Tony Maietta:
Hello, I'm film historian Tony Maietta.

Brad Shreve:
And I'm Brad Shreve, who's just a guy who likes movies.

Tony Maietta:
We discuss movies and television from Hollywood's golden age. We go behind the scenes and share our opinions too.

Brad Shreve:
And, of course, being the average guy, my opinions are the ones that matter.

Tony Maietta:
As does your self-delusion. Welcome to Going Hollywood.

Brad Shreve:
Tony, it's time to record.

Tony Maietta:
I think so. I've never been so tired in my life.

Brad Shreve:
You've got to go on.

Tony Maietta:
I can't record tonight. I can't.

Brad Shreve:
You're breaking your contract.

Tony Maietta:
But I want to be alone. I'm not quite that diva. Like, wait a minute, maybe.

Brad Shreve:
I almost think that your Greta Garbo, though not great, is better than your William Daniels.

Tony Maietta:
My William Daniels? Oh, my Boston. My St. Elsewhere. That was pretty good. I'm sorry. That was pretty good. I can't dance tonight. I just love how extreme she is in that.

Brad Shreve:
I want to tell you something. Before this movie, which we're talking about Grand Hotel, I had seen the whole, I want to be alone in cartoons and stuff and never knew where it came from.

Tony Maietta:
Comes from this movie.

Brad Shreve:
And when she said it, I'm like, oh, my God, I just learned something.

Tony Maietta:
You know, it's interesting because that phrase became such a part of her Persona that people said that she said it in real life, and she never said it in real life. She never said, I want to be alone. What she said was, I want to be let alone. And she even commented on it because there's the difference. You know, it's not that I want to be by myself. I want everyone to leave me alone. But it's funny, that became such a part of her Persona that she actually made fun of it in Ninotchka, where she plays the Russian commissar. Her comrades say, would you like to be alone? And she goes, no.

Tony Maietta:
It's very light and simple. No.

Brad Shreve:
Well, it's like Cary Grant and Judy. Judy.

Tony Maietta:
Judy, of course. So, yes, we are indeed talking about Grand Hotel from MGM in 1932. And, you know, we've been talking about. Not intentionally. We've been talking about a lot of All Star cast lately. And my original idea was to talk about dinner at 8. Because we had talked about. I had referenced how Ernest Borg 9 and Stella Stevens were kind of like this 70s version of Wallace Beery and Gene Harlow.

Tony Maietta:
And I thought, oh, that'd be fun. Then we could watch dinner at 8 pre code. I would love to talk about dinner at 8. Because I personally love Dinner Date. And then I watched Dinner at Eight and I'm like, I still love it, but I really think we need to go to the granddaddy of it all of all the All Star cast. Because this truly is. We've said a lot about this is the Granddaddy. This is the granddaddy.

Tony Maietta:
Grand Hotel truly is the granddaddy of all All Star cast. It had never been done before. And everybody thought it was a bad idea. Except one man who we'll talk about Irving Thalberg. And it set the standard for all the way up to today to the Glass Onion, whatever that movie was on Netflix. The Glass Onion. Is that right? The Glass Onion.

Brad Shreve:
The Glass Onion was the sequel to Knives Out.

Tony Maietta:
Knives Out, Yeah. All the way up to. Yeah, exactly.

Brad Shreve:
Don't mention the Glass Onion. I love Knives Out. We won't mention the other one.

Tony Maietta:
So, yes, yes. I'm excited about talking about Grand Hotel because it is a movie that I truly adore. I was wondering, Brad, had you ever seen Grand Hotel in its entirety before I told you, let's do Grand Hotel.

Brad Shreve:
No.

Tony Maietta:
No. You just saw the clips.

Brad Shreve:
Never. And I don't even know if I ever saw the clips I saw.

Tony Maietta:
I want to be alone. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
Like, I know there was a Bugs Bunny cartoon where they.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
You know, they used to show those old movie stars, and as a kid, you had no idea who they were.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah. So. So good. Well, then this will be a fresh take. I'm not sure what kind of take it's going to be. I was getting a little nervous about this. I hope we're going to be okay, though, because I think this movie. This is.

