GRAND HOTEL

This 1932 commercial hit also won the Best Picture Oscar but nevertheless I was fearful that after all this time it would be creaky and generally old-timey.

Not a bit of it.

For a start the main five characters are surprisingly relatable even if they are staying at a luxury hotel (in Berlin) due to them being recognisably human beings rather than caricatures.

Perhaps most of the credit for this should go to Vicki Baum, the Austrian writer who wrote the novel (with the prosaic title of ‘People in the Hotel’) which was first adapted into a play and which then became this glossy star-studded vehicle.

Well that description might be over-egging it a little.  I doubt that Lionel Barrymore and Wallace Beery were the George Clooney and Brad Pitt of their day - they come across here more talented character actors.  And certainly at this point in her career Joan Crawford hadn’t reached full stardom.

No, the real stars here are Greta Garbo and John Barrymore.  

Garbo plays a Russian ballerina who is supposed to be past her best and feeling jaded and full of ennui - her first line is along the lines of ‘I’ve never felt so tired’.  At only 27 years old Garbo is far too young for the part but otherwise is perfect.

Her character perks up when Baron von Gaigern (John Barrymore) pops up in her room and they immediately fall in love.  She spends the rest of the film in very high spirits which must have made a pleasant change from the tragic roles she normally played but which does seem a bit of a waste of her talents.

No matter, the film would be worth watching for one scene alone, when the Baron confesses he was in her room to steal her pearls.  Garbo’s acting at this point swept away any doubts I might have had about her status as one of the great screen actresses.

She's in the film surprisingly little, but thankfully the director Edmund Goulding (a new name to me) does a great job of keeping the action flowing between several interconnected stories involving the Baron and the other three characters.

Lionel Barrymore and Wallace Beery are both convincing, as an accounts clerk with a terminal illness determined to enjoy himself, and as an arrogant captain of industry respectively.

But the real delight for me was Joan Crawford as a stenographer who is adept at using her sexuality to extract gifts and money from older men.  Although that description might make her seem an unattractive gold-digger she in fact comes across as a warm and kind person, so it's pleasing that she is the one who comes out best.

The film is surprisingly open about sex, due to the fact that the Hays Code hadn't yet come in, which contributes to this being a surprisingly sophisticated and intelligent entertainment.