Rating: 
Summary: GRAND HOTEL IN LESS THAN GRAND TRANSFER
Review: "Grand Hotel" concerns guests staying at Berlin's Grand Hotel. There's the high strung, tempermental ballerina (Greta Garbo), the sassy vamp-like stenographer (Joan Crawford), the boorish industrialist (Wallace Beery), the stricken labourer (Lionel Barrymore)and the devilishly handsome baron (John Barrymore). These seemingly separate lives cross over - some happily so, others with tragic circumstances - all thoroughly absorbing and brilliantly performed. At the time of its release "Grand Hotel" was the first movie to feature more than one star above the title credits.
TRANSFER: After years of looking as though the camera negative had been fed through a meat grinder, this DVD digital remastering is a considerable improvement. Having said that, a lot of work is still needed to get this one looking up to par. Solid blacks are about the best thing on this DVD. Contrast levels appear too low in many of the scenes. There are a considerable number of age related artifacts and quite a bit of film grain present on this 70 plus year old classic. The audio has been extensively cleaned up but continues to exhibit considerable hiss. Truly, if this is a special edition it's one of the poorest I've seen.
EXTRAS: Some featurettes that round out the history - if too briefly, of this classic film.
BOTTOM LINE: "Grand Hotel" is undeniably engrossing and a brilliant Oscar winner that is sure to enthrall for decades to come! For the film and NOT the transfer, this is an absolute must for your film library!!!
Rating: 
Summary: THE BLUE DANUBE
Review: A once-in-a-lifetime cast in a slightly faded yet eternally fascinating venture into 1932 Hollywood. Under Edmund Goulding's imaginitive direction, this actor's showcase presents a veritable microcosm of humanity. Barrymore is the sly, suave jewel theif whose love rejuventates the tired, world weary 27 year-old Garbo as the ballerina Grusinskaya. Crawford gives a lively and refreshing portrait as Flaemmchen the little stenographer with flexible morals; she's fun to watch since her acting style is miles away from that antiseptic zombie she played later in life. Beery is the tough industrialist who elicits Joan's services; and Lionel plays Otto, the lonely, dying old man who's determined to spend his last days in the lap of luxury. One may question why Wallace Beery is the only cast member who adapts a German accent whilst speaking; also, watch for the ridiculous little bobby pin keeping Garbo's hair in place during the lovemaking scenes with Barrymore! No matter. What the film lacks in credibility it more than makes up for in entertainment. Garbo's usually understated acting style strikes one as a bit phoney and exaggerated, but it's in this movie that she announces her wish "to be alone". This film was re-made somewhat less successfully as WEEK-END AT THE WALDORF with Ginger Rogers and Walter Pidgeon (!)
Rating:
Summary: "People come, people go...nothing ever happens"
Review: Although the whole cast deserves accolades, it is the work of Lionel Barrymore that I find compelling. He plays Otto Kringelin, the regular working man who finds himself incurably ill. He decides to spend his last days in luxury at the beautiful Grand Hotel. He makes the acquaintance of a baron (his brother, John), acquires a girlfriend (Joan Crawford), and gets a chance to tell off his boss (Wallace Beery). He achieves the dream that many people have, but never realize. His acting throughout is honest and you find yourself cheering for him.The casting of this movie shows absolute genius. Garbo is beautiful and engimatic as Grusenskaya the dancer, John Barrymore is the suave but impovrished baron masquerading as a jewel thief, Joan Crawford as Flamchen never looked more beautiful (although she appears in yet another of her stenographer roles), and Wallace Beery comes off well as the ruthless businessman. All of the personalities blend together to make this a memorable film. The quote "Grand Hotel...people come, people go, nothing ever happens" is the opening and closing line of the movie, but don't let that fool you! A lot happens and this movie is well worth the time it takes you to see it.
Rating:
Summary: BEST PICTURE OF 1932
Review: Even today this mult-star blockbuster film crackles with wit, temperament and vitality all stemming from the cream of MGM's then-finest talent. Joan Crawford is very vivacious and appealing here, and her acting style is very different from the rather wooden zombie we saw in the forties and fifties. Barrymore and Garbo do well in their roles and Wallace Beery is impressive as the German Preysing. To get an idea of just how much times have changed, Crawford's fee for her playing of Flaemmchen was a mere $60,000!
Rating:
Summary: Garbo and Crawford, need I say more?
