Grand Hotel: 1932

 "People come, people go, nothing ever happens."

Number five in the Best Picture lineup is Grand Hotel, directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Greta Garbo, John and Lionel Barrymore, and Joan Crawford. The story follows a melancholy ballerina (Garbo), a bankrupt baron (John Barrymore), a dying accountant (Lionel Barrymore), and a beautiful stenographer (Crawford) whose lives all converge during their stay at the Grand Hotel in Berlin. 

For having as legendary a cast as Grand Hotel has, the only actor's work I had seen prior to watching this movie was Lionel Barrymore's, and only as Mr. Potter in It's A Wonderful Life. This was my first experience seeing Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, and Joan Crawford work, and I can only say that I wish I had seen any of their work sooner. Well, the Barrymore's and Joan Crawford's, at least; Garbo's performance left me a little confused. Her work seemed the least true; she moved around so awkwardly and always seemed so flamboyantly melancholy, that is, until she was flailing about flamboyantly giddily. It probably didn't help that her story was never fully explained - her maid said in the beginning that something has been weighing on her nerves all night, and that was pretty much the end of that backstory. We never find out what is weighing on her nerves, or what happened to make her not want to dance anymore. All we know is that she's temperamental and erratic; HOWEVER, as soon as she even looks in John Barrymore's direction, her performance becomes more true. I'm late to the Barrymore game, but holy sh*t, those Barrymore boys can ACT. Both of them were so incredibly present and giving to their scene partners, that every actor's performance became truer and more connected simply because John and Lionel were in the room. 

The beginning of the film opens on a series of phone calls, and that phone call montage was written in such a way that didn't immediately reveal whose story lines would be important and which ones, if any, were put there purely for the purpose of making the hotel seem busy and bustling. Due to that device, and the fact that none of the main characters had a dramatic entrance, I wasn't emotionally committed to anybody until about thirty or forty minutes into it. The beginning was so overwhelmed and inundated with information and character introductions and establishing the world of the hotel that I was surprised at how naturally and all at once I fell in love with the characters and their inner lives. I was rooting for each of them to win their own objectives, flaws and all. My heart ached for Kringelein when people took advantage of him, and soared when he stood up for himself to his old boss, Mr. Preysing; I was rooting for Miss Flaemmchen and the Baron to be together, and was empowered by her spunk and her incredibly strong sense of self. Any time the Baron had the opportunity to take advantage of those around him, I held my breath; but any time he found his conscience and did right by the people who loved and believed in him, I breathed a sigh of relief. I'll be frank, though: I kept forgetting about Garbo's storyline. It only intertwined with John Barrymore's story, and it seemed to me like she only existed so that there would be a string of pearls for him to steal so that his character flaw would be revealed, and they didn't know how to write her character out of the rest of the film. Several times when Madame Grusinskaya entered, I found myself saying, "Oh yeah, that's right," to myself because I had actually forgotten about her character.

Without revealing too many spoilers, I'll say that the story took a dramatic turn about thirty minutes from the end. At this point I was so invested in the story and the characters that I was in denial. I will say that apart from one character, everyone (in my own personal opinion) got what they deserved, for better or worse. The film ends with the characters who have become welcome and familiar to the audience ending their stay at the Grand Hotel in Berlin, and a new cast of characters checking in. And the same line spoken by the doctor in the first five minutes of the film is repeated: "People come, people go, nothing ever happens."

At the beginning of the movie, I would have bet money that Spectacle is what won Grand Hotel Best Picture; the costumes that clearly distinguished class and profession, the set of the lobby and front desk and individual rooms, and the lighting effects of the elevator were all beautiful, unique, and impressive. However, the world of the hotel was quickly overshadowed--which is no small feat, I might add-- by the richness of the characters, their relationships to each other, and their individual objectives. Character and Story are masterfully woven together in this movie, so I think they play an equal part in winning this movie the single Academy Award it was nominated for, but if one has to be the ultimate factor, I would put my money on Character. I defy anyone who watches this movie to not fall in love with at least one of the guests at the Grand Hotel.

Edmund Goulding's Grand Hotel is easily my favorite of the five Best Picture winners I've watched so far. My current ranking is as follows:

1. Grand Hotel

2. All Quiet On The Western Front

3. Wings

4. The Broadway Melody

5. Cimarron

I am just about to venture into some familiar territory with It Happened One Night, starring Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable, but just before that is Cavalcade!