"Grand Hotel" by Edmund Goulding: a review

The black and white romantic drama, Grand Hotel, won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1932, without being nominated in any other category. This is the only film with this distinction. The plot device of bringing unrelated characters together in one enclosed setting was extremely popular. Thus, it became frequently used and known as the "Grand Hotel" formula.

The story begins and ends with one of the clueless characters stating, "Grand Hotel. People come and go. There is plenty of marketing and selling in this one. Makes for an interesting plot during a very interesting time. Nothing ever happens". In between, the action never stops. A romance develops between Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo) and Baron Felix (John Barrymore); a robbery takes place, and someone is accidentally killed–all in three days!

This is a film worth seeing for the all-star cast of the times, which included Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, and Jean Hersholt, as well as Garbo and Barrymore. Indeed, the acting is exaggerated for modern tastes, but still it is fun to watch. Greta Garbo’s melodramatic line, "I want to be alone" is remembered because of the way she delivered it with her deep voice and accent, turning "want" into "vant". Enjoy!