Grand Hotel is a bit like MGM showing off to the rest of the motion picture studios, flexing how they were the only movie studio in 1931 to turn a profit. MGM, under the careful watch of studio head Louis B. Meyer, had a carefully cultivated reputation for having more stars than there are in the heavens above and an understanding of how to utilize them. MGM pictures had to be glamorous. Their mentality was that people who went to the movies were looking for escapism, especially during the Great Depression, so people had to be smartly dressed and impeccably well groomed, even if the realities of their characters’ condition didn’t align with that. It was all part of the magic of the movies.
In the early 30s, it was customary to have no more than two major movie stars in any single film, often only one. As actors from this period were on salary, this was not a money-saving measure but a way to maximize how many star-powered films were being produced at any given time. The idea of an ensemble picture loaded with the biggest stars of the time was virtually unheard of. Grand Hotel was an exception to this. It was made to showcase the top talent that MGM had on their lot, making it an event picture that was sure to bring in the audiences. It was also based on a popular 1930 stage play of the same name, which in turn was based on the 1929 novel Menschen im Hotel by Vicki Baum. Both the stage play and the feature film were adapted by playwright William A. Drake; this would ultimately be his best-known work.
While audiences were attracted to seeing the greatest stars of the day, there was one other thing they went to the movies for: alcohol. 1932 was in the heart of Prohibition in America, and a large percentage of the United States’ population had no access to it. People would go to the movies to enjoy alcohol vicariously, by watching the performers consume it. As Grand Hotel takes place in Germany, the characters are free to imbibe in spirits, and American audiences were free to watch them.
With big names comes big egos, too. That meant that there was a lot of posturing on the part of the cast. John and Lionel Barrymore were siblings and hadn’t really worked together in film until Grand Hotel. With John’s recent hiring by MGM this gave the siblings a chance to finally be seen on screen together, something that didn’t really happen again afterwards. Their shared scenes are hilarious if you are really paying attention to their acting; each is trying to upstage the other. It makes for some humorous interactions whenever they share the screen. It’s also very obvious that Joan Crawford did not like working with Wallace Beery and is unable to disguise this in her performance. On more than one occasion, her dislike can be seen on her face, even in moments when the scene doesn’t call for her character to feel this way.
Greta Garbo didn’t even want to be in the film, initially. She felt that she didn’t fit the mold of an aged ballerina on the outs with the stage. On top of that, her contract specified top billing, as did the other A-listers in this film. To try and get around this issue, there was an appeal to her ego that she would be billed just by her last name—she hated her first name—and she agreed. But when it came time to sign the contract, more drama ensued, and it almost didn’t happen. She is practically in an entirely different movie, acting so over-the-top that it probably played better in theaters than it does on a television. It’s a bold, but sometimes overly dramatic, performance.
Wallace Beery also didn’t want to be in the film. He was at the top of his game in 1932, starred in two Academy-lauded pictures, The Big House and The Champ, in the last two years. These two pictures, along with a slew of other solid films, pulled him out of a downward spiral attributed to a difficult transition from silent pictures and made him a star again. But Wallace was a difficult man to be around and was known for his violent outbursts. Many of his co-stars didn’t like being around him, especially Joan Crawford, who shared the most screen time with him. He felt his character was unsympathetic, which is true, but he ultimately agreed to the picture after being promised he would be the only performer on-screen with a German accent.
Of note, too, was the way Lionel Barrymore had to be photographed. If you pay close attention whenever he is on screen, there is an obvious softness to the way he is lit. This was done to accommodate his habit of drinking heavily in the evenings. While it isn’t reported that he ever showed up on set drunk, he was usually hung over from the previous nights’ imbibing, and the soft lighting helped with the headaches.
The premise of the film is that the Grand Hotel seemingly never has much excitement going on, yet behind the scenes, the exact opposite is true. Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo) is struggling with depression and a lack of motivation as she is being called upon to perform on the stage. Baron Felix von Gaigern (John Barrymore) is in debt to some shady characters and has started watching Grusinskaya, looking for an opportunity to steal her pearls to pay off the debt. Instead, he has fallen for her, and she for him, and refuses to take advantage of her, instead figuring he can get the money elsewhere. Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford) is a stenographer and art model (aka nude model) hired by the boisterous and ill-mannered General Director Preysing (Wallace Beery) to take dictation while he is trying to make a deal happen.
Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore) is an employee of Preysing who is at the hotel for his own reasons. He has learned that he is dying and has taken his life savings with him with the intent of living out his remaining time in luxury. Throughout the course of the film, Baron Felix meets the others, has opportunities to take money from them, sometimes offered and sometimes not, but always his conscience gets the better of him. We learn he is running out of time to come up with the cash, but he never seems so desperate as to steal or take money from those he likes. The obvious conclusion to this story is that he will attempt to steal it from Preysing, but when he attempts that, it ends badly. He is the most interesting character in the film, and when he is gone, the movie loses a lot of steam.
Because this is an ensemble film, it never spends too much time on any one character, with the exception of Baron Felix, who spends time with nearly everyone else in the main cast. Most everyone else gets a scene or two to bounce off each other, too, but not to the degree the Baron does. The sole exception is Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo, who never share a scene together. This is an odd exclusion, especially after a test screening demanded more Garbo, and her role was beefed up for the final release.
Grand Hotel holds the distinction of being the only Best Picture winner to not be nominated in any other category. Other nominees have had Best Picture be the sole nominee but not the winner of the year. None of the actors were nominated, nor the screenplay or any of the production departments. Voting on the nominees wasn’t done the same way as it is now, and we’ll never know how close it may have come to having any other nominations; that’s lost to the past. It’s an oddity that makes Grand Hotel unique on the list of Best Picture winners.
This is not the most lively of films. When I saw it originally in the late 1990s, I found it completely forgettable. But revisiting it for the first time, today, I found so much more to it than I remembered. There is a good story that is easy to follow, and it is hardly forgettable. We get that wonderful moment when Garbo cries out “I want to be alone,” something she would become famous for. That is from this movie. The beginning and ending of the film are punctuated with the observation that nothing happens at the Grand Hotel. That’s of course not true. A lot happens; you just have to be paying attention to catch it.
Academy Award Nomination:
Outstanding Production: Irving Thalberg (won)
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Release Date: April 12, 1932
Running Time: 112 Minutes
Not Rated
Starring: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, and Jean Hersholt
Directed By: Edmund Goulding
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