Tony Maietta:
Even though it's pre code, and we've talked about pre code a million times or not a million times, but we know way back in Babyface, we talked about pre code. I talked about what the code was. I think there's so much. There's so many fascinating things about this movie, and I'm excited to talk about it also, because it has. I mean, do you want to say who this movie has? Do you want to go ahead and list the all stars in this all star cast?

Brad Shreve:
Absolutely, I would love to, because that is one thing. When I saw the list, I was like, wow. Just wow.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
So I'm going to give the. The stars names and then later I'm going to try with the characters. Characters Challenging place in Germany. Yes. And I will get to that because I'm really challenged by accents and pronunciations when it comes to. I used to be really good at it. I'm still pretty good as a rule, but some of them get me.

Tony Maietta:
Well, it's a Berlin between the wars in which none of the characters have a German accent except. Except Wallace Beery.

Brad Shreve:
I thought they were all pretty good.

Tony Maietta:
Well, I mean, come on.

Brad Shreve:
Considering how bad they get sometimes in some mov. And they come and go. I thought they were pretty Good.

Tony Maietta:
You list the cast, and I'll tell you what their accent is.

Brad Shreve:
Okay. I'm going to skip who normally gets number one and go to who I think is number one, which is John Barrymore.

Tony Maietta:
Ah.

Brad Shreve:
As Baron Felix von Geigon. Is that right?

Tony Maietta:
Gigan.

Brad Shreve:
And I'm not going to give the other names yet, but I. Because everything pivoted around him.

Tony Maietta:
Yes. Yes.

Brad Shreve:
He was the centerpiece of the whole film theater.

Tony Maietta:
Theater dialect. He's a Barrymore. Yes.

Brad Shreve:
And then we had Greta Garbo. I want to be alone.

Tony Maietta:
Swedish Joan.

Brad Shreve:
Yes. Joan Crawford, who was the most beautiful I've ever seen her. I don't know if I've ever seen her this young.

Tony Maietta:
I'm excited to talk about. Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
When she first walked out, I didn't recognize her. And only when she gave a smile or a smirk and I saw the cheekbones, I'm like, oh, my God, that's Joan.

Tony Maietta:
Joan. It's a very young, very gorgeous.

Brad Shreve:
Yes.

Tony Maietta:
Joan speaking Mid Atlantic, which, if anybody's watched my Wired video, I will tell you is a non. Is not a real dialect, but it's what everybody spoke in early talkies. So there was a standardization of speech. Yes. Wallace Beery speaking German accent. He's the only one who had a German accent. Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
Yes. Lionel Barrymore as Kringlein.

Tony Maietta:
Yes.

Brad Shreve:
Yes. And the last one I'm going to list is Louis Stone. Now he.

Tony Maietta:
Yes, go ahead.

Brad Shreve:
And he did not really have a story revolve around him, but he was very integral to a lot of the stories.

Tony Maietta:
No. All he did was walk around and go, nothing ever happens, people.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
He was a miserable man. Almost as miserable as Greta.

Tony Maietta:
Another famous. Another famous tagline. Yeah, we did pretty well on those. On those.

Brad Shreve:
Well, I haven't given the last name.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, go ahead.

Brad Shreve:
Okay, so we'll say Greta is Grusenkaya.

Tony Maietta:
Pretty good. Gruzenskaya. Pretty close.

Brad Shreve:
I already did. Baron Felix von Geiger.

Tony Maietta:
Yes.

Brad Shreve:
They kept calling Joan Crawford phlegm.

Tony Maietta:
Right.

Brad Shreve:
But it's Flemishin, and that's right. I'm gonna show my age here because this is a very old joke. There was a joke called what? And I kept thinking about through this whole film, what is green and slides on ice?

Tony Maietta:
I can guess.

Brad Shreve:
Peggy Flem.

Tony Maietta:
I've never heard that.

Brad Shreve:
I haven't heard that decades. It stayed with me forever.

Tony Maietta:
Flemchen. Yes.

Brad Shreve:
But they always called her phlegm.

Tony Maietta:
Yes.

Brad Shreve:
Wallace Beery as general director. Pricing.

Tony Maietta:
Right.

Brad Shreve:
Lionel Barrymore as Otto Kringlen. Kringlen.

Tony Maietta:
Kringlein.

Brad Shreve:
And they. Cringleine.

