Rating: 
Summary: GRAND ENTERTAINMENT.....
Review: The Best Picture of 1931-2 "Grand Hotel" deserved it's Oscar and deserves it's place in history as a forerunner of star-studded films to come. The cast alone is worth watching the film for. But the film stands on it's own as well and is smoothly done considering the intertwining stories of various people whose paths (and fates) cross in that posh Berlin establishment. Greta Garbo as a depressed ballerina is one reason to see this but there's John and Lionel Barrymore in great roles, Joan Crawford as an ambitious stenographer with moral issues, Wallace Beery and other recognizable actors in character roles. Warner Bros. has done a good job with the DVD print so this is definitely a collector's item. There are some amazing interior shots inside the hotel with a wonderful art deco look to them. This hotel where "nothing ever happens" is a must for vintage classic film lovers. It's a rare treasure that's been wonderfully preserved for future film lovers to enjoy. See it for a classic look at what going to the movies in the 30's used to be about.
Rating: 
Summary: A 5-star Movie in a 3-star DVD package
Review: The extra features on this DVD edition are highly desirable -- get the DVD for the features, but get a recent VHS tape for a better print. The DVD release is so grainy it's fuzzy and often seems out-of-focus. Contrast is murky is many scenes. In one specific scene: when Joan Crawford enters a dark room and discovers Beery standing over the baron's corpse; the grim heaviness of the textures and depth of shadows, the stark horror on Crawford's face -- these are lost in the fuzzy grain of the DVD but are clearly preserved on VHS. Having seen this film many times on the big screen and on tape, it appears that the DVD seriously lacks the smooth, almost lush visual quality of earlier issues. This is also one of those old-line films that looks gorgeous on a big theater screen but suffers dramatically on smaller devices. Despite the shortcomings of the DVD, this is still the grande ol' Grand Hotel of yore, a relic (but a magnificent one) of late Victorian melodrama (and dig Rachmaninoff in the background during Garbo's scenes!). But I'd still advise the VHS tape if you want the rich graphics of the original. It also appears that the master for this transfer, whatever its source, has visible physical defects that I don't see on earlier tapes. The 2-channel DVD sound is not representative of the weighty mono original, has a clearly audible hiss and too much treble. The sexy undertone of Garbo's voice is missing here, as is J. Barrymore's dramatic baritone (Compare scene 8 on the DVD when Barrymore mutters "I don't like your tone", with the VHS version -- audibly, the sound of that line on the tape is more darkly effective). The look and sound of the DVD fail to convey the unique, all-important "deco" qualities that somehow add so much to the original film's overall effect. I'd suggest that the VHS edition is something most classic movie fans will appreciate more than they would the DVD. An aside: originally, Garbo didn't want to share star honors with Crawford out of fear that Crawford would diminish Garbo's role. Garbo was partially correct: Crawford steals the show, but Garbo is still a sight to behold.
Rating:
Summary: A 5-star Movie in a 3-star DVD package
Review: The extra features on this DVD edition are highly desirable -- get the DVD for the features, but get a recent VHS tape for a better print. The DVD release is so grainy it's fuzzy and often seems out-of-focus. Contrast is murky is many scenes. In one specific scene: when Joan Crawford enters a dark room and discovers Beery standing over the baron's corpse; the grim heaviness of the textures and depth of shadows, the stark horror on Crawford's face -- these are lost in the fuzzy grain of the DVD but are clearly preserved on VHS. Having seen this film many times on the big screen and on tape, it appears that the DVD seriously lacks the smooth, almost lush visual quality of earlier issues. This is also one of those old-line films that looks gorgeous on a big theater screen but suffers dramatically on smaller devices. Despite the shortcomings of the DVD, this is still the grande ol' Grand Hotel of yore, a relic (but a magnificent one) of late Victorian melodrama (and dig Rachmaninoff in the background during Garbo's scenes!). But I'd still advise the VHS tape if you want the rich graphics of the original. It also appears that the master for this transfer, whatever its source, has visible physical defects that I don't see on earlier tapes. The 2-channel DVD sound is not representative of the weighty mono original, has a clearly audible hiss and too much treble. The sexy undertone of Garbo's voice is missing here, as is J. Barrymore's dramatic baritone (Compare scene 8 on the DVD when Barrymore mutters "I don't like your tone", with the VHS version -- audibly, the sound of that line on the tape is more darkly effective). The look and sound of the DVD fail to convey the unique, all-important "deco" qualities that somehow add so much to the original film's overall effect. I'd suggest that the VHS edition is something most classic movie fans will appreciate more than they would the DVD. An aside: originally, Garbo didn't want to share star honors with Crawford out of fear that Crawford would diminish Garbo's role. Garbo was partially correct: Crawford steals the show, but Garbo is still a sight to behold.
Rating:
Summary: Not that Great....
Review: The movie is relentlessly grim, even in it's lighter moments. Garbo and John Barrymore's hammy scenes together are embarrassing.
But John is really endearing in his scenes with brother Lionel Barrymore. Also, Joan Crawford (!) gives the most understated and brilliant performance of the entire cast.
Worth a look, but as a whole is a little heavy-handed.
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Film
Review: There a few films that like a great song that can be heard over and over again and never get old. For me it is this movie. I love every single thing about this movie. The acting, the characters, the writing, the cinematography, the music...Everything. I wish I could live in that world with those people. This is one of those movies that is important to me because I believe in the characters. I want them all to be okay in the end. I love them. That is a very rare feeling for a film to leave with you. "Grand Hotel...People coming...Going...Nothing ever happens." A masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: You have to see this one!
