Grand Hotel is grand in scale with production and cast along with superb acting. The film might be lacking in plot, but makes up for it with the great production and the great chemistry that each of the characters have with each other.

Like all the best ensemble films, this one utilizes its star studded cast perfectly. Crawford and Lionel Barrymore in particular give strong and often quite moving performances.

I really enjoyed the look, sound, and performances of this movie. The plot was simple. There was nothing gripping, but I like character-driven stories, so it was up my alley. The ending was a bit shocking! There was some fantastic, witty dialogue too, that made me giggle. It's good when a plot has us empathise with 'the bad guy'. The actors were great, with one exception (I'll get to that). I loved the Barrymores so much, especially their scenes when they were together. I thought Joan Crawford and Wallace Beery were both incredible. I loved the exchanges between Joan Crawford and John Barrymore and felt some chemistry there. My biggest acting let-down? Garbo. Sorry! She might have been hamming it up deliberately, but with such strong acting performances all around her, she seemed like a fish out of water. There was a bit of a score in this movie (thank goodness!), so I enjoyed that. What I loved the most was some strong cinematography and superb design. The shots of the telephonists and the circular building were outstanding, and the way the camera moved was really nice and felt relatively modern. 8/10.

The granddaddy of the all-star cast movies. A peak into the 1930's.

This was the first movie I think I've ever seen starring Greta Garbo - she is suitably glorious as the slightly-over-the-hill ballerina (shades of Gloria Swanson's future performance in Sunset Boulevard, I think). Interesting also to see the Barrymore brothers both here, particularly since I mainly know Lionel Barrymore from being the heavy-set villain Henry Potter in It's a Wonderful Life. He's barely recognizable here (I know, he is quite a bit younger) as the harmless, goodhearted if bland accountant Otto Kringelein. An engaging story with an all star cast, not entirely predictable either. Well worth the watch.

Admittedly dated but a Must See for any fan of Hollywood's Golden Age. This was a staple of the weekend 온라인카지노추천 Late Show for decades. They didn't make 'em any better back in the Thirties.

It is the only film to win Best Picture without being nominated in any other category. The line, "i want to be alone," by Greta Garbo is considered one of the great lines of all time. Grand Hotel remains an entertaining look back at a bygone Hollywood era. I look at it as the original Ocean's Eleven for its star power, also similar to Gosford Park for its dense structure and stories. The pacing is quick, the acting is eloquent and the stories are actually interesting. It's pure theater.

A series of vignettes featuring some outstanding performances by its ensemble cast, particularly Lionel Barrymore's. I rarely notice the sets in a movie, but Grand Hotel's 1930s art deco motif really stands out.

A really grand film with plenty of fun characters with multiple intersecting stories going in and that old black and white film charm. Plenty of young beautiful women enraptured by grandad aged men which is always wasn't out of place in those times apparently ahem. A good best picture winner, nice to go back and watch.

A classic all star soap opera, set in a glamorous Berlin hotel between world wars. Marvelously entertaining.

With more stars than the sky above, Grand Hotel is a walk into a classic Hollywood time machine. It's a tad dated and there's a ton of overacting, but the film works because of the inspired performances from John Barrymore and Joan Crawford, who outshines Greta Garbo throughout the movie. As the baron/thief with a heart of gold, Barrymore steals the show. He's funny, charming and thoughtful; you can't help rooting for him throughout the film. Crawford, who was well on her way to becoming a top star on the MGM lot, is brilliant as the jaded secretary. Her scenes with Barrymore are flirty, funny, at times philosophical and always captivating. Overall, the film is a guilty pleasure well worth a watch.

The first of the Hollywood tradition of putting multiple stars together in one big picture telling a multitude of shorter interwoven stories--here connected by a location that brings them together . And when two of them are Barrymores, you know it's going to be good, even if a bit melodramatic for our tastes today.

Is that all there is? I was expecting it to have some effect on me. I just found it bland and aimless.

