“Grand Hotel… always the same. People come, people go. Nothing ever happens.” Dr. Otternschlag
Number of Times Seen – 1 (2 Jun 2013)
Brief Synopsis – The comings and goings in a posh Berlin Hotel over the period of a few days.
My Take on it – I was hoping that this movie would be better being that it was basically the first ensemble movie ever made. Unfortunately, the quote above is very true 😦 Nothing really happens.
I can still laud this movie for the fact that it created a genre of movies that include (among others) Crash (2004), The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Dirty Dozen (1967), Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings (2001) and its sequels and my favorite ensemble movie of all time It’s a Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
The cast includes Lionel Barrymore, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery and Jean Hersholt (I knew that Hersholt was in the movie industry since the Academy has a Humanitarian Award named for him, but didn’t know who he was.) His part was somewhat small in this movie, but I am glad I found out who he was.
Eventhough the movie has a large number of famous actors (for that time); it garnered only one Oscar nomination and has been the sole BP winner to not be nominated for anything else.
Bottom Line – Pretty boring ensemble pic, but was definitely the beginning of the genre. Great cast.
Rating – BAFTA Worthy
MovieRob 
Pingback: Oscar Best Picture Winner Reviews | MovieRob
Pingback: Driving Miss Daisy (1989) | MovieRob
Pingback: My Oscar Best Picture Rankings | MovieRob
Pingback: Movies Reviewed Index A-Z | MovieRob
Pingback: Did They Get it Right? – Best Picture – Oscars 1932 |
Pingback: 90 Days of Oscar Nominees #50 – Bad Girl (1931) |
Jean Hersholt usually played benevolent, kind hearted characters as in the Dr. Christian series but he’s at his most memorable as the villain in Von Stroheim’s silent masterpiece Greed.
LikeLike