Tony Maietta:
Not crinoline. Cringoline.

Brad Shreve:
Yes, they. I should have got that. Because that's all he was ever called, was Kringleine.

Tony Maietta:
Kringeline.

Brad Shreve:
And then Louis Stone is Dr. Otternschlag.

Tony Maietta:
That's good. You know, you pretty much got it there. You pretty much got it there.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah. I'm really bad at accents. And sometimes these pronunciations. When I first heard it and heard Greta Garbo talking, I'm like, oh, I'm gonna. For the first time, I'm gonna turn on closed caption. And I did watch the whole thing with closed caption. But I'm happy to say, and probably because they didn't really do that good with accents, I didn't need it much. There were a couple times where I didn't catch what they said and I was able to read it real quick.

Brad Shreve:
But I probably could. I would have been fine with it off.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah. You know.

Brad Shreve:
Well, there was distracting.

Tony Maietta:
There was a bit of controversy about a Swedish woman playing a Russian ballerina. There was also a bit of controversy about a non ballerina playing. And even Garbo. Garbo thought she was too old. Garbo was 27 and she thought she was too old to play this part. But we'll go into the backstory about that.

Brad Shreve:
But it's not like she had to dance in the film.

Tony Maietta:
Well, she tries. She gets up on her toes once, you know, but, I mean, she moved. Okay. Gotta set.

Brad Shreve:
Joan showed her legs more than Greta.

Tony Maietta:
Well, yeah, well, because Greta had nice legs. But that wasn't Greta Garbo's appeal. Greta Garbo's appeal was her face. That face. You can't. That face screams glamour. That face screams the movies. That face screams a movie star.

Tony Maietta:
So same with Crawford, by the way. You know, I always have found. And this is interesting because Grand Hotel is. Was, in essence, any film with Greta Garbo was a Greta Garbo film. There was just no way around it. Greta Garbo was the biggest thing in the world. I say that all the time when I'm talking about people, but she really was. She wasn't just the biggest star at mgm.

Tony Maietta:
She was the biggest star anywhere. And everybody was in awe of her. Her co workers were in awe of her. Bette Davis didn't work with her, but Bette Davis was around in awe of her. Hepburn, in awe of her. Crawford was certainly in awe of Garbo. So it's kind of strange that, you know, you, you, you. This movie, she gets top billing and it's not Even Greta Garbo.

Tony Maietta:
It's Garbo like burnt heart, like Dua. In fact, that's why how they got Garbo to do it was Thalberg said to her, we'll bill you just your last name. Because she wasn't crazy about Greta. She didn't like the name Greta. And she's like, oh, I can be like Dusa. I could be like Bernhardt. Hi. So it's a Greta Garbo film for all intents and purposes, except in my opinion, it is not.

Tony Maietta:
Because to me, always, from the first moment I saw this, the revelation in this film to me is Joan Crawford. Because if you only know Joan Crawford from Mildred Pierce, if you only know Joan Crawford from the women, I'll even throw in the women there. And God knows, if you only know Joan Crawford from Baby Jane, you don't know Joan Crawford. Because this is the most luminous, sexy, stunning, vivacious. Isn't she just. I don't know. My opinion is she is. She just scorches the screen in this movie.

Brad Shreve:
She does. She really stands out. I. I really don't see Greta Garbo as the star of this film. I know she gets caught bailing because of that era, but I think there were other storylines and other characters I found far more interesting. We'll get into those. In fact, I want to do the description of the show pretty quick because we are going to be talking about all these different characters.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah. If you're going to see a Greta Garbo film. If you want to see a Greta Garbo film. I would not. If someone said to me, watch a Greta Garb. What's a Greta Garpa film? I would not say Grand Hotel off the bat. I never would. I would say Ninotchka.

Tony Maietta:
I would say Camille. I would say Queen Christina. I wouldn't say Grand Hotel, because. And we'll talk about why I wouldn't say that, but I think you're absolutely right in that respect. In that respect. Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah. So let me just describe the film, because we're going to be talking about all these different characters. This is not one story. It's basically a series of intertwined vignettes at a luxurious hotel in Berlin. And think of. And these. These are bad examples. I'm not comparing the quality.

