The Oscar Project Part V - Grand Hotel

The fifth movie to win the award for Best Picture was "Grand Hotel." The movie is considered to have, for the time it was filmed, an all star cast, featuring Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford and many others. The movie is based off of a novel that was first adapted into a successful Broadway play.

The plot of the movie follows several different guests of the Grand Hotel with all of their stories interweaving with each other. It was interesting to see a technique that I typically associate with modern films. While most of this worked, there were a few connections that just didn't make sense. Particularly at the end of the movie with Kringelein and Flaemmchen. It didn't make a lot of sense for these two to end up traveling together and it felt forced. The interactions of the Doctor with Kringelein also felt forced as it appeared that these characters would not have anything to do with each other. The doctor character himself seemed to be there to only deliver the closing line of the movie. A great line but there were other people that could have given this line and this character did not have to be forced into the movie.

Acting in the movie for most was top notch. The only character I didn't really enjoy was Kringelein. He seemed to be brought in for what we now consider comedy relief. However, in this movie it wasn't perfected. I found the character annoying and was played as a whiny drunk. In the movie the character tells us he will be dying soon, but I feel no sympathy for him throughout the movie. In fact by the end I was waiting for him to die so that I wouldn't have to put up with him anymore. Unfortunately, he lives. But Greta Garbo, John Barrymore and Joan Crawford all put in magnificent performances.

This was also the first movie in my journey that I noticed some great technical aspects. There are a few scenes where the shots are filmed with a moving camera that gives us a full view of the desk at the front of the hotel. These shots injected some energy into the film and really brought me into the movie.

Overall I thought it was a decent movie with a few flaws. It get 3.5 out of 5 stars. The next film is "Cavalcade."