Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD EAN: 9780790744674 Format: Closed-captioned, Black & White, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC ISBN: 0790744678 Label: Warner Home Video Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Warner Home Video Region Code: 1 Release Date: February 03, 2004 Running Time: 112 minutes Sales Rank: 23760 Studio: Warner Home Video Theatrical Release Date: 1933
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
DVD Features: Documentary:New making-of documentary Checking Out: Grand Hotel Featurette:Vitaphone musical short Nothing Ever Happens Newsreel:Premiere newsreel Other:Just a Word of Warning theatre announcement Scene Access Theatrical Trailer:Trailers of this and the 1945 remake Weekend at the Waldorf
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
Digital Life Reviews
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - All Star MGM Extravaganza
Yep, "Grand Hotel", MGMs star-studded extravaganza.
Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Lionel & John Barrymore, Wallace Beery and
more.
Despite it being extremely dated, I enjoyed this film.
The art deco sets are incredible.
The plot, OTOH, leaves something to be desired.
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 ... Read More
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 ... 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 ... Read More
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