GRAND HOTEL (1932) DIR. EDMUND GOULDING

Written by Julia Scrive-Loyer 

“Always the same. People come, people go, nothing ever happens”, says Doctor Otternschlag at the beginning and ending of the movie. Nevertheless, the Grand Hotel is a little bit like the world: a collection of people trying to survive under appearances, dealing with their conflicts and dreams, falling in love, dancing, and gambling their lives away. The Doctor is definitely the most bitter character in the movie (and boy, has he got competition). But that’s precisely why he’s the one who’s able to sum up the experience at the Grand Hotel:

And what do you do in the Grand Hotel? Eat. Sleep. Loaf around. Flirt a little, dance a little. A hundred doors leading to one hall. No one knows anything about the person next to them. And when you leave, someone occupies your room, lies in your bed... that's the end.

Well, yes, that’s all for the one who leaves, that’s all for the one who dies. But not for the newly weds entering the lobby, absolutely beaming. And it’s not the case for those who never leave: the doorman, the phone operator, the receptionist who just had a daughter.

Before I talk about the characters and the plots that bring them together, we’ll analyze how the way the film was shot is illustrating Doctor Otternschlag’s statement. The first clue is in the opening credits: the view inside a kaleidoscope. An optical illusion that gives the sensation of hypnotic abundance. All the shiny details and figures multiply themselves and trick us. That illusion of “multiplicity” is essential for the movie since that multiplicity is also multiple in itself (and I promise I won’t say that word again). For example:

Camera movements and the different levels/layers of the hotel
As soon as the credits are over, the first thing we see are the hands of the phone operators passing phone calls. I’ve always imagined this being the basement of the hotel. Up in the reception, one of the employees is talking to his wife who has just given birth. He cannot ask for a free day and even says working at the hotel is like “being in prison”. Thanks for the warning, pal. During this entire first sequence, we’re listening to a collage of phone calls, all contradicting each other in terms of conflict and expectations. It’s a perfect introduction of each character, very close to theater - in which the audience has important information from the beginning. But going back to layers, there are many shots of elevators going up and down, a beautiful shot showing all the floors at the hotel and hence, all the possible stories. In terms of camera movements, the first floor seems to be the floor for sequence shots. It’s important, since this is the floor where we have more movement in terms of people. We jump smoothly from one conversation to another and if someone passing by seems more interesting to us, then we just follow them. Often, the characters are sitting or standing facing the camera, making it clear that we’re just mere spectators.The mosaic of characters and the illusion of appearances

The mosaic of characters and the illusion of appearances
Okay, so let’s get down to business. We’ve already explained how these characters are linked through image and editing. Now we’ll talk about who these characters are. Let’s start by the worst one.

No, of course we’re not talking about Joan Crawford, but the man next to her, Preysing (Wallace Beery). The poor guy doesn’t stand a chance with us. He’s the head of a company he inherited from his father, he’s an arrogant, tasteless liar and failed womanizer. But if there’s one trait that truly defines him is how pathetic he is. I know it’s horrible to say this about a character, but he doesn’t leave us much choice. There are two characters that have terrible endings in this movie, but while one is redeemed by his surroundings, Mr. Preysing is condemned.

We know that in a way, Preysing is also a victim. He’s supposed to have money - which is what all the other characters are looking for -, but he’s actually ruined as soon as he loses the deal he was hoping to get with another company. He desperately tries to keep his company alive and decides to lie. It’s only a matter of time before everything collapses. That’s why he wants to forget his troubles and spend a crazy night with Flaemmchen, the stenographer. That is one of the things that reveal his pathetic quality. He obviously doesn’t know how to deal with women and makes it clear when he talks to his friend. And while he’s trying to seduce her, he steps on other characters towards which we actually feel empathy. One of this characters is Kringelein - possibly one of the most beloved characters in the movie. So since Preysing is such an obvious villain for Kringelein, the filmmaker is instantly making us hate him.

All the characters deal with their conflicts in a “inmoral” or destructive manner. But within this specter of morality, Preysing definitely beats all of them by committing murder. And it’s not only the fact that he kills someone, it’s the fact that he does so with a pathetic excuse - they were trying to steal his wallet. Kringelein expresses it clearly: “that’s not reason to kill a man”. And even after killing him, he refuses to accept his crime and decides to lie and force his witnesses to lie. Sadly for him, no one is on his side. Moral of the story: if you’re arrogant, you’ll eventually be left alone.

