Product 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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22084 in DVD
• Brand: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2005-09-06
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 112 minutes

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

A 5-star Movie in a 3-star DVD package
The extra features on this DVD edition are highly desirable -- get the DVD for the features, but get a recent VHS tape for a better print. The DVD release is so grainy it's fuzzy and often seems out-of-focus. Contrast is murky is many scenes. In one specific scene: when Joan Crawford enters a dark room and discovers Beery standing over the baron's corpse; the grim heaviness of the textures and depth of shadows, the stark horror on Crawford's face -- these are lost in the fuzzy grain of the DVD but are clearly preserved on VHS. Having seen this film many times on the big screen and on tape, it appears that the DVD seriously lacks the smooth, almost lush visual quality of earlier issues. This is also one of those old-line films that looks gorgeous on a big theater screen but suffers dramatically on smaller devices. Despite the shortcomings of the DVD, this is still the grande ol' Grand Hotel of yore, a relic (but a magnificent one) of late Victorian melodrama (and dig Rachmaninoff in the background during Garbo's scenes!). But I'd still advise the VHS tape if you want the rich graphics of the original. It also appears that the master for this transfer, whatever its source, has visible physical defects that I don't see on earlier tapes. The 2-channel DVD sound is not representative of the weighty mono original, has a clearly audible hiss and too much treble. The sexy undertone of Garbo's voice is missing here, as is J. Barrymore's dramatic baritone (Compare scene 8 on the DVD when Barrymore mutters "I don't like your tone", with the VHS version -- audibly, the sound of that line on the tape is more darkly effective). The look and sound of the DVD fail to convey the unique, all-important "deco" qualities that somehow add so much to the original film's overall effect. I'd suggest that the VHS edition is something most classic movie fans will appreciate more than they would the DVD. An aside: originally, Garbo didn't want to share star honors with Crawford out of fear that Crawford would diminish Garbo's role. Garbo was partially correct: Crawford steals the show, but Garbo is still a sight to behold.

GRAND ENTERTAINMENT.....
The Best Picture of 1931-2 "Grand Hotel" deserved it's Oscar and deserves it's place in history as a forerunner of star-studded films to come. The cast alone is worth watching the film for. But the film stands on it's own as well and is smoothly done considering the intertwining stories of various people whose paths (and fates) cross in that posh Berlin establishment. Greta Garbo as a depressed ballerina is one reason to see this but there's John and Lionel Barrymore in great roles, Joan Crawford as an ambitious stenographer with moral issues, Wallace Beery and other recognizable actors in character roles. Warner Bros. has done a good job with the DVD print so this is definitely a collector's item. There are some amazing interior shots inside the hotel with a wonderful art deco look to them. This hotel where "nothing ever happens" is a must for vintage classic film lovers. It's a rare treasure that's been wonderfully preserved for future film lovers to enjoy. See it for a classic look at what going to the movies in the 30's used to be about.

GRAND HOTEL IN LESS THAN GRAND TRANSFER
"Grand Hotel" concerns guests staying at Berlin's Grand Hotel. There's the high strung, tempermental ballerina (Greta Garbo), the sassy vamp-like stenographer (Joan Crawford), the boorish industrialist (Wallace Beery), the stricken labourer (Lionel Barrymore)and the devilishly handsome baron (John Barrymore). These seemingly separate lives cross over - some happily so, others with tragic circumstances - all thoroughly absorbing and brilliantly performed. At the time of its release "Grand Hotel" was the first movie to feature more than one star above the title credits.
TRANSFER: After years of looking as though the camera negative had been fed through a meat grinder, this DVD digital remastering is a considerable improvement. Having said that, a lot of work is still needed to get this one looking up to par. Solid blacks are about the best thing on this DVD. Contrast levels appear too low in many of the scenes. There are a considerable number of age related artifacts and quite a bit of film grain present on this 70 plus year old classic. The audio has been extensively cleaned up but continues to exhibit considerable hiss. Truly, if this is a special edition it's one of the poorest I've seen.
EXTRAS: Some featurettes that round out the history - if too briefly, of this classic film.
BOTTOM LINE: "Grand Hotel" is undeniably engrossing and a brilliant Oscar winner that is sure to enthrall for decades to come! For the film and NOT the transfer, this is an absolute must for your film library!!!