Grand Hotel ***** (1932, Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore) – Classic Movie Review 1984

Going against conventional Hollywood wisdom, MGM’s trail-blazing multi-story film Grand Hotel (1932) was one of the first all-star vehicles. It was the Oscar winner for Best Picture and became one of the highest grossing pictures. 

Director Edmund Goulding’s 1932 compendium drama Grand Hotel motors on its trail-blazing multi-story format – the model for movies like Hotel, Airport, The VIPs, The Yellow Rolls-Royce, Dead of Night and so on. Going against conventional Hollywood wisdom, it was one of the first all-star vehicles and became one of the highest grossing pictures in film studio history. It follows the fortunes or misfortunes of a cross-section of very different clients checking in to stay at Berlin’s luxurious Grand Hotel.

This incredibly popular 1931-32 Oscar winner for Best Picture was the biggest Hollywood hit of 1932. And it is still extraordinarily entertaining, with an attractive camp and kitsch appeal, thanks to its enduring clutch of stories, memorable characters, clever lines and the expert exploitation of the format. But, above all, it shines thanks to MGM’s golden roster of great stars on parade.

Grand Hotel is often remembered (if at all) as the one in which Greta Garbo plays eccentric dancer Grusinskaya, an unlikely sad ballerina with jerky movements and extraordinarily large feet, and really does say ‘I want to be alone’.

Meirheim (Robert McWade): Where have you been?
Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo): I want to be alone.
Meierheim: I suppose I can cancel the Vienna engagement.
Grusinskaya: I just want to be alone.
Meierheim: You’ll be very much alone, my dear madame.  This is the end. [Leaves angrily]

And again:

Baron Felix von Geigern (John Barrymore): Please let me stay.
Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo): But I want to be alone.
Baron: That isn’t true. You don’t want to be alone. You were in despair just now. I can’t leave you now. You mustn’t cry anymore.  You must forget.

But it’s Joan Crawford as the humble and homely but alluring hotel stenographer Flaemmchen, John Barrymore as Baron von Geigern who is broke and trying to steal Grusinskaya’s pearls, Wallace Beery as the powerful German businessman General Director Preysing and especially Lionel Barrymore as Preysing’s dying, penny-pinching book-keeper Otto Kringelein who easily take the acting honours and make the movie a special treat.

The ensemble star cast never actually all appear together. Crawford has no scenes with Garbo, but said ‘Hello, Miss Garbo’ when the two passed in the hallway. Garbo never responded, so Crawford gave up. Garbo then stopped Crawford as she walked silently past her, and asked: ‘Aren’t you going to say something to me?’

MGM throws in a grand production and a grand support cast comprised of Jean Hersholt (as Senf the Porter). Lewis Stone (as the usually drunk Doctor Otternschlag), Tully Marshall as Gerstenkorn, Mary Carlisle as Mrs Hoffman, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Basil Roding, Frank Conroy, Lee Phelps, Herbert Evans, Rolfe Sedan, John Davidson, Mary Carlisle, Sam McDaniel, Edwin Maxwell, Murray Kinnell, Morgan Wallace, Rafaela Ottiano, Purnell B Pratt and Robert McWade as Meirheim.

Garbo said: ‘I never said, “I want to be alone”. I only said, “I want to be left alone.”’ But actually, she did. Garbo lived the last few years of her life in seclusion, though she still took daily walks through Central Park with close friends.’ Garbo was Adolf Hitler’s favourite actress but she helped Britain during WWII by identifying influential Nazi sympathizers in Stockholm and by providing introductions and carrying messages for British agents.

The movie is photographed by Garbo’s trusted cinematographer William H Daniels. Throughout her MGM career, Garbo insisted that Daniels was her cinematographer. William A Drake’s screenplay is based on Vicki Baum’s novel and play Menschen im Hotel. Baum based it partly on a real-life scandal at a hotel involving a stenographer and an industrial magnate, and partly on her own experiences as a chambermaid at two Berlin hotels. Grand Hotel is now also adapted as a Broadway stage musical.

Garbo was so carried away with the scene that she continued kissing Barrymore for three full minutes after Goulding yelled cut. 

Crawford was annoyed at Garbo’s insistence on top billing and arrived late on set and played Garbo’s rival Marlene Dietrich records between shots to upset her. In place of Garbo at the Hollywood premiere, the very un-Garbo-like Wallace Beery appeared on stage in drag, mimicking her with her line: ‘I want to be alone’.

It remains the only Best Picture Oscar winner not to be nominated for any other Academy Awards.

Mary Carlisle died on 1 August 2018, aged 104.

Mary Carlisle, who plays the giggling young honeymooner Mrs Hoffman, died on 1 August 2018, aged 104. She made 65 films, including The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi (1933), This Side of Heaven (1934), Doctor Rhythm (1938), Tip-Off Girls (1938) and her final film, Dead Men Walk (1943). RIP.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1984

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