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DVD Grand Hotel
This Academy Award winner for Best Picture is a sweeping soap opera about the guests at the Grand Hotel. Several plots intertwine, but mostly it's about Stars! Stars! Stars! Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, and both Barrymore brothers head up the cast. Garbo is luminous as Grusinskaya, the neurotic and famous-but-slipping dancer and, yes, she "vonts to be alone." John Barrymore is a cat burglar with blue blood and a heart of gold, and Lionel Barrymore happily caroms off him as Mr. Kringelein, a dying man who wants to live out the time he has left with the rich. Joan Crawford is perhaps the biggest surprise of the movie: as Flaemmchen, a young career girl trying to decide between secretary and tart, she is uncharacteristically funny, vivacious, and downright bubbly. Along the way we discover that money, fame, and titles don't guarantee happiness, and being a jewel thief doesn't necessarily make you a bad person. The nicest touch is the hint that other, minor plots swirl around the edges of the film, suggesting that we've only seen a small chapter of the hotel's story. Grand Hotel is a great deal of fun and an excellent chance to see some famous faces in their prime. --Ali Davis
Suggested by Vicki Baum's book "Menschem im Hotel" and the Broadway play by William A. Drake, GRAND HOTEL remains to this day one of M-G-M's most delightful and lavish films. With a hand-picked cast from it's peerless roster of stars and top direction from Edmund Goulding, the film still casts a powerful spell today.
The setting is Berlin's Grand Hotel in the 1930s. Staying at the luxurious hotel is penniless Baron von Guigern (John Barrymore), ruthless magnate General Preysing (Wallace Beery), ambitious stenographer Miss Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford), fragile prima ballerina Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo) and Otto Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore) a dying man on his last fling. It's fascinating to watch these characters and their stories merge and intertwine.
The performances are sublime. Garbo is perfect for the remote and disillusioned Grusinskaya, suddenly woken back to life when she falls in love with the Baron. Lionel Barrymore is heartbreaking as gentle Otto. Joan Crawford is a hoot as the stenographer with Hollywood dreams and a shady past. The chemistry between Garbo and John Barrymore fairly crackles and their scenes together are some of the best in the entire picture.
It's here that Garbo first uttered those five little words which would define her for the rest of her life - "I want to be alone". The cast also includes Lewis Stone as the Doctor and Jean Hersholt as the desk-clerk.
The DVD contains some great bonuses like a new Making-of documentary, footage from the lavish premiere and a rare Vitaphone musical short "Nothing Ever Happens" which is an hilarious parody of GRAND HOTEL.
"I want to be alone."
What can one say? The acting is terrible, the script a bomb - yet it's one of the best of the old Hollywood "star" vehicles, and the predecessor of a thousand immitations. Garbo is the dancer who has "never been so tired" in her life; John Barrymore the good-hearted baron desperate for money who falls in love with her; Lionel Barrymore the dying man splurging on his last go-round; Joan Crawford the stenographer and worldly woman; and Wallace Beery the industrial magnate. Their lives intermingle for one day and night at the Grand Hotel in Berlin, with tragic results for Garbo, John Barrymore, and Beery, and reprieve for Lionel Barrymore and Crawford.
The acting (especially Garbo) is so heavy-handed and stiff it's almost a parody of itself, although the lines the actors are forced to speak don't help much. Movie acting, now that sound had been added, hadn't gained the naturalness (unstageyness) yet that would come shortly, and in that regard it's extremely old-fashioned. Beery in his oily role is the most interesting to watch, with Lionel Barrymore a close second. Garbo, though she can be vibrant, even electrifying in her expressions of love and happiness for John Barrymore, would fare much better in later movies. Without a doubt it's a very influential picture, but it's a plush, old dinosaur.
Another must-see MGM masterpiece from the 1930's
Great movies and great stars remain ageless and immortal. Edmund Goulding's GRAND HOTEL (1932, MGM) won a deserved Best Picture Oscar 72 years ago, yet remains fresh and dramatic. This Grand Hotel is in Berlin between the world wars, and its fine cast is full of glittering names that a modern audience should become acquainted with. We have Greta Garbo as a world-weary ballerina. John Barrymore is a jewel thief who sneaks into her hotel room to rob her of jewels to pay off a gambling debt. But he falls in love with her when she is about to attempt suicide. John's brother Lionel is a hyperactive bookkeeper convinced he is in awful health. His boss, Wallace Beery, is in the hotel for a big business merger. Helping him is a very young and charming Joan Crawford as an American stenographer. Jean Hersholt is a hotel porter. And Lewis Stone, later Judge Hardy on the ANDY HARDY series, is the hotel doctor.
