Grand Hotel [1932] [DVD]

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Customer reviews

review by: annie date: 2007-01-26 rating:
The two most beautiful women of hollywood in one film
Greta and Joan loverly. This is one of my favorite films, Garbo as an over emotional ballerina Grusinskaya and Joan as a typist Flaemmchen, both fall fron John Barrymore who plays The Baron. Things don't end happy except for Lionel Barrrymore who play Otto Kringelein an ill old man who leaves the hotel at the end with beautiful Flaemmchen.

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review by: date: 2004-03-03 rating:
Wonderful. 10 *
Wonderful performances and photography. I am still amazed at how MGM could build film sets like that (the hotel set was apparently the largest ever built in those times).brThe story cannot fail to touch you and the extra DVD menu brings you back to the premier night with Crawford's arrival atbrthe Chinese Theatre. It might not be Garbo's 'deepest' role but she cannot fail to move you even without speaking or to make you smile with a sometimes over dramatized performance that fits perfectly with the times and the character played.

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review by: date: 2004-02-24 rating:
Garbo lets it down
One of the most legendary efforts of early Hollywood talkies, 'Grand Hotel' fails to be completely satisfactory three quarters of a century later. This is the predecessor of all those films where a number of very different people meet are thrown together on a rather small location, in this case a hotel in Berlin in the Weimar years, and interact. Essentially a performer's kind of vehicle. You might even ask yourself if this is where Robert Altman got it all from.brThe camera in 'Grand Hotel' is on a constant move, but the drama cannot avoid a certain theatrical stiffness. Dialogue is wonderful, both in witty and dramatic scenes, but it's the acting, or rather the charisma of the performers that is this film's raison d'être.brThe two Barrymore brothers shine as the desperately pennyless baron (John B) and the terminally ill John Doe (Lionel B), and Joan Crawford is sassy and touching as the secretary who sells her various services without self-pity, clearheaded in her effort to make ends meet. brGreta Garbo, stunning in her close-ups as the temperamental Russian ballerina, is a bit much to take in her melodramatic style of acting that seems way over the top today. Strangely enough she is the only one in the cast who actually overdoes it, which is saying a lot about acting techniques in those days.brThe extras are interesting and to the point, but the film will probably only please aficionados of the period.


review by: date: 2001-11-06 rating:
A Dated Masterpiece.
I bought this movie solely for the purpose of seeing Greta Garbos performance as well as Joan Crawfords, what I found was an interesting sample of Hollywoods golden age, at its very best! The story covers several people and how their lives not only mingle as the movie draws to its close, but how their lives are changed forever, but not all being happy endings. Garbo and Crawford steal the show, but the male cast lend strong support also. The one aspect of the film is that it has not quite stood the test of time, though it is still excellent watching and the first star vehicle ever in Hollywood (it was later equalled with "Dinner at 8" starring Marie Dressler) and lends itself to be the finest of its kind. Whether watching it for a star or for its screenplay, it makes riveting watching throughout. It won an Oscar for best picture defeating such movies as "Shanghai Express".

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