Grand Hotel

Grand Hotel (1932)

Thank the stars for a great entertainment!

Guests at a posh Berlin hotel struggle through worry, scandal, and heartache.

Date of release
1932-09-11
TMDB
7.0 / 10 (370)
Runtime
1h 52m
Genres
Drama, Romance
Director
Edmund Goulding

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: Grand Hotel and Grand Hotel
  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 1. Including: Academy Award for Best Picture

Grand Hotel is a 1932 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The screenplay by William A. Drake is based on the 1930 play by Drake, who had adapted it from the 1929 novel Menschen im Hotel by Vicki Baum.

Production

Producer Irving Thalberg purchased the rights to Vicki Baum's novel Menschen im Hotel for $13,000 and then commissioned William A. Drake to adapt it for the stage.

It opened on Broadway at the National Theatre on November 13, 1930, and ran for 459 performances. Pleased with its success, Thalberg had Drake and Béla Balázs write the screenplay, and had a budget at $700,000.

There was some controversy about Greta Garbo, with her strong Swedish accent, playing a Russian.

The film was seen as an artistic achievement in its art direction and production design. The lobby scenes were extremely well done, portraying a 360° front desk. This set allowed audiences to watch the hotel action from all around the characters. It changed the way sets were made from that point onward.

It was the first film to feature brothers Lionel and John Barrymore together. Thalberg initially cast Marie Dessler for the role of Suzette, but replaced her with Rafaela Ottiano, the only cast member from the Broadway production.

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

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