance and in notoriety. Could this be connected to Berlin being a scene of an infamous uprising at the time the film was made? I only have 500 words to work with, so I’ll leave the reader to answer that one.
Grand Hotel is the Gosford Park of its day. Large numbers of characters whose storylines criss-cross and collide in unexpected and sometimes touching ways. Whatever happens to the characters before they enter the hotel, and after they exit, is hinted at, and left for the audience to imagine. And as they leave with their own personal dramas, new occupants come in. Really, we are seeing these characters through the eyes of the hotel- we see a brief snapshot, but it’s a salacious and intriguing one.
Lionel Barrymore was the stand-out for me- he evoked a combination of tragedy and comedy in a man who has had to work constantly to stay alive, but now intends to live in the truest sense of the word. Joan Crawford was also engaging in her young pre-wire-hanger days, although quite frankly she could recite Mary Had a Little Lamb and I would hang on her every word. Although she became more synonymous with her feistier, bitchier roles in The Women and Mildred Pierce, here I found her endearing and sympathetic- even if she is nearly upstaged by her eyebrows.
Greta Garbo was less entrancing for me. Despite this being one of the first ever films with an expensive all-star ensemble cast, it is obvious that Garbo has demanded some individuality. She spends very little time with any other cast member except John Barrymore, and her flailing arm gestures and constant cries of despair left me cold. She was certainly an actress of her time (one of the biggest box office draws, in fact), but her career plummeted in the late-30’s, and she would retire in the early 40’s to live in seclusion. To be honest, I can see why- she seems to have had little scope for anything other than tragic glamour.
Overall, I would say that Grand Hotel is good but not great (and certainly not “grand”). Despite being the height of glamour and stardom in 1932, I found it whimsical to the point of being inconsequential. All Quiet on the Western Front had bigger things to say about warfare and even Cimarron had more scope and ambition. Grand Hotel has some involvement but my opinion is that a Best Picture winner should hit you hard like a hammer, and this film simply diverted me for 108 minutes.
Highlight
Kringelein’s confrontation with his company CEO, Preysing, in which the former stands up for the Little Man with defiance and courage.
Lowlight
Greta Garbo’s “I want to be alone” overacting feels dated now. It’s how I behave when the wrong country wins Eurovision.
Mark
6/10
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