Brad Shreve:
But California Sweet, and what was that awful Christmas movie over in the uk?

Tony Maietta:
Oh, love, actually.

Brad Shreve:
Oh, God. Yes. It's similar to those, in fact, that you have all these different stories going on, but they tie together in some way.

Tony Maietta:
I can't believe you don't like love.

Brad Shreve:
Actually I watch.

Tony Maietta:
I guess we're not doing that Christmas movie.

Brad Shreve:
No, we are not doing love. Well, we can if you want to hear my thoughts.

Tony Maietta:
No, no, no, no, no, no.

Brad Shreve:
It's Christmas. I'm trying to be more positive these days and I have very little I can say about that one. So anyway, it's this luxurious hotel in Berlin and Baron Felix von Gaitern is the center of it all. He is a once wealthy baron who is now a thief. And the people that the different stories revolve around him. One he is trying to woo famous ballerina. Say her name again.

Tony Maietta:
Grusinskaya.

Brad Shreve:
Greta Garbo. And Greta Garbo is.

Tony Maietta:
Just call her Garbo. Just call her Garbo.

Brad Shreve:
Okay. Garbo is a world famous dancer who is tired. She's basically seriously mentally ill. And we'll get into that why? I think so. But this woman has serious problems beyond just being tired.

Tony Maietta:
She's gonna kill her.

Brad Shreve:
He befriends. Well, yeah, but there's more than that. He befriends Otto Clingan or Kringaline Kringleen. Who is Kringeline? Who is a. He's a bookkeeper. Just an average guy who found out he's dying and he's spending every last time he has to live it up. He's not doing really well at trying to live it up because he's a very humble man. But he kind of friends Baron.

Brad Shreve:
The Baron. And sometimes they're friends and sometimes they're being schemed against, but it works out pretty well. Now Otto worked for crooked industrialist Prizing who actually happens to be there. Now the. His boss has no idea who he is. It's like a Mr. Burns thing. Has not got a clue who he is and doesn't care.

Brad Shreve:
And then the last one we have is Joan Crawford as. And she is a stenographer for the rich industrial.

Tony Maietta:
I think let's just do actors names because I don't. I don't want. I mean they're very difficult, you know. I don't want you Gruesen sky and von Geigegan Because P.S. we can just say who the actors are. People. Get it? People.

Brad Shreve:
If I didn't have this chart in front of me, I would never be able to remember who.

Tony Maietta:
So yeah, and they're all in this hotel in Berlin between the wars. And it's everything that happens to them. And what's really interesting about this. There's so many things that are interesting about this film. But you know this. I don't know if you noticed this, but, you know, I'm sure you did. The Cedric Gibbons, the production designer, Famous, famous production designer at MGM, created this incredible set of. Back in the 30s, it was called.

Tony Maietta:
In 1932, when this film was made, it was called Modern because the term Art deco did not exist until the 60s. Modern. And it is eye popping and it's all circles. The reception desk is a circle. The lobby is a circle. The hotel is a circle. And you have those fabulous overhead shots of the circle. And the stories are circles.

Tony Maietta:
The stories are circular because these characters are all circling around each other, interacting with each other sometimes and affecting each other sometimes. But they all connect like a circle. Except to her everlasting regret. Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo. Joan Crawford was so excited to be in a film not only with two Barrymores, but with Greta Garbo. And then she doesn't have a scene with her.

Brad Shreve:
Oh, well, that's what I was trying once you said that. I'm like, did they ever have a scene together?

Tony Maietta:
They never had a scene together. But, you know, think about it. You're Lucille Lucer from San Antonio, Texas. You came up in burlesque. You were a showgirl. You scratched and clawed your way to the very, very top to where you're in a film with, as I said, not only two Barrymores, but Garbo. I mean, it's. It's astounding to me.

Tony Maietta:
And not only that, in my opinion, and this is just my opinion, you come off the best. I think she's. I find her. So I reset it. I just find her a revelation in this film. Absolutely.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah. And, you know, from the. As the story goes, Garbo was this famous dancer, whereas Crawford was a stenographer. And even though they interacted with the same people, it's. It's very likely they would not have connected.

Tony Maietta:
No.

Brad Shreve:
Unless they happen to cross paths in the hallway.

