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Dr. Otternschlag (Lewis Stone) is a resident at the Grand Hotel in Berlin, Germany. He casually observes that life at the hotel is "...always the same. People come, people go, nothing ever happens." What he means by that is that guests check in, share parts of their lives with one another and then leave. Ah, if only it were that simple, right? The film opens with several of the newly-arrived guests all on pay phones before checking in, and their conversations that we hear the one side of tell us all about their stories. Baron Felix von Geigern (John Barrymore) plays cards and occasionally steals jewelry. Otto Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore) is an accountant who has learned he has a fatal illness, so he plans to spend his last days here at this lavish hotel. General Director Preysing (Wallace Beery) is here to close a major business deal along with his stenographer, Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford), who is willing to offer some extra services beyond typing (wink, wink) if he can help influence her budding acting career. Russian ballerina Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo) is trying to restart her career. Those are the major players.
Otto has trouble getting a room despite the reservation. Felix overhears the situation and offers Otto his room. The two become friends as they learn more about each other. Felix meets Flaemmchen later and sets up a date with her. Otto then meets her as well and they all buddy up. Grusinskaya's secretary then steps out of the ballerina's room and asks for quiet in the hallway so she can rest before a performance later. As it turns out, Grusinskaya is in her room lamenting her career's downturn. Felix sneaks into the room while she's at her show later. He has learned there may be a jewelry stash. Elsewhere, Preysing gets word his business merger may be off the table.
Grusinskaya and her entourage return from the show and she immediately begins to bemoan the low attendance. (It is here where she delivers her "I want to be alone" line which became the most famous five words she ever said. Referring to the belief that it was a metaphor for her personal life, Garbo later insisted in an interview, "I never said I want to be alone; I only said 'I want to be let alone.' There is all the difference." She didn't actually say the word "let" in there, but apparently what she meant is that the line inferred such.) She's despondent and alludes to potentially ending it all, even holding a bottle of pills in her hand. Felix has hidden in the room when he heard they were coming back, and he doesn't want to see a suicide so he reveals himself. They get to talking, and eventually Felix admits why he was in there, but he's had a change of heart and wishes to help her. He says he had planned to steal the jewels because he was threatened and needed some fast cash. Grusinskaya grows to like Felix immediately and her spirits lift greatly. She invites him to join her at a Vienna event. He accepts the invitation. As it turns out, the Vienna event is cancelled because recent ticket sales have been poor, but Grusinskaya still remains upbeat due to her budding friendship (and perhaps more) with Felix.
Doctor Otternschlag and Otto are at the hotel bar. They're eventually joined by Felix and Flaemmchen as they're having their informal date. Flaemmchen finds Otto charming and coaxes him into joining her on the dance floor, but they're interrupted by Preysing. The merger was voted down, but he convinced the board that a cotton company deal in Manchester, England, will bolster the merger's value, so the board wishes to reconvene and discuss it further. So Preysing has come to fetch Flaemmchen since he has no idea how to get some sort of Manchester deal to come to fruition now that he's promised one to the board. Preysing is rude to Otto, and as it turns out, he fired Otto from the company not too long ago due to Otto objecting to Preysing's shady business practices. The two men come to blows until Felix separates them. (As an aside, the scuffle on the dance floor is the first instance in the film up to this point, which has been quite a while, where the musical score finally stopped playing.) Preysing tells Flaemmchen they must go to London immediately.
As it turns out, Felix was telling the truth about being threatened and needing money. He owes to a criminal group. He confides the story to Otto, and Otto invites him to join a baccarat game he's partaking in later that night. Unfortunately for Felix, Otto winds up the lucky card player that night. Unfortunately for Otto, it's the first time he's played and in the excitement he gets rather drunk in the process. He lies down to rest later. Felix takes care of him to make sure he's comfortable, but then sees that Otto dropped his wallet on the floor with the winnings inside. Felix doesn't want to do this but he stashes the wallet in his own pocket. Otto isn't quite asleep yet and he realizes he's misplaced his wallet, so he begins to frantically search for it. Felix already felt guilty, and now he feels worse, so he pretends to find the wallet under the table and gives it back to Otto. He genuinely likes Otto and does not want to do him wrong. Felix will try and figure out another way to deal with his problem.
The next day, Grusinskaya has planned to head to the train station, off to Vienna and a future with Felix. He will meet her there a bit after that. Back from London, Preysing puts the moves on Flaemmchen in her hotel room, but she won't take the bait as he's married, and she doesn't seem to be as willing to give him the extra favors to aid her acting career as she initially stated. As this conversation takes place, he sees into his room, which is adjoining, and he swears he sees Felix in there sifting through his belongings. Preysing confronts Felix and they eventually come to blows, with Preysing killing Felix by blasting him over the head with a telephone. Otto arrives and sees the dead body. Preysing nervously tries to get Otto to cover for him, but Otto phones the police instead and Preysing is later arrested for Felix's murder.
Grusinskaya is a little confused the next morning as to why there's no music playing in the hotel, but no matter. She is about to head to the train station. She phones Felix before leaving and gets no response. Her secretary knows what has happened to Felix but insists that no one tell Grusinskaya about it for fear of her getting depressed. Grusinskaya leaves for the train station expecting to see Felix later. Meanwhile, Flaemmchen and Otto decide to go to Paris together where she says a doctor should be able to cure his illness. All of our major players have now left the Grand Hotel in Berlin, and Doctor Otternschlag once again remarks that "People come and go. Nothing ever happens."
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Wow, that might have been the shortest synopsis I've done yet in this blog series. The film is 112 minutes long but that's pretty much the story up there. There's a lot of filler in the movie which generally isn't boring; it's just kinda there to develop the characters and overall storyline. There are moments of drama and comedy mixed throughout, and while the film didn't slay me, I can't say it was a drag either. There's actually a lot going on but it's relatively easy to follow, thanks in great part to a well-written script and the true talents of the cast. I would guess that is why the Academy felt that Grand Hotel was, as advertisers love to say nowadays for just about every attempted summer blockbuster and/or Best Picture contender, the motion picture event of the year. It took home its only Oscar, Best Picture, over Arrowsmith, Bad Girl, The Champ, Five Star Final, One Hour With You, Shanghai Express and The Smiling Lieutenant. For the record, I've seen none of those other films.
The 5th Annual Academy Awards ceremony saw a lot of history. Granted, it was only the fifth event so history was a little easy to make, but still there were noteworthy moments. One, as mentioned, was Grand Hotel being the first, and thus far only, film to win just one award and have it be Best Picture. Secondly, the first Oscar tie happened here. Wallace Beery, who appeared in this film, was also nominated for the lead role in The Champ. He won Best Actor...along with Fredric March, who starred in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. March actually had one more vote than Beery did, but back then the rules stated that a difference of three votes or less between nominees would constitute a tie. The rule was immediately changed for all future ceremonies where votes would have to be an exact tie. Another historic moment wasn't realized right away, but this was the first year that Walt Disney won an Oscar. In fact, he won two, one the eponymous award for an animated short (Flowers and Trees) and a second for the creation of Mickey Mouse. He would win twenty more before all was said and done, making him the most Oscar-honored person in history.
So there's Grand Hotel. It certainly is historic, and a good film. For today's audiences, it may not be something that would scream out Best Picture, but it's enjoyable just the same. Considering most of today's star-studded ensemble pictures are either bland romantic comedies or crass attempts at shock humor, Grand Hotel probably is a better movie than even I'll ever realize.
It was nice seeing Joan Crawford playing in anything as opposed to seeing Faye Dunaway playing Joan! I agree though...sort of a just there kind of movie. Glad I can say I've seen it though.
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