:
Greta Garbo,
Greta Garbo,
John Barrymore,
more...
:
Edmund Goulding,
Edmund Goulding
see all cast/crew...
: Not Rated
: Warner Home Video
: Classics, Drama, Classic Drama, Classic Drama, Pre-Code, Precode
: 112 min.
: English, French
: English, Spanish, French
see additional details...
|
|
Based on Vicki Baum's novel and produced by Irving Thalberg, this film is about the lavish Grand Hotel in Berlin, a place where "nothing ever happens." That statement proves to be false, however, as the story follows an intertwining cast of characters over the course of one tumultuous day. Greta Garbo is Grusinskaya, a ballerina whose jewels are coveted by Baron von Geigern (John Barrymore), a thief who fancies Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford), a stenographer and the mistress of Preysing (Wallace Beery), businessman boss of Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore), a terminally ill bookkeeper who is under the care of alcoholic physician Dr. Otternschlag (Lewis Stone). Grand Hotel won Best Picture at the 1932 Academy Awards. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
Special Features:
- New Making-of Documentary Checking Out: Grand Hotel
- Premiere Newsreel
- Original Theatre Announcement
- Musical Short Nothing Ever Happens
- Trailers
|
| really good
by AByrd1
December 27, 2005 - 8:25 PM PST
|
|
|
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful
|
I watched this the night after watching MGM's not-entirely-dissimilar "Tonight or Never" (1932), where Gloria Swanson plays an operatic diva who, like Garbo in GH, suffers artistically at the beginning of the film and then reaches new heights after finding love. "ToN" is fine, and Swanson's eyes are a marvel, but it's not exactly that these films are cut from the same cloth: "ToN" seems like a warmup for "GH." Garbo arrays herself just as glamourously agains the architecture as Swanson does and glitters even more beautifully throughout (though not much acting is required of her), but here Barrymore and Crawford are also incredibly sympathetic, the subplots (of which there aren't really any in "ToN") are compelling, and the whole thing is actually quite a deep and beautiful treatment of ephemerality, mortality, and the way our surroundings survive us.
The AMG synopsis gets the plot a bit wrong -- who's in love with who, who's sleeping with who & so forth -- but gets the vibe of the film pretty well. |
|
|
GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 7.15)
75 Votes
add to list 
|
|
|
Your cart
GreenCineStaff
MGrandin
© 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. Portions of content provided by All Movie Guide®,
a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.