Tony Maietta:
But they don't even cross paths in the hallway.

Brad Shreve:
No, they don't. Poor John.

Tony Maietta:
Apparently they had three meetings. They met. They met one time when they were coming down the stairs at their dressing room and garbage or something else said, we do not have a scene together. And then they met another time. Joan Crawford headed over to her house. And so, you know, they were at the same studio. Obviously they knew each other. But no, they don't have a scene together.

Tony Maietta:
So what I find fascinating about Grand Hotel, as we said, as a pre code film, which is a. Which is a misnomer. We've said this before. Pre Code is A misnomer, because there was still a code. The code was established in 1930. The filmmakers just didn't follow it too strictly. And that's because the man heading the Studio Relations Committee at this point, which was a precursor to the Production Code Administration, his name was Jason Joy. And he wasn't as much as a hard ass as his successor, Joseph Breen.

Tony Maietta:
He's the one who took over in 1934. And with the Catholic of decency, the code came down and that was it. So they could get away with a lot of stuff, but there was still censorship. There was still censorship in states. And one of the reasons Joan Crawford didn't want to do this movie was because she knew most likely a lot of her scenes would be cut because she is playing a sonographer who also happens to be. What do you think she is, besides a stenographer? Air quotes, Brad?

Brad Shreve:
Well, I didn't necessarily catch that she was, but she certainly seems to be a high dollar prostitute.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah, yeah. Well, no, she is. Stenographer is kind of like, you know, euphemism. Yes, she types, okay, she types. But she wants to be in pictures too. She wants to be in films. And did you notice.

Brad Shreve:
Right, she wants to.

Tony Maietta:
Did you notice?

Brad Shreve:
Because it's never mentioned again.

Tony Maietta:
Here's a callback that I can recall. Here's a call back to the Seven Year Itch. Do you notice that she shows Wallace Beery a modeling layout when they're first working that she's in? And it's intimated that she's nude in it. Now, because this is pre code, they didn't have to insert her in a bathing suit really badly. You just get the idea, oh, she's an artist model. She's also going to, you know, he gets a room for her at the hotel. So yes, it's very. And she ends up in the end going off with.

Tony Maietta:
With Kringlein. This is a woman, this is a paid companion, basically is who she is. And she's wonderful in it, but she didn't want to do it for those reasons. She was also very intimidated by the fact that she was working with Garbo and she was working with. Well, she didn't like Barry. Nobody liked Beery. She was working with the Barrymores. This was something for her.

Tony Maietta:
So it was really fascinating. And you know what's really remarkable is that every single person in this film was a star in their own vehicles. It's not like we say, all star, but Stella Stevens wasn't making her own films. Yeah, Ernest Borgnine wasn't making his films. Every single person in this cast was a star in their own film. So to bring them together was a really crazy proposition to most people. But you have to put yourself in the time frame. This is 1932, okay? The worst year of the Depression, I believe it's, it's often called the worst year of, of the Depression.

Tony Maietta:
And Hollywood had been very lucky in the fact that when the, When Wall street crashed and depression and the Depression happened, it had been pretty unscathed for a while. But by 1931, they started to feel the effects. And by 1931, only MGM was showing a profit out of all the studios in Hollywood. Every other studio in Hollywood was in trouble except mgm. And Thalberg being very. We'll talk about who Thalberg was. I just threw the name out there. Thalberg, being very farsighted, thought, okay, we need some insurance here if we're gonna hold on to this.

Tony Maietta:
And the idea of an all star cast went against the grain of most thinking of the time. Because the thinking of the time was you don't dilute the potential box office of all these other movies by putting these stars into one film. Joan Crawford could carry her own film. Garbo could carry her own film. Why are you putting them together? Don't do that. But that's exactly what made it such a massive hit and what also made sense at mgm. Because MGM was really the only studio that could do this. MGM's famous.

Tony Maietta:
Do you know MGM's famous tagline in the. In classic Hollywood about stars?

Brad Shreve:
No.

Tony Maietta:
MGM was a studio that had more stars than there are in heaven.

Brad Shreve:
Oh, I, I have heard that, but I would never remember. Yes, I heard that.

