Grand Hotel won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1931-1932. It's one of the first all-star films, featuring lead performances from Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, John Barrymore, and Lionel Barrymore. They all play guests at the Grand Hotel in Berlin, and their characters' lives keep connecting and disconnecting from each other throughout the movie. There are as many plot lines as there are main characters, yet each is relatively easy to follow. I suspect everyone who watches this film develops a particular fondness for one of the stories over the rest, and mine is certainly the one featuring John Barrymore.
John Barrymore never quite got the recognition for his acting ability that he deserved. His brother Lionel and his sister Ethel won Oscars for their work, but John was never even nominated. Of all of the cast of Grand Hotel, I think his is the performance that most deserved recognition. He plays a down-on-his-luck baron, a man who is so desperate for money that he stoops to some pretty reprehensible actions such as breaking and entering or even filching a wallet of money from a sick, dying friend. However, he's also a man with a conscience, the kind of guy who feels remorse and returns the wallet that he has stolen. He also doesn't go through with his theft of a pearl necklace from the great dancer played by Greta Garbo. Instead, he falls in love with her and "nurses" her back to happiness with his affections. I was more interested in what would happen to the Baron than any of the other characters in the film, and that's certainly a testament to Barrymore's talent. He was known for his profile, yet it's his face that I found to be his greatest asset. He's amazingly expressive.
The rest of the cast is good too. Garbo plays Grusinskaya, the dancer who has lost her love of performing because she has no love in her life. I like her best here after she falls in love with the Baron; there's a giddiness to her performance that's quite intoxicating. Beery plays an industrialist who has to make one last deal or else he will face bankruptcy. He's his usual solid self (although I always tend to prefer him in more comedic parts). Crawford plays the secretary Beery hires to help keep records of the deal; of course, he falls in love with her and plans to take her with him to England for a clandestine relationship. Crawford is also very strong here, smart and very wise to the ways that things tend to operate. I once read a review of the film Chicago that described Catherine Zeta-Jones as being the kind of actress whose desperation to be a star was as visible on the screen as Joan Crawford's. It was an interesting comment, but in watching Grand Hotel, I can certainly see what the reviewer meant. Crawford attempts to make herself the most interesting person in any scene she's in, whether through her posture or her facial expressions or whatever other means she has available. She certainly has a hunger to be the center of attention.
The one performance I didn't particularly like is Lionel Barrymore's. He plays a dying clerk at Beery's company. He's come to Berlin to indulge himself; he wants to enjoy what little time he has left before he dies. Unfortunately, he seems to be playing to a theatrical audience rather than a film one; his performance is almost too big and broad for the screen to contain it. His brother John is much more subdued and, therefore, much more effective. Lionel's Kringelein is teeth-grindingly excessive at times. It is a pleasure to watch the two brothers when they are together, but such scenes only serve to underscore just how much better a film actor John was.
One of the minor characters, Dr. Otternschlag (played by the formidable Lewis Stone with half of his face scarred, a constant if subtle reminder of World War I), says of the Grand Hotel: "People come. People go. Nothing ever happens." Of course, we see a great deal happen during the course of the film, but perhaps because the end of the film so clearly mirrors the beginning, we're meant to see that no matter what happens, the hotel and Berlin and the rest of life continue on as if nothing ever happens. It's a pretty bleak outlook, frankly, particularly given how much time and attention have been given to the lives of these individuals.
While this movie is certainly entertaining and deserves credit for its ability to juggle the stars and their various storylines, it isn't particularly challenging. I enjoyed it, certainly, but I can't imagine that there weren't other films that year that contributed more to the art of film. I suspect this is one of the examples of how the studios influenced voting very early in the history of the Academy Awards. Perhaps Louis B. Mayer felt it as MGM's turn to get a Best Picture Award.
One sidenote: Jean Hersholt plays one of the men behind the front desk of the hotel. His character has a wife in labor, apparently one of the longest labors in the history of pregnancy. I had never seen, at least not knowingly, a performance by the man for whom the Academy's Humanitarian Award is named. He's good here, but perhaps he will and should be better remembered for his work creating the Motion Picture Relief Fund, which still provides assistance to retired members of the motion picture community. I'm going to try to keep an eye out for him from now on.
No comments:
Post a Comment