Here's a picture many filmmakers bring up, Grand Hotel, one with multiple stories going on all in a luxurious hotel in Berlin. There's one about a retired ballerina (Greta Garbo), a once-wealthy Baron (John Barrymore), a corrupt, greedy businessman (Wallace Beery), his stenographer (Joan Crawford), and a dying former accountant (Lionel Barrymore). I use the term "stories" kind of loosely, because it's one of these nonlinear movies about the links between these individuals. Everyone in the hotel has a circumstantial crisis and they must ask each other for help, such as the Baron stealing jewelry from the ballerina to repay his debts, the accountant asking the businessman for mercy, and the stenographer asking the businessman to further her career before she can become an actress. My favorite scene is in the lobby desk sequence near the beginning, where it's shot in one take. Of course, being a sucker for long take shots, I love seeing how the hotel is run as the camera focuses on one character after another, reminiscent of shots at the Hot Traxx in Boogie Nights or the Copacabana in Goodfellas. It's also a shame to see Grand Hotel get only one nomination, the one it won for, because the cinematography, the production design, Garbo, Beery, the two Barrymores, even Edmund Goulding's direction should have gotten more recognition. Maybe, the Academy requested each category for a limited number of nominees at the time. Whichever the case, I had a great time watching Grand Hotel and can see the impact it had on later cinema, ask Wes Anderson. Find it on TCM and see what you've been missing. (4 Louisiana Flips out of 5)

This engrossing film focuses on a small passage of time in the lives of a diverse group of characters whose paths intertwine when they reside together at the Grand Hotel in Berlin. All the characters are complex and flawed: a terminally ill accountant and drunkard (Lionel Barrymore), conscious of his squandered existence, at last liberated by the knowledge of his pending death to live out his final days to the full; a kindly gentleman thief (John Barrymore), determined to turn over a new leaf but reluctantly forced to carry out one last job in order to pay a debt to the mob; and a suicidal has-been ballerina (sensitively played by Greta Garbo), painfully aware that her best days are behind her. Joan Crawford is also brilliant as a company stenographer who decides to get ahead by offering a more personal service to the boss. The film, driven by its A-list ensemble cast, is by turns sad, laugh-out-loud funny, touching and tragic. It also contains some of the most skillfully acted drunkard scenes you will probably ever see. This is classic pre-code cinema, and as such is highly recommended.

Beautiful set and great premise is under minded by incoherent story line. Garbo's character serves literally no purpose. Joan Crawford is the star of this movie. Her performance leaps from the screen.

In the canon of Best Picture winners, Grand Hotel stands out from its immediate predecessors on acting alone (with the exception of All Quiet on the Western Front), with some solid performances from the Barrymores, Garbo, and Stone. While the majority of the film is dense character building that doesn't necessarily warrant the amount of time dedicated to it, the final 30 or so minutes is far superior as the plot actually proceeds. The pairing of Dr. Otternschlag and the hotel itself, impartial and cold, monitors of the wide array of patrons and their misdeeds, represents a far more compelling aspect of the film than many of the major characters; Otternschlag is, in effect, the film's T.J. Eckleburg. (3.5/5)

"Grand Hotel, always the same. People come, people go, and nothing ever happens." ...or so it would seem. This is a big and extravagant look at the lives of several people from different backgrounds over the course of two days. The movie tells several different stories using the hotel as a device to intertwine them. Much of the camera work is classic old style Hollywood with extremely tight close-ups that are still reminiscent of the silent films from a few years prior. Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore and Greta ("I want to be alone") Garbo give performances that live up the the hotel's name... Grand!! They are but three of many big name stars of the era who appear. A tad hokey at times, the film is fast paced and a wonderful example of story telling from a bygone era.