What a gorgeous woman. Magnificent Greta Garbo. In this movie, she often seems to be overacting, even for a 30’s movie. But I wonder if that’s not what the character is actually acting for. Grusinskaya is a decadent ballerina who was once a huge star. I place her after Preysing because it’s a character who also seems to have what the others want: fame, recognition. It’s also the only other character that has a certain amount of ego. But unlike Preysing, we can identify much more easily with her conflict. She needs love. Love and recognition. Her fragility is palpable, and we feel she’s going to commit suicide any minute.

Her mood changes radically once she finds love in another tragic character: Baron Felix von Geigern. His loneliness, his feeling of being a misfit both in his family and in the world, gives him the capacity to empathize with her and vice versa. But even though she feels this love will save them both, it’s only an illusion. We don’t really see how her story ends. Whether she discovers or not - off screen - that the Baron is dead, it will be equally tragic. Another abandonment. So her character ends up being tragic, and even more so, since her tragedy falls upon the audience through a turn of dramatic irony (we know something she doesn’t know).

It’s literally impossible not to love Kringelein. Beautifully interpreted by Lionel Barrymore, he’s the purest soul in the movie. That’s why most of the other characters become his friends, and more importantly, that’s why Preysing seems so horrible. Kringelein is another character threatening to die from the start; through a phone call at the beginning of the movie, he states clearly that he’s very sick and that his death is imminent. He decided to take all his savings and spend his last days surrounded by the luxury he never had in his lifetime. “Treat yourself” would be his motto in the 21st century. He includes one more mission: find love. But he’s very clumsy. He doesn’t dance, he’s a bit shy, he doesn’t feel handsome in any way. But the Doctor tells him that a man without love is a dead man. The Doctor never helps.

As soon as he enters the hotel, Kringelein meets the Baron, who will be like an angel to him. Why? Because compared to the people he has met throughout his life, the Baron is good. He’s kind, elegant and generous. Of course, he doesn’t know the Baron has no money, nor that he’s a professional thief in order to survive. But even when he finds out, Kringelein doesn’t condemn him. He decides to see his kindness.

On the way, he also meets Flaemmchen, another big character full of love and generosity. Unlike the Baron, she never lies about the fact she has no money. This brings her closer to Kringelein immediately. They’re both victims of society. That’s why they end up together at the end of the movie. We don’t know if Kringelein will die days, weeks, months or years later. We don’t know if he’ll find a cure. In any case, it’s important that these characters find love in one another. A love that is deeply based on friendship.

To feel alive, Kringelein does things that destroy him, like gambling and drinking heavily. He has a good time when he’s drunk though, and says important things for all the characters like:

To the brief, brief wonderful life. And for having the courage to live it!

What a beautiful character. So he has a big conflict: he’s about to die and has to live life in the short time he has. He has a goal and a dream: for those last days to be joyful and filled with love. To attain these goals, the character never does anything “inmoral”, even though he’s not helping his weak health by drinking. But he’s always pure - in his personality and in his way of thinking. That’s why it’s so important to stand up to Preysing. Yeah, Preysing was his boss. Talk about coincidences. The thing is he takes advantage of his YOLO and drunk state of mind to tell Preysing:

Mr. Preysing, I am not taking orders from you here. (…) You think you have free license to be insulting? Believe me, you have not. You think you're superior, but you're quite an ordinary man. (…) You think I'm dirt? Well, if I'm dirt, you're a lot dirtier, Mr. Industrial Magnate Preysing! (…) You can't discharge me. I am my own master for the first time in my life. You can't discharge me. I'm sick. I'm going to die, you understand? I'm going to die, and nobady can do anything to me anymore. Nothing can happen to me anymore. Before I can be discharged, I'll be dead!

How sad that someone has to be so close to death to be able to feel free.

But if there’s someone we truly fall in love with in this movie, that would be Flaemmchen. Firstly because Joan Crawford proved she’s an excellent actress and way ahead of her time in terms of the tone of her acting. That woman is absolutely invested emotionally in each scene, and she never seems to be overacting. All her actions and facial expressions come from the situations presented in each scene, the dynamics between the characters and her deepest feelings. I was stunned by her strength. Compared to Garbo’s face, Crawford’s seems more severe and defined, but it was constantly visited by fragility and softness.

