1932: Grand Hotel

FILM: Grand Hotel

YEAR: 1932

DIRECTOR: Edmund Goulding

STARRING: Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, 

Lionel Barrymore, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

AWARD(S): Best Picture Winner, 1932

"I want to be alone" are the famous words uttered by Greta Garbo in the 1932 production of Grand Hotel. As a glamorous ballerina (and somewhat complicated woman), Garbo is just one of the many star actors that plays a role in Grand Hotel, in what has become known as the first film with an "all star cast."  Garbo plays opposite John Barrymore, a suave man known as the Baron von Geigern who also happens to be jewel thief, and who brings us to

 the character played by Joan Crawford, a young stenographer whose motives are also dictated by a need for money. In addition to these three characters, we also have the dying and very kind Otto Kringelein played by Lionel Barrymore, along with his once boss, the General Director Preysing, a very unkind man who is at the hotel to finalize a business deal. In the course of two hours, we watch as the lives of these characters become tangled under the luxurious roof of the Grand Hotel, in ways that are somewhat predictable in the beginning, but ultimately quite surprising in the end.

Watch the trailer here:

  

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: Mainly the cast, but also the cinematography done by William Daniels, who worked in Hollywood for more than 40 years. You've most assuredly seen his work on other films and not known it, such as on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), or Ninotchka (1939), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), or Marie Antoinette (1938) etc, etc, etc.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT PART II: GOWNS BY ADRIAN. He knew how to dress a ballerina. All hail Adrian! Best costumer designer of the age.

WHEN YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: This is one to watch with a group of people on a Saturday night during prime time. It's a film with lots of characters that should be enjoyed with lots of fellow viewers.