Review: This is a classic film that will no doubt hold your attention the entire time it is on the screen. With stars like the devastatingly gorgeous Greta Garbo and the suave John Barrymore, how could it not? The film also stars Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery and Joan Crawford. It's all about the goings-on at a swanky Berlin hotel, where nothing ever happens. But by watching this film one can clearly see that that is quite the opposite. This is a fantastic film that provides not only "grand" entertainment but also allows us to really get to know the characters as if we were staying at the hotel ourselves and observing them.
Rating:
Summary: Reserve Me a Room!
Review: This is one my all-time favorite delights: MGM at its peak as the glamour studio of the world! Movie immortals at their peaks, too: Garbo, unforgettable as the fading ballerina; a fantastic Joan Crawford, warm, sensual, adorable, far from the wooden zombie she became by the seventies; John Barrymore, dashing, charming, just before his slide into acute alcoholism. On and on. Adrian designed the unforgettable gowns and dresses for la Garbo and Crawford. This was only a prelude to the phenomenal gowns, capes, fur-lined wintercoats, hats, gloves, boots he was to create for Garbo that same year in her masterpiece, "Mata Hari." I go into detail about both these classics in my book on old Hollywood, "The Kiss of King Kong." Of all the stars in this movie, it's Crawford who steals the spotlight with her poignant scene with the dying Grindelein (Lionel Barrymore)when she takes over the phone and, barely able to keep her voice from breaking, orders two train tickets to Paris. What a show! No wonder so many of us had much rather watch these golden classics when movies were made by small groups of geniuses: Adrian, cameraman William Daniels, directors like Edmund Goulding, true stars like Garbo, Barrymore, Crawford, when we get nothing but garbage today like "American Beauty" "Dude, Who STole My Car" and "Dracula 2000".
Rating:
Summary: One of the great films!!!!! A MUST SEE for movie buffs
Review: This is one of the greatest films there is. With all of those great early films stars how could it not be!!! In this hotel where "nothing ever happens" a lonely dancer falls in love with a jewel thief who is later killed by a ruthless business man who wants to get his secretary in the sack and the jewel theif just needs some money but he can't get it from the sick but wealthy worker who is staying there too. That is just some of what this great movie has to offer. It has one of the greatest acting ensembles ever put together. It is hard to beat this one. Get it NOW!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Not nearly as good as the book...
Review: This is probably unfair to say, because the book "Grand Hotel" was based on has been out of print for decades and is incredibly hard to find, but this blockbuster Oscar-winning classic film is NOTHING compared to Vicki Baum's 1930 original German novel, "People in a Hotel". I happened across the book in a dusty corner of a dusty used bookstore purely on a lark, never having seen the film, and didn't stop reading until the last page. It was one of the most moving, beautifully-written novels I've ever read; Vicki Baum's grasp of human nature, from bellhops to barons, is astonishing, and the writing (with assist from translator Basil Creighton) is heartbreaking and thrilling. Just check out this little passage. Grusinskaya (played by Greta Garbo in the movie), the aging, despondent fading-star ballerina, has just finished a dance:
"Curtain and applause. There was even fairly vigorous applause considering how empty the theater was and how few there were to clap. 'Encore?' asked Grusinskaya without stirring from her pose. 'No,' whispered Pimenov in a loud and desperate whisper from the wings. The applause was over. It was over. Grusinskaya still lay where she was for a few minutes like a flake of foam, just as she had died in her dance and with the dust of the stage on her hands and arms and temples. For the first time in her life there was no encore for this dance. I can do no more, she thought. No, I have done enough. I can do no more."
Unfortunately this heartbreaking scene wasn't in the movie; it gave volumes of explanation as to why Grusinskaya was suicidal, so without it, Garbo just comes off as a melodramatic nutjob. There are many such scenes from the book that were chopped up or cut out altogether that would have added so much, and without them the film just jumps from plotpoint to plotpoint with little rhyme or reason. I know that 90% of any book has to go when being translated from book to movie---and I know that Vicki Baum herself wrote the screenplay, so it was hardly a hack job---but it just seems that so much beauty was packed into so little time that there was no way to really connect with these amazing characters. The acting was brilliant, of course (although why in hell ultra-American Wallace Beery had a German accent when nobody else did I have no idea), but it just left me sad and angered that this magnificent novel, now all but forgotten, leaves its only trace on the world with this watchable but hugely flawed movie. It could have been so much more. If you ever find the book, no matter what condition it's in, BUY IT. Maybe someday if enough people squawk, it'll come back into print.
Rating:
Summary: dated yet still very enjoyable
Review: this movie was made in the very early 30s and the first of its kind, casting five of mgms greatest stars in the one movie. Grand Hotel chronicles about three night in the berlin "Grand Hotel" and with it comes attempted suicide, murder, and sex. Garbo, who doesnt appear for some twenty minutes, is a depressed and lonely ballerina and is considering suicide, only to be interrupted by hotel thief John Gilbert. Joan Crawford is a sophisticated stenographer who has many other qualities, and recieves the interest of several gentle men, enter wallace barry. the production won a well deserved oscar for best picture and although its onscreen technology is dated, it is still interesting to watch. Garbo, as ever, steals the picture with her very presence, nmaking the role her very one, but is challenged by the luminous joan crawford who sparkles with enthusiasm. John Gilbart is miscast as an irritating thhief with a large dollap of sarcasm, although it is meant to be sincerity. Overall this will not dissapoint!!!!
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