Secondly, her character: Flaemmchen is a stenographer who has had to earn money the hard way sometimes. That’s why having to have sex with Preysing seems so natural to her. It’s not ideal, and it looks like she hasn’t done it that often, but she faces the situation as naturally as possible. What bothers her is Preysing, but a job is a job. What she would really like is to be an actress, and that’s why, from what she sees, Garbo’s character is an inspiration for her. Not only for her fame, but because she gets the love of the Baron. Why is she in love with the Baron? It’s simple, she says it herself: “you’re good”. And that “simple” fact is so huge for her.

One of the things I love about this movie is how the scene where she’s about to have sex with Preysing is uncomfortable not because she doesn’t want to but precisely because of how naturally she enters the situation. Right after seeing the Baron and telling him how good and kind he is, this woman enters an enormous room, connected to Preysing’s. She comes in, with her little suitcase, she closes the connecting door and starts unpacking and getting ready for the night. Preysing comes in, they start talking and he’s surprised at how “lady-like” she is. She laughs. It’s all very normal and she seems somehow to dominate the situation. But then comes tragedy.

In the end, she ends up with the purest character, Kringelein, who offers her his money once he dies. In that moment of friendship and humanity, they both cry, happy to have each other’s kindness. They promise to go to Paris, a place they both want to meet. They take that train at the end of the movie. They seem happy. Goulding only knows what will happen later, but they’re left smiling.

Let’s finish with the Baron (John Barrymore), the black sheep, the Baron who had everything and lost everything along the way, except his elegance, his manners and his kindness. Gambling ruined him, which makes him a tragic character since he condemned himself - and keeps doing it again and again. Surprisingly, even though other characters seem more destined to die in the movie, he’s the only one who actually dies on screen. Nevertheless, Goulding graciously never shows us his body. Maybe that makes his death feel more painful and unfair, and it’s more shocking when we see his body covered by a blanket towards the end of the movie.

At the beginning of the movie, the Baron is part of a criminal organization planning to steal the Garbo’s jewels. But this never makes us hate him, we only love him more, because we understand he’s condemned. It is painful to see him enter her room. It’s painful because of her, because of him. We hope he’ll get out of this one, because he’s such a loving character, so sweet to everyone around him, always against Preysing. This goes to show how important the relations between characters to make them more or less lovable. It’s just as important as building the character individually. That’s why even though he dies after trying to steal Preysing’s wallet, all the other characters redeem him. His inmoral act becomes almost heroic.

He’s obviously a terrible thief, because he’s a sensitive thief. He ends up feeling tenderness for those he tries to steal. When he steals Garbo’s jewels, he hears she’s trying to kill herself. That makes him come out of his hiding place and talk to her and eventually end up romantically involved with her. Their closeness is beautiful; the way they hug, the way they kiss and play. They look alive. She asks him to go to Vienna with her, he says yes, he just has to find the money. O, tragic flaw, who let you in? Such flaw, makes him quit from the criminal organization, who threatens him. But that’s not what kills him.

In his journey to look for money, the Baron explains to Kringelein that he’s totally ruined, to which Kringelein responds by offering the little money he has. But the Baron can’t accept, and instead decides to gamble - activity in which he’s experienced, though not very lucky judging by his financial state. The thing is they start gambling and the Baron isn’t getting a break and keeps gambling everything, and losing everything, naturally. Kringelein on the other hand, beginner’s luck in hand, makes a generous amount of money. But he gets too drunk and ends up half dead on his bed. That’s when the Baron sees Kringelein’s wallet on the floor and decides to steal it. But same as with the ballerina, he feels too bad towards Kringelein once the latter wakes up and desperately looks for the wallet that holds his whole life. So the Baron pretends to find it and returns it.

This leads him to his last chance: stealing Preysing. The latter is in the room with Flaemmchen, but sees a shadow and goes see what’s happening. He finds the Baron about to leave the room, wallet in hand. After threatening to call the police, he ends up killing. The Baron’s fate is tragic up to a certain point. What’s more tragic than death? But for characters like this, death is a sort of freedom. Even though he dies while stealing, he doesn’t die as a thief. He dies as a good man. His friends, the hotel employees, the phone operators, insist on his kindness. So he dies in dignity, which is probably more than he could have ever hoped for in his lifetime.

In conclusion, what better place to talk about loneliness than a hotel full of people? And what’s more tragic than talking about life from the perspective of death, being the only one to redeem us, the only one to give us a chance to truly be free. Once what’s essential is lost, why be afraid?

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