Grand Hotel

Directed by Edmund Goulding, Grand Hotel details the melodramatic comings and goings of several characters, including Greta Garbo’s Grusinskaya and Joan Crawford’s Flaemmchen, within the opulent title establishment. It’s a promising setup that is, particularly at the outset, employed to woefully (and distressingly) underwhelming effect by Goulding, as the filmmaker, working from William A. Drake’s screenplay, kicks the proceedings off with a sluggish opening stretch that contains few (if any) elements designed to capture the viewer’s interest and attention – with the initial emphasis on less-than-fleshed-out protagonists and their decidedly meandering exploits certainly heightening the far-from-enthralling vibe. And while the picture admittedly does improve once it progresses into a comparatively eventful second half, and it doesn’t hurt, obviously, that Goulding has elicited terrific performances from folks like Garbo and Crawford, Grand Hotel’s relentlessly hit-and-miss atmosphere does, in the end, cement its place as a disappointing adaptation that’s rarely as spellbinding as one might’ve hoped (and anticipated).

** out of ****