Hotel Imperial

Hotel Imperial (1939)

TRAPPED BY LOVE IN THE MAD MAELSTROM OF WAR!

It is the fate of a small frontier town, adjoining the no-man's-land where the Russians and Austrians are fighting out one of the final campaigns of World War I, to be occupied one day by the Russians, the next by the Austrians, and the inhabitants soon acquire a complacent view of the changing allegiances. To the town comes Ann Warschaska, intent on avenging the suicide of her sister, who has killed herself after being betrayed by an Austrian officer. She knows no more about his identity than the number of his room at the "Hotel Imperial".

Date of release
1939-05-11
TMDB
7.0 / 10 (3)
Runtime
1h 19m
Genres
Drama
Director
Robert Florey

Casting

Interesting facts

Hotel Imperial is a 1939 American dramatic film directed by Robert Florey. It stars Isa Miranda and Ray Milland.

Production

Lajos Bíró's play Hotel Imperial was adapted into a silent film in 1927. Paramount Pictures started production on an adaption of the play in the 1930s under the title Invitation to Happiness, to please its lead actor Marlene Dietrich. Lewis Milestone was meant to direct the film, but production on Anything Goes took too long resulting in Henry Hathaway being selected. Fritz Lang and Richard Boleslawski were considered for the directorial role.

Dietrich refused to perform unless the script was changed due to its negative depiction of her role. The film's producer, Benjamin Glazer, left after four days of shooting in protest of Dietrich's control over the film and was replaced by Ernst Lubitsch. The script was edited by Hathaway and Grover Jones and retitled the film to I Loved a Soldier.

Merle Oberon was offered Dietrich's role, but declined the offer. Margaret Sullavan was selected to replace Dietrich and the film was retitled to Hotel Imperial. Hathaway supported her selection, stating that "She didn't care how ugly she looked", due to her acceptance of the negative role. However, Paramount wanted to use footage of Dietrich and have Sullavan attempt to resemble her in order to have the footage match.

In 1938, Walter Wanger offered to restart production on the film with Dietrich as the lead. Dietrich, who appeared in multiple box office failures and was declared box office poison, accepted the proposal. Wanger brought Hathaway back after telling him of Dietrich's return. However, Dietrich demanded that Josef von Sternberg be selected to direct the film. Hathaway stated "Tell her to fuck off".

Isa Miranda was hired to replace Dietrich and the script was significantly altered, including changing Anna Warschawska from a maid to a famous actor. Robert Florey was selected to direct the film. Filming using a script written by Gilbert Gabriel and Robert Thoeren began in November 1938. Ray Milland suffered a concussion and lacerations to his left hand after an accident during a scene with a cavalry charge and needed nine stitches.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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