Review: Finally on DVD, Grand Hotel is an early talkie classic that deserves all the praise it has received over the (many) years. The film offers some truly great performances, production quality, and a gripping story about the various people who stay at the Grand Hotel and how their particular lives intertwine. There is Garbo as a "disillusioned ballerina," who is particularly meloncholic and manic. She goes from low to high and then low again quite fast, you may wonder if she is schizoprenic. Then again, there are some devastating closeups to put all detractors to rest. As for Joan Crawford, all that needs to be said is that she is timeless as the ambitious stenographer (with, as it turns out at the end, a good heart). She offers the only performance in the film that would fit right in with modern audiences. There isn't a hint of the archaic silent style that other actors of the time were holding on to, and her style and appearance come across as very contemporary and likeable. John and Lionel Barrymore are also terrific as two good-hearted people who are facing bad times. One has no luck and resorts to theft and the other has the first good luck in his life, even as he is dying. Wally Beery is also memorable as the rather careless boss. Best thing about this DVD? I'd have to say the excellent picture quality of this legendary film, the legendary performances it contains, and the very special 1932 film premiere clip of Grand Hotel (on the extra features section). There we can see Joan in her prime, and apparently as shy and full of humility as most of her detractors would never guess she possessed.
Rating:
Summary: I JUST WANT TO BE ALONE.....
Review: Greta Garbo first uttered this phrase in MGM's "Grand Hotel", released in 1932. "Grand Hotel" is a classic masterpiece set in Berlin's ritzy art-deco hotel. It's the story of five guests whose lives criss-cross for just a brief time....(1) an aging, suicidal Russian ballerina named Grusinskaya(Greta Garbo). (2) the noble, elegant, handsome Baron Felix von Geigern(John Barrymore), in reality, financially broke and a jewel thief. (3) an ambitious,young, lovely stenographer Flaemmchen(Joan Crawford) looking for fame and the good life. (4) the factory clerk Kringelein(Lionel Barrymore) out to live the good life one time before he dies. (5) General Preysing(Wallace Beery) a ruthless, cold-hearted industrialist. Drinking, gambling, and a love triangle, "Grand Hotel" was released at the height of the Depression. Based on Vicki Baum's novel and play, it earned 1 Million dollars for MGM, and became the most profitable movie of 1932. The first All-Star epic, Lewis Stone and Jean Hersholt round out the stellar cast. This is the finest of 5 films starring the Barrymore brothers, and is John Barrymore's perhaps final great performance. Just 10 years later, alcohol would create his sudden demise and biography in the famous book, "Goodnight Sweet Prince". Jean Harlow's elderly husband, Paul Bern, was the producer. He died in their Beverly Hills home during production in a scandalous suicide. AMC Cable channel touts a huge list of 1930's classics, but they're wrong. There's only a short list, and "Grand Hotel"s near the top. Near the end of the film, the timid, dying factory clerk is suddenly enriched by luck in a gambling game. He toasts his friends: "To life! To the magnificent, dangerous, brief, brief, wonderful life...and the courage to live it! You know, Baron, I've only lived since last night, but that little while seems longer than all the time that's gone before..." DVD, where are you?
Rating:
Summary: I JUST WANT TO BE ALONE.....
Review: Greta Garbo first uttered this phrase in MGM's "Grand Hotel", released in 1932. "Grand Hotel" is a classic masterpiece set in Berlin's ritzy art-deco hotel. It's the story of five guests whose lives criss-cross for just a brief time....(1) an aging, suicidal Russian ballerina named Grusinskaya(Greta Garbo). (2) the noble, elegant, handsome Baron Felix von Geigern(John Barrymore), in reality, financially broke and a jewel thief. (3) an ambitious,young, lovely stenographer Flaemmchen(Joan Crawford) looking for fame and the good life. (4) the factory clerk Kringelein(Lionel Barrymore) out to live the good life one time before he dies. (5) General Preysing(Wallace Beery) a ruthless, cold-hearted industrialist. Drinking, gambling, and a love triangle, "Grand Hotel" was released at the height of the Depression. Based on Vicki Baum's novel and play, it earned 1 Million dollars for MGM, and became the most profitable movie of 1932. The first All-Star epic, Lewis Stone and Jean Hersholt round out the stellar cast. This is the finest of 5 films starring the Barrymore brothers, and is John Barrymore's perhaps final great performance. Just 10 years later, alcohol would create his sudden demise and biography in the famous book, "Goodnight Sweet Prince". Jean Harlow's elderly husband, Paul Bern, was the producer. He died in their Beverly Hills home during production in a scandalous suicide. AMC Cable channel touts a huge list of 1930's classics, but they're wrong. There's only a short list, and "Grand Hotel"s near the top. Near the end of the film, the timid, dying factory clerk is suddenly enriched by luck in a gambling game. He toasts his friends: "To life! To the magnificent, dangerous, brief, brief, wonderful life...and the courage to live it! You know, Baron, I've only lived since last night, but that little while seems longer than all the time that's gone before..." DVD, where are you?
