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Perhaps less a true film than a series of star-studded vignettes, Grand Hotel still remains an entertaining look back at a bygone Hollywood era.
All Critics (37) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (32) | Rotten (5) | DVD (8)
Most of the players give impossibly bad performances-they chew up the camera. But if you want to see what screen glamour used to be, and what, originally, "stars" were, this is perhaps the best example of all time. Jan 3, 2018 | Full Review…
Most of the players give impossibly bad performances-they chew up the camera. But if you want to see what screen glamour used to be, and what, originally, "stars" were, this is perhaps the best example of all time.
Pauline Kael
Each and every performer in the screened "Grand Hotel" does a remarkable piece of work. To us, Garbo is the supreme of magnificence. Feb 17, 2015 | Full Review…
Each and every performer in the screened "Grand Hotel" does a remarkable piece of work. To us, Garbo is the supreme of magnificence.
Irene Thirer
As it is, the hotel is well filled. Feb 17, 2009 | Full Review…
As it is, the hotel is well filled.
TIME Staff
A commercial picture of high box office potential, first by assembling the most impressive aggregation so far of strictly Bradstreet screen names, and then by filming the play practically unaltered in form. Jan 29, 2008 | Full Review…
A commercial picture of high box office potential, first by assembling the most impressive aggregation so far of strictly Bradstreet screen names, and then by filming the play practically unaltered in form.
Alfred Rushford Greason
Less effective as a movie than as a dazzling parade of star iconography. Dec 12, 2006 | Full Review…
Less effective as a movie than as a dazzling parade of star iconography.
Dave Kehr
The Nashville of its day, Grand Hotel's reputation has outgrown its actual quality Jun 24, 2006 | Full Review…
The Nashville of its day, Grand Hotel's reputation has outgrown its actual quality
Andrew Nickolds
A tremendously sturdy, thoroughly unimaginative, and massively entrancing sample of the early-'30s Hollywood machine doing everything exactly right. Jun 4, 2015 | Rating: 8/10 | Full Review…
A tremendously sturdy, thoroughly unimaginative, and massively entrancing sample of the early-'30s Hollywood machine doing everything exactly right.
Tim Brayton
The camera movements and production values are elaborate and intriguing and engaging. There is a sense of activity, of bustle in every frame. Mar 24, 2014 | Full Review…
The camera movements and production values are elaborate and intriguing and engaging. There is a sense of activity, of bustle in every frame.
Witney Seibold
The star-filled melodrama that is Grand Hotel became a blueprint for almost every glossy Hollywood soap opera that followed it. Jan 13, 2014 | Rating: 5/5 | Full Review…
The star-filled melodrama that is Grand Hotel became a blueprint for almost every glossy Hollywood soap opera that followed it.
Jo Berry
This is Golden Era Hollywood-studio style at its most opulent. Feb 16, 2013 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…
This is Golden Era Hollywood-studio style at its most opulent.
Total Film Staff
How thoroughly does Joan Crawford own Grand Hotel? She makes Greta Garbo superfluous. Feb 27, 2012 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
How thoroughly does Joan Crawford own Grand Hotel? She makes Greta Garbo superfluous.
Josh Larsen
The first great portmanteau film. Jan 22, 2010 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…
The first great portmanteau film.
Sky Staff
There's drama afoot in the exclusive halls of the Grand Hotel as the rich and famous cavort to their wont and pleasure. Filmed pre-code, some of yhe drama boldly crosses over into salacious territory: witness as Joan Crawford fields the age old query as to whether she like to "take dictation", and see Greta Garbo dance around in an all but sheer nightgown, heavens! There's very little subtlety here, old style written as if 3rd grade grammar school printing, but, per Thalberg undoubtedly, still a quality presentation. A must for history buffs.
Super Reviewer
The kind of wholesome production made in those days but with a fabulous constellation of stars to make it an unforgettable Hollywood classic - especially Joan Crawford and Lionel Barrymore, who are so great that they even manage to outshine the rest of the cast.
Various guests, including an aging dancer, a dying accountant, a business magnate, a beautiful stenographer, and a thief, stay at a posh German hotel. It takes a long time - perhaps twenty minutes - for this film to get started, and during that exposition I thought that director Edmund Goulding would attempt to pass off the hotel as the main character. However, once the film realizes that John Barrymore and Greta Garbo are in it, it picks up steam on the strength of the performances by these two exceptional talents. The rest of the characters and the setting find their place, and the film gives off an amiable charm. Later it turns sad, but not oppressively so. Like Nashville and other Robert Altman oeuvre, the film portrays little dramas that might amount only to a recognition of the variance of life and the mercurial nature of fate, but the later director (Altman) developed these themes more clearly and effectively. Overall, once the film is on its way, it can be charming, but it's too long a wait.
If I'm not mistaken, this is like the grandaddy of all star-studded ensemble films that features intersecting characters and storylines. The story takes place in the present day (early 1930s) at the Grand Hotel in Berlin. It's a lavish place, and, despite someone saying that is a place where "nothing ever happens" that proves to be far from the truth. when the story begins ,some of the people caught up in events going on include a destitue Baron (John Barrymore) who spends his time gambling and occasionally thieving jewels, a meek accountant (Lionel Barrymore) who, after learning he is dying decides to spend his remaining days living a life of luxury, his former employer (Wallace Beery) an industrialist at the hotel trying to close an important deal, a stenographer (Joan Crawford) who aspires ot be an actress, and a Russian Ballerina (Greta Garbo) on the verge of a complete meltdown. Here's some notable bits of info about the movie: it is so far the only film to win the Oscar for Best Picture that wasn't nominated for any other award. Also, Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford (the two biggest stars at the time)never share any screen time together as it was believed having them do so would disasterously reult in each one trying to outshine the other. If you wanna see what a classic Old Hollywood picture (and Old Hollywood royalty) look like, then give this a watch. It's a pretty good little yarn and a fine example of Class A filmmaking from that era.
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