The 5th
Academy Awards was certainly a notable ceremony in that Grand Hotel has been
the only winner of Best Picture that hadn't been nominated for anything else.
The most nominations went to Arrowsmith and The Champ with four each, with Bad
Girl and The Champ taking away the most awards with two each.
Directed
by Edmund Goulding, Grand Hotel had an all-star cast consisting of Greta Garbo,
John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone,
and Jean Hersholt. What’s more, The
Michigan Daily once called it the original Ocean’s Eleven for the amount of
stars it had.
The film
opens as disfigured WWI veteran Doctor Otternschlag, a permanent resident of
the Berlin Grand Hotel observes that “People come and go. Nothing ever
happens.” However, his musing is quickly proven wrong.
Baron
Felix von Geigern, a card player and jewel thief who squandered his fortune
befrientds Otto Kringelein, a dying accountant who has decided to spend the rest
of his life in comfort. Kringelein’s former employer, General Director
Preysing, is also at the hotel in order to close a deal and hires Flaemmchen, a
stenographer, for help. She wants to be an actress and is willing to offer
Preysing more than typing in order to advance her career. The hotel is also
host to Grusinskaya, a Russian ballerina whose career is dying. High strung and
on the verge of a breakdown, she famously says she wants to be alone, but the
Baron is in her room to steal her jewelry and as she returns from her
performance, she talks to herself before suicide. The Baron reveals himself and
in conversation, she becomes attracted to him.
The next
morning, the Baron is repentant and returns the jewels. She forgives his crime
and invites him to Vienna. He accepts.
The
Baron then joins Kringelein and Flaemmchen at the hotel bar, where she cons
Kringelein into dancing with her. Preysing interrupts and demands to cut in.
Irritated, Kringelein tells Preysing off. He attacks Kringelein. The Baron,
noticing that Kringelen has money, gets the man into a card game to get money
to pay his way out of the criminal group he had been with. Kriegelen wins the
pot and gets drunk, dropping his wallet. The Baron picks it up, but when
Kringelein searches for it in a panic, the Baron, who has become fond of the
man, returns the wallet, pretending to have found it.
As part
of the deal, Preysing needs to travel to London and asks Flaemmchen to join
him. Later, when the two are in her room, Preysing sees the Baron’s shadow
going through his belongings. He confronts the Baron, the two struggle and
Preysing kills the Baron by bludgeoning him with the telephone. Flaemmchen
enters and sees the Baron’s body and tells Kringelein. He confronts Preysing,
who insists it was in self defense. However, Kringelein calls the police and
Preysing is arrested
Grusinskaya,
unaware of the Baron’s death, leaves for the train station, expecting to see
the Baron there. At the same time, Kringelein offers to take care of
Flaemmchen, who suggests they go to Paris to cure him. When they leave,
Otternschlag again observes that “people come and go. Nothing ever happens.”
Where
Cimarron had a plot that felt like it should have been its own movie, Grand
Hotel is one of those films with a main plot formed by conjoining subplots that
not only works, but works well. At no point does it feel like something is
tacked on for the sake of anything. It really all does feel fluid. The film
sets up all the plots very well too, with most of the characters involved all
on telephones having a conversation about their respective role.
Speaking
of the characters, they are all done very well and feel like they all belong. Out of all of them, the Baron and Grusinskaya are probably the most relatable. He’s
someone who wants to have a change of heart. She’s just exhausted from so many
performances and just wants to be left alone. In the end though neither get
what they want. He can’t leave his vice and it becomes the end of him and she
continues to perform. There’s also some Otternschlag in all of us as well. Who hasn't made an observation only to be proven completely wrong? I've heard
something along the lines of what he’s said before.
The film
is not without some minor problems though. There’s some bad edits scattered throughout
the film and there are some areas where it drags. However, the edits don’t
detract and the dragging quickly corrects back to its original pace.
I’m
pretty sure this won Best Picture due to the amount of stars it had.
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