Tony Maietta:
It's very true. It's very true. Only MGM could have done this because MGM did have more stars than there are in the heavens. And they were all under contract, so they didn't have to go borrow a star. They didn't have to go borrow Gary Cooper. They didn't have to go borrow Jimmy Cagney and pay Warner Brothers $300,000. They had them right there at the studio on their regular salary. So they could do that and they could do it fairly cheaply.

Tony Maietta:
And one more thing. All of these stars, except Garbo, of course, we're making other films at the same time they were making this film. You know, that's what's so crazy. We think, oh, no, I'm going to make this film for a certain amount of time. No. Joan Crawford went to work and she worked on, say, Grand Hotel in the Morning. And then she went. She worked on some scenes from Letty Linden, which was her film right after this.

Tony Maietta:
You know, the Barrymores were doing arson. Lupin. It's. It's. It's just. Only Garba was the only one who's saying, I do one film at the time. But it's. So this was really, when you think about it, it was really an.

Tony Maietta:
A very smart and economical way to ensure box office. And that's Thalberg. That's Irving Thalberg.

Brad Shreve:
Okay. You brought up the Depression and how they survived. And I. I've heard theories. I want to know if there's accuracy to this. One of the reasons why they survived so well and actually ended up doing very well throughout the Depression is because they're big musicals, because people needed to escape. Is that a theory or is there anything to that?

Tony Maietta:
Well, musicals had their big. No, that's not really true because musicals had a real fallow period, especially at this time. Musicals were big when talkies first started. 29 Broadway melody. Huge, Huge, huge. And then they died very quickly in the early 30s because people got used to the novelty of it. Musicals didn't really have a resurgence until Warner Brothers did 42nd Street. This was not MGM's great musical period.

Tony Maietta:
Okay, so when Warner Brothers made 42nd street, there was a resurgence. But those were those backstage musicals and they were mostly all at Warner Brothers. MGM did them. They all did them. But, you know, dames and these great musicals, these backstage musicals that Warner Brothers was doing and RKO with Astaron Rogers, mgm wasn't that. You're thinking about the great Freed unit of the 40s and 50s at MGM with Judy and with Gene Kelly and with, you know, the great MGM musical stars. Now, the. Mickey and Judy were doing films in the 30s, but those were the late 30s.

Tony Maietta:
That was after the Depression, was already, you know, on its way out. So. So, no, the reason MGM stayed in the black was because of these stars. You know, there. People went to the films to see these stars and MGM had more than any other studio. It's true.

Brad Shreve:
And I think that's probably again, because of the Depression. Because the lifestyle was so. Their lifestyle, it was all over. I mean, it's in the magazines today, but nothing like back then.

Tony Maietta:
No, it's a glamour. It's a glamour. MG Alpha. MGM was glamour. This movie shows it. The sets, the costumes. Adrian Mythic COSTUME DESIGNER that dress of Joan Crawford's, I mean, that opens all the way almost down to her navel. I mean, that tells you right there, this is a Pre code film.

Tony Maietta:
It's incredible. Garbo and Barrymore, the morning after they make love.

Brad Shreve:
That's.

Tony Maietta:
That would never have flown three years later. There's just no way. There's no way. So yeah, but the person that knew, that created these stars, all these stars that are heaven or really guided them was Irving Thalberg, the boy wonder. And I do want to talk a little bit about Thalberg because we have to if we're going to talk about Grand Hotel. Okay, so Thalberg, as I said, was the boy wonder of mgm. He was the head of production at MGM at this time along with Louis B. Mayer who ran the studio.

Tony Maietta:
Yes, it's called Metro Goldwyn Mayer after all. So Thalberg was called the boy Wonder because he was running Universal when he was 20 years old. He could. He was too young to sign the paychecks. That's how young he was. He was this wonder, kind. He just knew films. And he and Louis B.

Tony Maietta:
Mayer murdered when he was 25. He and Louis B. Mayer created MGM when they took a merger of three somewhat insignificant studios in and they brought them together, Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Productions and created the most powerful studio in Hollywood for 25 years. Now the thing about Thalberg was is Thalberg understood every single aspect of filmmaking. He understood story, he understood stars, he understood production. He knew, he lived and breathed it. He truly was a titan.