There is no real plot here. Instead, we have engrossing character interaction with some of the finest actors of the era. They make GRAND HOTEL a wonderfully entertaining and archetypal drama. Is Lionel Barrymore dying? What happens to him when he runs into boss Beery at the hotel bar? Will John Barrymore really steal Garbo's jewels, even as he falls in love with her? What happens to him with his criminal bosses if he cannot pay off gambling debts? He steals money from poor Lionel during a gambling game, but shortly returns it when he gets a guilty conscience. What happens when he breaks into Beery's room? What happens to Beery's merger? Hersholt's wife gives birth to a baby; we see his excitement in a phone call. And through it all, Stone wanders through the lobby muttering, "Grand Hotel. People coming and going, and nothing ever happens.." Ah, but everything happens if you know where to look in this gorgeous hotel. Everyone has an interesting story to tell in GRAND HOTEL, which inaugurated the "all-star drama in a confined setting" type of movie that is still in vogue with airplanes. Even MGM did a decent remake called WEEKEND AT THE WALDORF (1945) with an all-American cast at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan. GRAND HOTEL remains a supreme example of MGM gloss, dazzling star power, and solid writing after more than seven decades.
MGM originally promoted Dinner at Eight by touting the "all-star cast," but this is no run-of-the-mill omnibus picture. On the contrary, rather than cramming as many big names as possible into a lumbering vehicle, the movie's impeccably crafted script (by Edna Ferber and Herman J. Mankiewicz) and direction (by George Cukor) gave some immortal screen luminaries a chance to shine. For sheer bravery, John Barrymore's achingly poignant performance as Larry Renault, a washed-up matinee idol who has "outlived everything but his vanity," is unmatched. Barrymore's brother, Lionel, is equally touching as shipping magnate Oliver Jordan. Oliver vainly tries to save his family's century-old firm, at the same time hiding his financial and health troubles from his wife, Millicent, played to... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Marie Dressler - John Barrymore - Wallace Beery Director(s): George Cukor DVD Release Date: Released the 01 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Director Frank Capra (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) took home every Oscar in the book (well, okay, all the major ones) for this seminal 1934 comedy starring Clark Gable as a hard-bitten reporter who stays close to a runaway heiress (Claudette Colbert) rather than lose a good story. Funny and sexy, the film is full of memorable scenes often referred to in other films, such as the "walls of Jericho" (a mere bedcover hung on a line down the middle of a room so opposite-sex roommates can get undressed), and Colbert's famous flash of thigh to stop a speeding car in its tracks. Capra's brisk, urbane brand of wit was a perfect complement to his populist faith in the common man (in this case, Gable's character), and that inspired combination makes this film both a spirited entertainment... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Clark Gable - Claudette Colbert Director(s): Frank Capra DVD Release Date: Released the 28 December 1999 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This silky smooth film noir pits gruff police detective Dana Andrews, stiff and blunt in his street-bred manners, against a cultured columnist and acidic wit (Clifton Webb at his prissiest) in a battle of wits during a murder investigation. The cop is a romantic hiding under a hard-boiled exterior who falls in love with the beautiful victim through the portrait that hangs in her apartment. Gene Tierney, whose heart-shaped face mixes the exotic with the girl next door, brings the poise and calm of a model to her role as the object of every man's gaze and the target of a killer. Laura, handsomely shot in dreamy black and white, is the first and best of Otto Preminger's cool, controlled murder mysteries. In the gritty world of film noir it remains the most refined and elegant example... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Tierney - Dana Andrews Director(s): Rouben Mamoulian - Otto Preminger DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Winner of three Academy Awards including Best Picture, The Great Ziegfeld stars William Powell in a biopic "suggested by romances and incidents in the life of America's greatest showman, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr." With admirable accuracy, the film follows Ziegfeld's career from small-time sideshow barker to creator of the famous Ziegfeld Follies, the collection of singing, dancing, and comedy vaudeville acts that launched the careers of such luminaries as Fanny Brice, Ray Bolger, and Harriet Hoctor, all of whom play themselves in the film. In the title role, Powell offers a believable combination of ambition and hucksterism, and his Thin Man costar Myrna Loy makes a late appearance as his second wife, but it's large-eyed Luise Rainer who has the showier role (and won an... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): William Powell - Myrna Loy - Luise Rainer Director(s): Robert Z. Leonard DVD Release Date: Released the 03 February 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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"100% All Talking! 100% All Singing! 100% All Dancing!" If the math is slightly off, the now-legendary ad campaign for The Broadway Melody can be excused. After all, sound had just come in, and a full-scale musical film was still a novelty. This tuneful 1929 production became a smash hit and won the Best Picture Academy Award® in the second Oscar® ceremony. The story is a creaky tale of two sisters bringing their act to Broadway, but the fun is in the Roaring Twenties lingo and the showbiz melodrama. This is an era when a gal could become the toast of Broadway by standing, motionless, on a stage pedestal ("Those guys aren't gonna pay 10 bucks to look at your face--this is Broadway!"). The tunes include the standard "You Were Meant for Me"; most of the dramatic... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Anita Page - Bessie Love Director(s): Harry Beaumont DVD Release Date: Released the 01 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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