Buried in the late 1960's this film would have to have been seen as a throwback even then. Compared to films such as "Easy Rider", "Woodstock" and "The Graduate" this one seemed less than cool.However I like the unselfconscious way it revelled in its rather familiar characters and situations, and I think Rod Taylor gave a perfect performance.The esteemed St Gregory Hotel in New Orleans is about to go bust. Its old-fashioned elegance is dying out along with its traditional clientele; takeovers are in the air. Owner Warren Trent (Melvyn Douglas) leaves the running of the hotel to his young Protégé Peter McDermott (Rod Taylor). But saving the old hotel isn't easy when he's faced with devious guests, a thief, a crooked house detective, and a buyer with an axe to grind as well as Warren Trent's outmoded social attitudes.Rod Taylor is suave, upright and self-confident as the hotel manager. His character projects worldliness despite the fact that he seems to have spent his entire life either inside the St Gregory or in his hideaway apartment in the French quarter – where he has a rather sedate affair (by late 60's standards) with enigmatic Jeanne Rochefort (Catherine Spaak), the mistress of hotel magnate Curtis O'Keefe (Kevin McCarthy) who is bidding for the hotel.I love other aspects of the film including the pan up of the beautifully rendered main title artwork, which sets the elegant hotel in New Orleans more so than the skimpy location photography. Johhny Keating's score captures the feeling of the passing glamour of the old St. Gregory although he couldn't help a touch of Mickey Mousing for Karl Malden's hammy performance as the key thief.Only a couple of sequences were shot on location; the rest of the exteriors were shot on an artificial looking backlot. The film could have used some long shots of New Orleans although dropping a convincing looking St Gregory into a wide shot of the city was a tricky job before CGI.However the interiors are sumptuous and the film really is a slick production. The presence of Melvyn Douglas, Merle Oberon and Michael Rennie give it extra clout.Unlike Arthur Hailey's novel, the movie stayed in my memory. It has no pretensions at classic status but it gets you in, and Rod Taylor adds a genuine touch of class – he was good in "The Birds", but he's better here.

From 1967, "Hotel" is based on the book by Arthur Hailey, who wrote the original "Airport" and more importantly, "Zero Hour," the inspiration for "Airplane!" "Hotel" concerns the last day of the elegant St. Gregory Hotel in New Orleans. Some years later, Hailey's work would be credited for several episodes on the TV series "Hotel," also about the St. Gregory, this time in San Francisco.The film boasts a top cast, starring Rod Taylor, Melvyn Douglas, Merle Oberon, Karl Malden, Kevin McCarthy, Richard Conte, Camilla Sparv, Carmen McRae, and Michael Rennie. Each character deals with a life-changing moment: the manager, McDermott (Taylor) and the owner Trent (Douglas) face the end of an era, while McDermott falls for the girlfriend (Sparv) of a man with a chain of hotels who wants the St. Gregory (McCarthy); Karl Malden is a thief working the hotel; Oberon and Rennie fled the scene of an auto accident and Oberon now wants the telltale car removed by Conte. Carmen McRae plays the lounge singer."Hotel" is entertaining and the performances are decent, with the possible exception of Camilla Sparv, who in the '60s was touted as a great beauty and is treated as such in the film. She is pretty boring, and as far as I'm concerned, can't hold a candle to the stunning Oberon. Fifty-six at the time of the film's release, Oberon was one of the first actresses to address aging in films and was quite open about efforts to keep her looks. She was successful. Rennie as her husband is very handsome, though he doesn't have a lot to do.Entertaining.

I find Hotel strangely compelling and have watched it countless times on cable TV. In fact, it is playing right now as I write. I remain fascinated by the fact that the hotel thief (Karl Malden) leaves his own room unlocked. Perhaps he knows there's only ever one thief in any hotel. I like the scene when the hotel security and manager describe the thief as wearing a grey suit. They too, all three of them, are wearing grey suits, like just about every other male in the hotel! At least Malden has a hat on (at about two in the morning) to distinguish him from every other male (now how dumb is that?). Plus I can never figure out why Malden, once he has the briefcase stuffed with money from the Duke, doesn't simply check out right away and go retire (to some hotel or another...). I agree with other contributors that the jazz riff in the background, especially signalling the activities of Malden is really annoying and it serves to date the movie too much.

I didn't even want to watch this movie, but once it caught my attention I couldn't get away. It's basically about all the different characters you can find in a hotel, all bumping into each other as they do what they do. You get a feel for all the sideshows going on in a hotel.