Hotel Imperial *** (1927, Pola Negri, James Hall, George Siegmann) – Classic Movie Review 10,958

‘Pola Negri loving, hating, fighting, running the gamut of every conceivable human emotion. Never has she given such full play to her genius.’

Director Mauritz Stiller’s 1927 American silent film Hotel Imperial is an impressive Pola Negri war drama released by Paramount Pictures based on the 1917 Hungarian play Színmü négy felvonásban by Lajos Bíró and remade as the talkie Hotel Imperial in 1939 with Isa Miranda and Ray Milland.

The film is set in Austria-Hungary during World War One and stars Pola Negri as Anna Sedlak, a hotel chambermaid in the Hotel Imperial, where she disguises Austrian officer Lieutenant Paul Almasy (James Hall) as a waiter when he hides there after being is separated from his unit behind enemy lines as the invading Russian troops under General Juschkiewitsch (George Siegmann) make the hotel their headquarters. Anna and Paul fall in love, but the general sets his sights on the chambermaid, and Paul must uncover a spy feeding military information to the Russians.

In this good-looking film, Negri is continually captivating and surprising in her starring role as a dancer from the Balkans looking for the man who caused her sister’s death in 1916.

It was made available on video in 2003 and on DVD in 2006 from Grapevine Video (US).

Also in the cast are James Hall, George Siegmann, Max Davidson, Michael Vavitch, Otto Fries, Nicholas Soussanin and Golden Wadhams.

Hotel Imperial is directed by Maurice Stiller, runs 85 minutes, is made by Famous Players-Lasky, is released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Jules Furthman, is shot in black and white by Bert Glennon, and is produced by Adolph Zukor, Jesse L Lasky and Erich Pommer.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,958

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