Top marks have to be given to art director Cedric Gibbons for his herding of this gaggle of classic Hollywood stars. Goulding's direction is deft with displays of impressive camerawork, notably the overhead shots of the hotel lobby and its concentric floors portraying The Grand Hotel's opulence. The jostle for prominence amongst the ensemble is palpable and exaggerates the melodrama of Greta Garbo's role as the flighty première danseuse, who delivers an undeniably glamorous performance. Joan Crawford is enchanting and intriguing as Flaemmchen, although her character drifts from a fierce flirty femme to a less flattering stereotype throughout the course. Barrymore plays the slick, besotted hotel robber well but leaves one wondering if his allure would really permit the line "I don't suppose you'd take some dictation from me sometime" to be delivered un-slapped. The wheels fall off the narrative toward the end and the audience is left waiting for a twist that never arrives. Nevertheless, there are some interesting social questions raised about money and honour that maintain thoughtful engagement. The casting alone makes this a must-see.

Edmund Goulding's 1932 film Grand Hotel is a slice of bygone Hollywood. It is perhaps now most famous for Greta Garbo's celebrated line "I want to be alone", but at the time its star studded past must have been a real draw and the film was successful enough to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, despite not being nominated in any other category. Based on a stage adaptation of a novel by Vicky Baum, Grand Hotel shows its theatrical roots. It is set entirely in the titular hotel or just outside of it and the story is about a handful of guests staying there over a couple of days and how they interact. Their individual stories unfold and intersect in a melodrama that mixes elements of comedy and tragedy. The film's main problem however is that not all of the characters are equally interesting, with Lionel Barrymore's terminally Otto Kringelein and John Barrymore's aristocrat turned jewel thief Baron Felix von Geigern by the best written. Kringelein provides the film with its heart: determined to spend the rest of his life as more than just a wage-slave, he embraces the luxury of the Grand Hotel and provides both poignancy and comic relief. Kringelein is a fish out of water, resulting in the Baron and stenographer Flaemmchen laughing at him when he enthuses about his room's massive bathroom and the caviar that he has ordered and Barrymore makes him very endearing. Kringelein ultimately triumphs over his boss, Wallace Beery's arrogant, obnoxious businessman Preysing, as he first stands up to him, then reports him to the police for murder and then finally wins the affections of Preysing's stenographer, Joan Crawford's Flaemmchen who leaves the hotel with him promising to find a doctor who can cure his unspecified sickness. The Baron on the other hand is on a reverse trajectory: having arrived at the hotel to steal ballerina Grusinskaya's pearl necklace and thus pay off the criminals he is in debt to, he proves too soft-hearted to do so after he falls madly in love with. He subsequently aborts his attempts to rob Kringelein because the two men have become friends, forcing him to resort to robbing Preysing, who murders him after catching him in the act. Thus, the film reaches both happy and tragic endings. The other characters work less well, with Flaemmchen, Grusinskaya and Preysing far less interestingly written. Their appeal lies instead in the performances of the actors who play them. As Grusinskaya, Greta Garbo gives a moody, melancholy performance as the starlet tired of attention who famously insists "I want to be alone"; she transforms her character's persona after Grusinskaya falls for the Baron, only to get her wish to be alone when he dies. Joan Crawford exploits the enigma of Flaemmchen, giving a likeable but calculating interpretation, which suggests the promise of favours to Preysing in return for access to his money and implies that her partnership with Kringelein at the end is motivated purely by the fact that he offers to take care of him financially. Wallace Beery meanwhile brings an intimidating physical to Preysing, even if the character's business dealings are the least interesting thing in the film. There are few other characters of note, aside from Lewis Stone's Dr Otternschlag whose observation that nothing ever happens in the hotel bookend the film. Although the hotel desk clerk who celebrates the news that he has become a father at the end is a nice touch. The impressive cast isn't the film's only asset however. As well as getting excellent performances out of his actors, Goulding also gets fine work out of his crew. The sets have aged well, whilst William H. Daniels' cinematography includes some great shots, most notably the views down into the lobby which make the scale of hotel apparent and the shots of the Baron climbing along the outside of the hotel. There is lots of ingenious camerawork, for example when the camera looks down on the switchboard operators and pans across them, and Daniels makes good use of the three-hundred and sixty degree desk set. Grand Hotel isn't perfect, and the plot does occasionally drag. But it still has much to offer and if nothing else it is a fascinating slice of Hollywood history.