GRAND HOTEL

US, 1932, 115 minutes, Black and White.
Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, Jean Hersholt, Lewis Stone, Lionel Barrymore.
Directed by Edmund Goulding.

Grand Hotel won the Oscar for the Best Film of 1932, although its director Edmund Goulding was not a winner. Grand Hotel was based on a very popular novel by Vicki Baum and set a pattern for popular entertainment over many decades. A situation is taken, e.g. a hotel or a ship or a plane etc., and many characters assembled. Their lives and backgrounds are sketched in, interesting episodes are presented to highlight their characters and, of course, there is much interaction between the characters.

The hotel was a very good situation for this kind of film. It was very well done and is still enjoyable today. The star cast was also expert and provided Greta Garbo with the occasion for saying that she did want to be alone.
John Barrymore plays with his accustomed suavity and Joan Crawford, early in her career, shows signs of the tough heart-of-gold American girl that she was often to play. Wallace Beery and Lewis Stone are amongst the others in an outstanding cast. Edmund Goulding was a good director over many decades and made such striking films as The Dawn Patrol, the Bette Davis vehicles like Dark Victory, The Great Lie and The Old Maid. He also made The Razor's Edge.

1. Why was this a classic of the 30s? What did you enjoy most about the film? Performance, photography, atmosphere?

2. was it obvious that this was an early sound film? The use of sound? The acting styles and their similarity to silent films? Did this detract from the film at all?

3. Your response to the prologue to the film and its explanation of its style? How has this influenced films over the ensuing decades? Why are omnibus films so appealing to audiences?

4. Why was the audience interested in the doings at the Grand Hotel? Audience response to the Hotel and its life. to the characters and their predicaments? Audience interest or curiosity?

5. It was said that nothing happens at Grand Hotel. How ironic was this comment? How plausible were the events at Grand Hotel? Was this important for this film? How did the hotel serve as a microcosm of the world and the variety of people and problems? As representing the world of the 20s and 30s? The Berline setting and German background? Could the audience identify with particular characters?

6. Who was the central character? with whom could the audience identify most? which character served as a focus for the whole film?

7. The ballerina: the personality and style of Greta Garbo, the myth of her wanting to be alone, as a moody and depressed person, as a skilful ballerina, her life transformed by the Count and his love, the change in her mood and attitude to life, the fact that she did not know of his death, what future did she have?

8. The Count: a gentleman and kind, yet a poor thief, his robbing of Mr. Kringelein and his returning the money, his transforming the life of the ballerina, the irony and pathos of his murder, the fact that he too was alone?

9. Preysing: his obsession with money and his career, his deceit, his deals, the fact that he was a boorish man, his attitude towards Kringelein, his attitude towards Flaemmchen, the ugliness of his life and the brutality of his murder, his wanting to cover up?

10. Flaemmchen: how attractive a woman, Joan Crawford's personality, audience sympathy for her, her role as a secretary, on the make, her attitude towards the Count, her going along with Preysing, her revulsion at the murder, her attitude towards Mr. Kringelein, her support of him?

11. Mr. Kringelein: how interesting and enjoyable a character, his role in the office of Preysing, the class distinctions, his having his money and spending it, his ambitions, eat, drink and be merry, his enjoying himself, friendship of the Count, the gambling? The reality of his sickness and dying, his being robbed and finding the money again? His response to the murder? His future in Paris with Flaemmchen?

12. Did the porter and his anxiety over the baby add to the atmosphere of the film?

13. How well did the film develop interaction between characters, the atmosphere of the hotel and its style, the sombre stories, the humour, the strong emphasis on class distinctions, the heavy emphasis on money?