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Grand Hotel (1932) is a classic masterpiece and
all-star epic with high-powered stars of the early 1930s.
The classic MGM film was directed by Edmund Goulding who acquired the nickname "Lion Tamer" for his ability to deal with many temperamental Hollywood stars, as he did in this film. It won the Best Picture Oscar in the year of its release - its only nomination.
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The 1932 film, set at Berlin's ritzy, opulent
art-deco Grand Hotel, tells the multiple-narrative story of the
criss-crossing of the lives of five guests, whose fates intertwine for a two-day period at the hotel:
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(1) an aging, suicidal, isolated, fragile, and lonely-for-love
Russian ballerina named Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo).
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(2) the noble, elegant, dashing Baron Felix von
Gaigern (John Barrymore), in reality, financially broke and a
gentleman jewel thief, who falls in love with the Greta Garbo character
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(3) an ambitious, young, sparkingly beautiful, on-the-make stenographer
Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford) who wants to be a movie
star and live the good life.
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(4) the terminally-ill bookkeeper and factory clerk Otto
Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore) determined to see how the rich
people live in luxury before his death.
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(5) General Director Preysing (Wallace Beery), a German-accented,
ruthless, disagreeable, cold-hearted, industrial magnate and businessman.
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The physician Dr. Otternschlag (Lewis Stone), observes the
true nature of the hotel:
What do
you do in the Grand Hotel? Eat. Sleep. Loaf around. Flirt a little. Dance a little. A hundred doors leading to one hall, and no one knows anything about the person next to them. And when you leave, someone occupies your room, lies in your bed, and that's the end.
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The film is well-known for its memorable scene
in the lonely and depressed dancer's hotel room, after
she finds the Baron hiding in her room (trapped while on a jewel heist). Not willing to leave, the Baron confesses his love for her, during screen close ups of their profiles. [Garbo also delivered her most famous line of dialogue ever, causing her to be labeled as a reclusive]:
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Baron: You're so beautiful. It tore my heart
to see you in despair like that...Please don't cry
any more...I'd no idea you were so beautiful. I'd like to take you in my arms, and not let anything happen to you, ever...I've never seen anything in my life as beautiful as you are....
Grusinskaya (getting up): You must go now.
Baron: I'm not going. You know I'm not going. Oh, please let me stay.
Grusinskaya: But I want to be alone.
Baron: That isn't true. You don't want to be alone. You were in despair just now. I can't leave you now. You, you musn't cry any more. You must forget. Let me stay just for a little while. Ah, please let me stay.
Grusinskaya: For just a minute, then.
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The lives of all of these guests are
changed dramatically in their short stay. The timid, dying
factory clerk is suddenly enlivened by luck in a gambling game and later, with plans to go to Paris and live the good life with Flaemmchen, toasting:
To life! To the magnificent, dangerous, brief, brief, wonderful life...and the courage to live it! You know, Baron, I've only lived since last night, but that little while seems longer than all the time that's gone before.
The final well-known lines of the film are delivered in the lobby by the doctor, who never gets messages at the desk, and hasn't noticed the multi-charactered dramas in the hotel and how lives are changed: