Let's discuss GRAND HOTEL (1932) and the early years of MGM!
Details
To follow up on our recent discussion of Kenneth Turan's book Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg, The Whole Equation, we are going to discuss one of the defining movies and star vehicles of the early MGM talking years.
At a luxurious Berlin hotel between the wars, the once-wealthy Baron Felix von Geigern (John Barrymore) supports himself as a thief and gambler. In this lavish adaptation of the successful Broadway play, the baron romances one of his marks, the aging ballerina Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo), and teams with dying accountant Otto Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore) against his former boss, crooked industrialist Preysing (Wallace Beery), and his ambitious stenographer, Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford). (from rottentomatoes.com)
From TCM.com: "Production Head Irving Thalberg's idea to use all of MGM's greatest star power in the same film was a revolutionary idea. With the film's publicity boasting "the greatest cast ever assembled," Grand Hotel delivered all of the studio's top talent at the same time. It was a calculated gamble that paid off and soon became a common format for big budget studio pictures. It was Hollywood's first all-star film. Grand Hotel was a risk that turned into a huge hit for MGM. Its success gave a boost to the careers of all involved, and helped MGM survive an economic depression."
Starring Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, and Lewis Stone, the film was directed by Edmund Goulding.
Watch the film, and then join us to discuss.
Streaming options are listed here: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/grand-hotel
It's streaming for free here, but the transfer isn't all that great: https://archive.org/details/grand-hotel-1932_202504
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