Grand Hotel

Director: Edmund Goulding

1932 / 112min / DCP

A single day in the life of the titular art deco Berlin institution, whose residents include prima ballerina Greta Garbo, jewel thief John Barrymore, and further colorful characters played by Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, and Lionel Barrymore. (Producer Irving Thalberg threw every marquee name he could at this one, and MGM publicity proclaimed “More Stars Than There Are in Heaven.”) Goulding’s suave adaptation of Vicki Baum’s novel is chockablock with witty repartee and to-die-for evening wear, a Best Picture winner in which Hollywood summons up a supremely sparkling vision of Continental sophistication. “If you want to see what screen glamour used to be, and what, originally, ‘stars’ were, this is perhaps the best example of all time.” —Pauline Kael, The New Yorker

Distributor: Warner Bros.