Rating:
Summary: GRAND EPOCH
Review: How odd, for Hollywood to make a movie about a Grand Hotel, set in Germany of all things! And - what ? No accents - [except for Garbo....]! Yet, what delicious fun! There's Wallace Beery as the boorish industrialist [shades of the great Emil Jannings], John Barrymore, not using cue-cards, but sporting that magnificent profile - somewhat enhanced by the make-up department, and Garbo, who is initially quite irritating as the languid, almost over-the-hill prima ballerina, but it's then when you see how brilliant her acting choices actually are, and what a devine body. Crawford? Well, she positively steals the show with this very contemporary performance of a material girl on the way up - and what about the shoulders? Legend states that the designer Adrian - after reviewing her dimensions, invented the 'shoulder pad look' especially for her - making her shoulders 'wider than Johnny Weismullers'? Not! Her proportions are perfect! Matter of taste though - but it's Crawford's subtle performance and look that stays.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Classic Film on DVD
Review: I absolutely adore this movie! The cast is exceptional.
I instantly fell in love with Joan Crawford; I liked that she was beautiful, witty, and yet coyly aware of living outside the box. Her clothes were beautiful and compliamented the art deco hotel. I really wish she would have stuck with the thin eyebrows; she was so much prettier in the 30s.
I also fell in love with Lionel Barrymore who I have never seen in a film since that topped his performance as Kringelein. It was so easy to feel sorry for him, to love him, and to want to take care of him. He was wonderful and I really feel like the story is almost about him, not everyone together. He was sort of tied to everyone except Grusinskaya.
Wally Beery was good as Preysing. I don't believe he was so dislikable as he thought the character to be. His scenes are actually somewhat boring. I can sympathize with Preysing though. I heard he was the only character allowed to have a German accent which was a stipulation to getting him to stay on the project.
I hated Greta Garbo and her over-acting in the film. As a ballerina, she was somewhat believable because she was so tall, but she DID look awkward in the dress. I think that a lot of the reason why her scenes seemed so dramatic and overly played was because of the way the film was edited. There are scenes of her that begin with her violently spinning around and blurting out a dramatic line. She also cradles the phone and talks to it. And what kills me is the way she constantly furrows her forehead and those eyebrows! Egad!
I read the book by Vikki Baum, the translation into English of course, and I really think that it is a great novel that was adapted well but stands on its own. There are so many pieces of it that cannot be translated into film. I think that maybe Garbo knowing the motives behind her character had a right to overact but because the audience did not know her thoughts did not understand her protrayal of Grusinkaya.
I thought that John Barrymore was good enough was the Baron von Geigern although the character itself does not stand out much. It was cool to see that brothers played in the same film together.
It seems crazy to me now that Garbo and Crawford were so childish about each other but stories about their fights make me laugh. Supposedly, Garbo hated Marlene Dietrich and tardiness about the same amount so Crawford came late to the set just to bug Garbo (which I find somewhat hard to believe because Crawford was so efficient about everything) and she also played Dietrich records loudly. The pranks they played on each other just make me laugh horribly. They were like junior high school kids.
I do like that so many big name stars were cast together to create sort of a phenomenon. I don't like the way the system is used today because it is like people who are not famous cannot get good roles, but back then, it sort of refreshed the screen to occasionally see a film that featured many stars. The only other film I can really think of besides Grand Hotel that is noted for using this is Dinner at Eight which is sort of the answer to the success of Grand Hotel.
The DVD is awesome; it included footage of stars attending the premiere. For an older film, any extra features are exciting. The DVD also includes a parody of the movie which was well made.
Rating:
Summary: One of the great films!
Review: I think this is a really wll sone film. It's really the deco era through and through. Greta Garbo is glamerous in it, and th ebeautiful young Joan Crawford is in it as well. Also John Barrymore, is fabulous in it, very handsome. I give it as many stars as possible. It has romance, suspence, drama, sadness, happiness. A little of everything. It;s a fim about people's llives and loves while staying at the Grand Hotel. it's definitly a keeper. The costumes are neat, and some ar every beautiful and stand out.
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