In this film, greta garbo plays the Russian ballerina Grusinskaya, who is impulsive and facing a career crisis. She tried to commit suicide because of poor performance and was confident because of love. She is a typical melancholy and naive big star. John barrymore's gambling baron is willing to be a thief in a restaurant in order to pay off his debts, but he is friendly and full of sense of justice, and has a short and romantic relationship with Garbo. On the other hand, Leon Barrymore is a nobody who knows that he is terminally ill. He hopes to spend all his money to enjoy his last days. Unexpectedly, he not only won the friendship of the baron, but also won a lot of money through gambling. Finally, accompanied by a beautiful woman, he visited Paris, which is called "another village with a bright future". Wallace Berry plays entrepreneur Plessing. He came to the Grand Hotel to discuss a business merger. At a disadvantage, he took risks and signed a contract by lying to gain the trust of the other party. While he was proud, he wanted to buy a beautiful young stenographer to accompany him on a business trip to England, but he got himself killed. Joan Crawford plays the stenographer Franz. On the one hand, she is very happy to date the baron; On the other hand, she did not hesitate to sell her soul under the lure of money, which reflected the sadness of the clerk.
In the first TopShot of the film, a row of more than a dozen telephone operators are busy answering the phone, and then many guests are calling in the telephone room to explain their purpose of coming to the hotel. The technique is simple and direct, but because the delay is too long and there are too many conversations, the prelude will not end until people start to get bored. The story officially begins between the lobby and the counter of the hotel. I saw all kinds of characters coming in and out, and the scene was quite lively. Several protagonists enter the play separately, showing their identity and personality. This technique is mostly used in group drama, and the wonderful effect depends on the accuracy of the director's scene scheduling and the proper coordination of the actors' performance rhythm. The performance of this film is quite general, and it can only achieve the effect of explaining things. After that, the scene rises with the elevator to the upstairs rooms and corridors. Except for one or two panoramic shots, which can show the spectacular image of the hotel, most of the shots are small-sized, which may be the landscape limitation caused by the setting of the studio. If this film is shot in the hotel, it should make the image effect of the whole film appear flexible and magnificent.
The plot is divided into three main lines: first, the baron sneaked into the actress's room and stole the jewels. When he found that she wanted to die, he came forward to comfort her and expressed his affection. The actress admired this romantic and mysterious man very much. Not only did she not pursue his theft, but she also accepted his love and agreed to leave by train together the next day. Unexpectedly, the baron was found stealing in the entrepreneur's room, and the entrepreneur accidentally killed him. The actress was still obsessed with the baron when she left the hotel, so everyone had to lie to her that the baron had gone to the railway station. Second, klinger Lai was ridiculed everywhere, and only the Baron showed friendly concern for him. Colin was very grateful and wanted to give the baron financial help, but he was turned down. Colin followed the rules all his life, and only at the end of his life did he openly dance and gamble for the first time, and he won a lot of money. The baron who lost all his money stole Colin's wallet when he was drunk. Later, when he saw that he had lost his wallet, he felt very sorry and skillfully returned the stolen money to Colin. When the entrepreneur killed the baron by mistake, it was Colin who caught the murderer and called the police, which became another reward for the baron. Third, the stenographer was accosted by the baron in the corridor, and was hooked up because he didn't expect the baron to date an ordinary little woman like her. Unexpectedly, when she hurried to the appointment, the baron had won the love of the actress and introduced her to Colin. Since she was lovelorn, she wanted money, so at the request of the entrepreneur, she promised to stay in a hotel and prepare to sell herself for money. When the entrepreneur was arrested by the police, she volunteered to accompany Colin, because Colin would not live long and all the money would belong to her after his death.
The whole movie is quite popular and fluent, and several plot lines are clearly explained. However, due to the inherent limitations of the hotel, some places are easy to describe in depth. For example, it is unreasonable for the baron to stay in the hotel and drink and dance with Colin and the stenographer without trying to find money. However, several big stars can really grasp the character and situation of the characters and give full play to their wonderful acting skills, which makes up for the dullness in the atmosphere of this film. Even Garbo's seemingly exaggerated performance is full of style because it fits the ballet dancer's own emotional mentality. Members of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts will choose The Grand Hotel from the eight best films nominated this year, which should be an affirmation of the new attempt of this film and a tribute to the Hollywood star system.
The whole film takes a luxury hotel in Berlin as the stage of life, showing the bizarre experiences of five groups of characters in one day. Although the narrative technique of director Edmund goulding is only quite satisfactory, the performances of several big stars are quite wonderful, including: greta garbo, who plays a Russian ballerina facing a career crisis; John barrymore plays the gambling king; Lionel Barrymore plays a nobody who is terminally ill; Wallace Billy as an entrepreneur. These characters interpret the joys and sorrows of life in a three-line staggered way, and the plot develops smoothly, but the scene is limited to the hotel, but it seems a bit inadequate. This story reappeared in the later Berlin Hotel and Weekend at Waldorf Astoria, and was adapted into a Broadway musical.
This special story structure is the first time in Hollywood movies. More interestingly, all five leading roles were played by MGM's big stars, which is an unprecedented record. Therefore, although the narrative skill of director Edmund goulding is only satisfactory, it is Starlight Glimmer because of the excellent performances of the stars.