List Price: $19.98You Pay Only: $17.99 You Save: $1.99 (10%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 9781419810565
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 1419810561
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: September 06, 2005
Running Time: 112 minutes
Sales Rank: 49327
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1933
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Editorial Review:
Description:
In this great screen drama, the glitz and glitter of Berlin's opulent Grand Hotel comes alive with its star-studded guests and employees: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery and Lionel Barrymore. Year: 1932
Amazon.com essential video:
This Academy Award winner for Best Picture is a sweeping soap opera about the guests at the Grand Hotel. Several plots intertwine, but mostly it's about Stars! Stars! Stars! Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, and both Barrymore brothers head up the cast. Garbo is luminous as Grusinskaya, the neurotic and famous-but-slipping dancer and, yes, she 'vonts to be alone.' John Barrymore is a cat burglar with blue blood and a heart of gold, and Lionel Barrymore happily caroms off him as Mr. Kringelein, a dying man who wants to live out the time he has left with the rich. Joan Crawford is perhaps the biggest surprise of the movie: as Flaemmchen, a young career girl trying to decide between secretary and tart, she is uncharacteristically funny, vivacious, and downright bubbly. Along the way we discover that money, fame, and titles don't guarantee happiness, and being a jewel thief doesn't necessarily make you a bad person. The nicest touch is the hint that other, minor plots swirl around the edges of the film, suggesting that we've only seen a small chapter of the hotel's story. Grand Hotel is a great deal of fun and an excellent chance to see some famous faces in their prime. --Ali Davis
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Money, Money, Money
Lewis Stone with his twisted and burned up face, that looks bright red when he shows his right profile, steals the show if you're looking for the freakish side to pre-Code films. They would not have allowed him to wear that makeup had the film been made a year later. It's still pretty startling and symbolizes, I suppose, Janus, the face that looks backward and forward at the same time: a suitable pendant for the mise en scene of the GRAND HOTEL, where nothing changes, everything is always the same, and yet everything happens if you look at it from a different angle.
It's sort of a mishmash of acting styles, but in general terms we are seeing the final bid of silent acting as a viable art form. Garbo in particular seems to think she is still in silents, as does Wallace Beery, and their wonderful faces are always exquisitely placed within the frame. The brothers Barrymore are in there trying to make sense of modern-day "talkie acting"--unfortunately this gives Lionel the permission he's seeking to go all over the place with those ridiculous moans, snorts and giggles. Really it's enough to make you wonder why all the characters (but Beery) think of him as such a cute "odd duck." He's about as cute as a toad. John Barrymore, on the other hand, breaks on through into the slick modernity of screen acting, calming down his larger than life gestures and sublimating them to a bigger scheme of the what the story demands. (Which is peculiar in many ways and is about as far from the present ... Read More
Rating: - All Star MGM Extravaganza
Yep, "Grand Hotel", MGMs star-studded extravaganza.
Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Lionel & John Barrymore, Wallace Beery and
more.
The art deco sets are incredible.
I never understood the attraction 30's audiences had with Greta "I
vant to be alone" Garbo.
She's not much of a "looker" and her acting is, at best, mediocre.
Her character, as written, is laughably pathetic. Poor widdle Greta,
she vants to be alone. Maybe she should go to the theatre where she
dances - nobody's there!
Lionel Barrymore cringing, whining character is also a bit annoying.
Wallace Beery is great, John Barrymore's hamminess works for him in
this movie, Joan Crawford is beautiful and turns in a credible
performance.
The DVD is great, lots of bonus extras and the video quality is excellent.
Rating: - Crawford Takes Her Place at the Grand Hotel
"Don't you understand? Don't you?" -- Barrymore telling Garbo he loves her.
Vicki Baum's popular novel was given the MGM treatment for the first time in "Grand Hotel." Though it does not hold up as well as its remake, "Weekend at the Waldorf," due to the lack of symmetry between a director and one of the stars, the overall impact is not muted in the least. It remains an entertaining time capsule to the early days of sound pictures, when MGM was just starting to roar.
The story of a diverse group of people crossing paths and dramas, forming bonds and loving, probably seems old hat today. But this is where it all began. With names like Greta Garbo, John and Lionel Barrymore, and Wallace Berry, it is really Joan Crawford who emerged the most memorable. Her sparkling performance showed she could not only hold her own among the more heralded prestige stars, but could actually overshadow them with her charisma.
Garbo is a lonely ballerina in need of love; love which jewel thief John Barrymore will unexpectedly and, surprisingly to him, give her, at least until his desperate need for money brings about tragedy. Lionel Barrymore shines as the dying man truly tasting life for the first time. His performance is adorable and the best here sans Crawford, whose worldly but wistful secretary in search of the good life leaves the most lasting mark.
John Barrymore hadn't yet lost his magic and is excellent here, his performance only muted in scenes with Garbo. ... Read More
Rating: - Radiant glamour and dazzling exuberance !
Grand Hotel is a classic whose genuine glamour, artistic refinement and admirable good taste are still motive of discussion and admiration all over the world.
The agile camerawork, the perfect illumination, superb edition, level performances and rhythm are easily carved in relief since the first shot.
Greta Garbo in her role of the Russian dancer would seem to have anticipated her own signature for the posterity with that emblematic statement "I want to be alone" . On the other hand we may watch a raising promise of the acting as Joan Crawford, besides the consecrated Lionel and John Barrymore.
A film that exudes that inimitable touch of class that has permitted it to live into a fundamental region of our affective memory with almost genetic profile.
Don't miss one of the most relevant Academy Award films ever made.
Rating: - Dazzling!
It's hard to believe that a film made in the early days of talking pictures could be so totally enjoyable for today's audience! The secret, besides a clever script, dazzling sets and costumes, of course is the cast! Wow! Some people complain that the acting is too mannered, especially in the cases of John Barrymore and Greta Garbo but I heartily disagree. Garbo plays a grand diva of the old school--she thinks big, acts big, lives big. Mumbling of the type of modern acting brought on by The Actors' Studio is not appropriate here. This is more akin to Grand Opera---big passions, big gestures. The scenes with Barrymore and Garbo are priceless--two great, beautiful people---look at those perfect profiles! The chemistry between them was apparent. How fortunate we are to have this recorded on film for us.
I did not know who played the spunky little stenographer and was amazed to discover it was Joan Crawford. She was very good here and showed a sweet, innocent quality that she lost somewhere along the way, unfortunately. The rest of the cast, as everyone else has mentioned, is ...stellar!
Visually this is just such a treat. The costumes are wonderful..I loved Garbo's (politically incorrect) full length fur coats.
Usually I have to make mental "allowances" for these old films to compensate for stilted acting and unsophisticated scripts, but this was totally not needed for Grand Hotel. Totally classy, totally enjoyable!
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