Grand Hotel (1932 film)

Grand Hotel
Original poster
Directed byEdmund Goulding
Written byWilliam A. Drake
Based onGrand Hotel
1930 play
by William A. Drake and Grand Hotel
1929 novel
by Vicki Baum
Produced byIrving Thalberg
StarringGreta Garbo
John Barrymore
Joan Crawford
Wallace Beery
Lionel Barrymore
Lewis Stone
Jean Hersholt
CinematographyWilliam H. Daniels
Edited byBlanche Sewell
Music byWilliam Axt
Charles Maxwell
Production
company
Distributed byLoew's, Inc.
Release dates
  • April 12, 1932 (1932-04-12) (New York City, premiere)
Running time
112 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$750,000[1]
Box office$2,594,000[2]

Grand Hotel is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The screenplay by William A. Drake is based on the 1930 play by Drake, who had adapted it from the 1929 novel Menschen im Hotel by Vicki Baum. To date, it is the only film to have won the Academy Award for Best Picture without being nominated in any other category.

MGM remade the film as Week-End at the Waldorf in 1945. The German remake Menschen im Hotel was released in 1959, and it served as the basis for the 1989 Tony Award-winning stage musical Grand Hotel. In 1977, MGM announced a musical remake, to take place at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Hotel and directed by Norman Jewison, but the production was cancelled.[3]

Grand Hotel has proven influential in the years since its release. The iconic line "I want to be alone", famously delivered by Greta Garbo, placed number 30 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes. In 2007, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[4][5]

  1. ^ Schallert, Edwin. "Film Costs Hit Both Extremes: Poverty Row spends Less, Big Studios More Million-dollar Features "Shoot the Works" Inexpensive "Arty" Hit Due to Make Appearance". Los Angeles Times October 16, 1932: B13.
  2. ^ The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  3. ^ Rothman, Hal; Davis, Mike (March 15, 2002). The Grit Beneath the Glitter: Tales from the Real Las Vegas. University of California Press. pp. 41–42. ISBN 9780520225381. Retrieved February 5, 2017.
  4. ^ "Librarian of Congress Announces National Film Registry Selections for 2007". Library of Congress. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
  5. ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved October 8, 2020.