Grand Hotel (1932)

  The 1932 Best Picture winner, courtesy of Warner Bros.

Baron Felix von Geigern (John Barrymore) is a broke, but basically good-hearted, aristocrat staying at the Grand Hotel in Berlin.  He is supposed to be stealing a string of pearls from famed ballerina Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo) but finds himself falling in love with her instead.  He also befriends the terminally ill Otto (Lionel Barrymore), who has cashed in his life savings to end his days in style, and the pretty stenographer, Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford), who is willing to do all sorts of things to pay the bills.  None of them are aware that time is running out for all of them.

I have to confess I didn't find this as interesting as I thought I would.  This was an all-star ensemble cast for the 30's with not one, but two Barrymore's rounding it out and I just didn't care.  I don't think I got enough about any of the characters, except Otto, to feel connected.  Also, this is practically sacrilege, but I found Garbo's accent to be almost unintelligible.  This ran for over a thousand performances on Broadway in the 80's and had a revival in 2005.  I want to see if there is a video copy of that, since I bet I would enjoy it much more.