Grand Hotel

9/4/2025

This starts with a rather downbeat description of life in the Grand Hotel where “…nothing ever happens”. Well maybe it is supposed to look like that, like the swan gliding effortlessly whilst it’s legs paddle like hell, but in reality it is a potpourri of the actually wealthy, the pretend wealthy, the aspirational, the petulant and one thoroughly decent old gent called “Kringelein”. He (Lionel Barrymore) has been given a terminal diagnosis by his doctor and so has decided to push the boat out and spend his remaining time, and money, enjoying caviar and champagne amongst those whom he hopes are a better class of individual. What he gets, though, is his erstwhile employer “Preysing” (Wallace Beery) who is up to no good with his investors; the charming “Baron” (John Barrymore) who hasn’t two