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.

General Director Preysing being arrested for killing Baron Felix von Geigern makes little sense. The Baron was trying to rob him and a competent police force would only bring Preysing in for questioning, after which he would probably be released due to self defense. Even the audience knows he acted in anger, its unlikely that it would have resulted in charges.Also unlikely that Grusinskaya could get out of the hotel with a murder in nearby room without hearing about it.

Copyright 5 May 1932 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (controlled by Loew's Inc.) picture. New York opening at the Astor, 12 April 1932. U.S. release: September 1932. 12 reels. 10,086 feet. 112 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Grand Hotel, Berlin. "People come, people go. Nothing ever happens" — except murder, robbery, seduction, embezzlement, attempted suicide, high-life 'living" and despair.NOTES: Vicki Baum's rather drably titled "Menschen im Hotel" ("People in a Hotel") became the more colorful "Grand Hotel" when translated to Broadway on 13 November 1930. Eugenie Leontovich, Henry Hull, Hortense Alden, Sig Rumann, Sam Jaffe, Romaine Callender and Walter Vonnegut played the roles essayed on the screen by Garbo, John Barrymore, Crawford, Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Stone and Hersholt respectively. Rafaela Ottiano, alone of the Broadway cast, repeats her role in the film. The film ran 444 performances at The National. It was directed by Herman Shumlin.Although Grand Hotel won the Academy Award for Best Picture, it was not, oddly enough, nominated for any other category. It topped the 1932 Film Daily poll of the nation's film critics by a commanding 296 votes compared to The Champ's 214 in second place. Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times selected Grand Hotel as one of his ten best of the year.Negative cost of $700,000 was more than twice recovered from initial domestic rental receipts of $1,594,000.MGM remade the property in 1945 as Weekend at the Waldorf. A West German remake, Menschen im Hotel, starring Michele Morgan as the ballerina and O. W. Fischer as the baron, was released in Europe in 1961. Sonja Ziemann had the Joan Crawford part, Heinz Ruhmann played the Lionel Barrymore role, whilst Gert Frobe was Preysing. The director was Gottfried Reinhardt, who worked from a screenplay by Ladislas Fodor and Hans Jacoby.COMMENT: It says much for the dual accomplishment of director Edmund Goulding and screenwriter Frances Marion that the dramatic force of Grand Hotel remains undiminished by time. Acting styles may change, directorial conventions (like the people of Grand Hotel) come and go, even novels and plays fade from the heights of popularity to be forgotten, neglected or even to suffer outright rejection. But the entertainment qualities of Grand Hotel are as credible, as compelling and as colorfully true-to-life as they ever were.Fortunately Grand Hotel was made at a time before the dead hand of the censor stifled Hollywood productions. (This is one reason why films of the early thirties often have much more relevance in present days than those of the forties, fifties and sixties). And what a pleasure it is to see sexual attraction handled realistically and (unlike today's so-called "liberated" offerings) with such subtlety, delicacy and sophistication!The plot may be a trifle melodramatic, but every minute is directed and acted with unerring skill from the intriguing opening shot to the wonderfully satisfying, wistfully sad, exhilarating flamboyant conclusion.With the largest portion of his film career still in front of him, Lionel Barrymore was never handed a meatier or more memorable role. His performance is totally enthralling (and devoid of many of the scene-chewing mannerisms he was later to adopt). His younger brother plays the baron with such affability and charm, it doesn't worry us in the slightest that photographer William Daniels is obviously pouring on the light to soften his face. We'll take an ageing Barrymore to a wooden Stallone any day. (He had actually turned 50 on 15 February 1932 — a few weeks after the film started shooting). It's good to see him temporarily forsaking the heavy disguises and theatrics of Svengali and The Mad Genius. No other matinée idol was ever more persuasively buoyant and debonair.Garbo of course is radiantly sensitive as the mercurial ballerina, Wallace Beery totally riveting (he is the only member of the cast to attempt a German accent) as the corrupt Preysing,* and Joan Crawford is perfectly cast as the half-heartedly world-wise, hauntingly lovely Flaemmchen.As usual in an MGM picture, the support players are as carefully chosen as the principals, the sets impress not only by their enormous size but by the sheer taste of their design and appointments, the lighting sparkles with appropriate glamour, mystique and atmosphere, the costumes are shimmeringly attractive, the editing smooth. Even the sound recording (never an MGM strong point) is impeccable. The music is not only apt but a continuous delight. The producers have not made the mistake — like so many early talkies — of using too many silences so that the audience gets the impression of a photographed stage play.As for Goulding's lion-taming it was never more pacy, polished and stylish. (Oddly enough, the chief criticism made of his direction by contemporary critics was that he "employs too many close-ups". How fashions change! What derogatory comments would be inspired by the cinema's current crop of monotonously talking heads! Compared with to-day's relentlessly turgid hacks, Goulding's so-called "misjudgments" are those of an eagle to a flock of mosquitoes). Of course, not all the stars were on-screen at the same time. Garbo, for example, has no scenes with Crawford, Beery or Lionel Barrymore. It's heartening to see Lionel and John play against each other with such obvious affection, while Beery's aggressiveness acts as a powerfully convincing catalyst.

In this movie the luxurious "Grand Hotel" in Berlin plays host to several different characters whose lives become intertwined in this intricate drama which won the Academy Award for "Best Picture" in 1932. Although Greta Garbo (as "Grusinkaya") was probably the main star attraction other performers equally shared the stage and were just as impressive. I especially liked Lionel Barrymore (as "Baron Felix von Geigern") and Joan Crawford ("Flaemmchen") in their respective roles but both Greta Garbo and Wallace Beery ("General Director Preysing") were also quite good. Admittedly, a couple of the scenes seemed to drag here and there but the ending tied everything up real well and essentially makes this film the classic that it is. Likewise, having two beautiful stars like Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford certainly doesn't hurt either. Be that as it may this movie is both sad and profound and while it may be somewhat dated it is certainly worthy of its accolades and deserves a look if a person should ever get the opportunity. Definitely above average.