Grand Hotel (1932)
If you are a fan of ensemble pictures from the likes of Robert Altman and Paul Thomas Anderson, which employ big casts in interconnected vignettes, you should check out (or check into) Grand Hotel. The film follows a collection of big stars playing larger-than-life characters and their various collisions with crime, romance and screwball madness.
Few films of its era reached its star capacity – both John and Lionel Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery and Greta Garbo all make appearances – and its quick pacing and charm were replicated by few films from Hollywood’s Golden Age. It was a movie that was a product of its time. Released during the beginning of the Great Depression, the ensemble picture takes place in a ravishing setting yet its humanism for the characters and their financial concerns gave it a more dramatic complexion.
Despite its looming influence on many great films and directors, Grand Hotel is, sadly, quite dated. (Other winners from the same decade on this list have aged more gracefully.) However, it is still well worth the watch for the iconic performances – this is the film where Garbo famously uttered, “I want to be alone” – and the briskly paced drama, which is romantic but hardly romanticized.
