Grand Hotel

Yesterday I watched another of the Academy Award Best Picture winners.

Grand Hotel
1932
Greta Garbo
John Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore
Joan Crawford
Wallace Beery

This is my favorite of the old Best Picture winners that I've seen so far, so I'm not going to give you a whole synopsis. I feel that, if you like old movies, you should watch this one for yourself, and I don't want to spoil it for you. So.

I really liked this movie a lot. It takes place in Grand Hotel, a posh hotel for affluent people. Our cast of characters includes: Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo), a famous ballet dancer; The Baron (John Barrymore), a down on his luck Baron who owes money for gambling debts and is at the hotel to steal a string of pearls from Grusinskaya; Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford - the character name is pronounced Flem-chen), a stenographer who will do just about anything for money; Preysing (Wallace Beery), a business owner whose business is falling apart around him (Flaemmchen is working for him, and he likes her for more than her stenographer talents, if you get my drift); Otto Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore), an accountant for Preysing's company, who is dying, and has come to Grand Hotel to live the rest of his life in style, spending all of his life savings on fun.

My favorite character is the Baron (shown to the right, with Garbo as Grusinskaya). He may be there to act as a thief, but he is a true gentleman, and a very bad thief. He's just a sweetheart, and super nice to poor Kringelein, who hasn't had many people be nice to him in his lifetime. Oh, and he's a dog lover, and has a pet Dachsund. :) You know I've got to love a dog lover.

Anyway, the movie revolves around the stories of these main characters, plus some secondary characters as well. It's masterfully done, and it definitely deserved the Oscar. I would watch this again if I saw it on TV.

I give this movie 4.5 stars out of 5.