Tony Maietta:
And he was a titan who died in 1936 at the age of 37. Because he was a very sickly man. He had a very, very weak hearted heart disease and in fact he was told he wouldn't live past 30 and he managed to squeak out seven more years. So when Thalberg died, it was pretty much the end of a certain era in Hollywood and the end of some of these great MGM movies because there could never be another Thalberg. Thalberg was truly a driving force behind some of these great, great mythic movies that we think of when we think of mgm. So I guess this is the point I should probably ask you, Brad, because we've been talking for about 28 minutes here and I've been going on and on and on with all this history mumbo jumbo. What do you think of Grand Hotel?

Brad Shreve:
When it first came on, I was like, wow, this is really impressive. The way they're. It was almost like we talked about how some TV series, we mainly talked about St. Elsewhere where you have a cast member in a conversation and then somebody else comes by in another conversation. They didn't exactly do that, but you did Cut, like in the lobby. Different conversations going back and forth. And I was really impressed.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
And that impression that I had stayed with me the whole movie. I loved this film. I. I don't use the word very often. I found it delightful. I have issues with it, but it's over the top and that's what it's supposed to be. So I don't really have issues with. Was just fun.

Brad Shreve:
It was just plain fun.

Tony Maietta:
It is fun.

Brad Shreve:
I thought Garbo was ridiculous, but she was fun to watch. Ridiculous.

Tony Maietta:
Playing a diva. Yeah, she's acting like a diva.

Brad Shreve:
And the. The code. The pre code stuff was great. The whole conversation between Barrymore and Crawford about dictation was. Blew me away. That was so funny. I wish I could remember the lines. I have to look it up.

Tony Maietta:
That scene, that scene where they're. When they meet, it's like choreographed. This film was directed by Edmund Goulding, who is a very unheralded director of classic films. He directed Bette Davis in Dark Victory. If you want to see another Edmund Goulding film, Goulding, he was interesting director and that he loved innovation. And if you notice now, this is 32. Okay. Two years before, cameras were stuffed in boxes, did not move.

Tony Maietta:
And this camera in Grand Hotel is all. All over the place. It is following the characters. Goulding envisioned the camera as another character who would walk and follow the characters. And those scenes that happen in that scene when Gar. When Crawford and Barrymore, it's choreographed. The way they move around each other, the way they're standing with. You know, they're.

Tony Maietta:
They're not looking at each other, they're looking away, but they're having a conversation. That's mostly because you had to have John Barrymore's left side and Joan Crawford. You also had to have Joan Crawford's left side. Most actors like their left side, by the way. I like my left side. The way you do that is you have. You have them talking to each other, but you have them not facing each other. But then Joan Crawford, like, turns her head around and it's beautifully choreographed.

Tony Maietta:
And it's a wonderful scene. It's so flirtatious and so charming. He did a phenomenal job in this film. Phenomenal.

Brad Shreve:
He really did. And that's where I was most impressed. That I have never seen that happened in a movie this old or even much after this till much, much later. And probably because the cameras were so still.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah, well, exactly. This was. I mean, by this time, the cameras. Cameras had become more fluid. It's just. It's Only a couple years though. It's pretty amazing. And this, this camera moves through this film.

Tony Maietta:
I gives it, it gives it a lot of its energy, a lot of its drive. Another thing Goulding does, and this is in this also has to go hand in hand with Cedric Gibbons and the phenomenal production design. And the cinematographer. We're going to talk about the cinematographer, William Daniels, Garbo's favorite cinematographer because he made her. Everybody in this film looks utterly gorgeous. Joan Crawford, you could eat her with a spoon. She's so beautiful. Those huge eyes, her skin.

Tony Maietta:
Barrymore was 50 when he made this film. He was way past his, his prime. He was still a very, very popular leading man. He would die 10 years later though, but he was feeling the effects of his alcoholism. I mean, he would, by this point, he was wearing wigs, he was wearing girdles. They'd strap his face back with lifts. He wore lifts on his shoes because he was only about 5 foot 6 or 5 foot 7. So he had to light these people incredibly carefully.

Tony Maietta:
And he does it beautifully. They're gorgeous. But he also uses really cool lighting to, to comment on scenes. There's a couple scenes where, particularly with Wallace Beery, where the lighting is like overhead harsh lighting because it's a very harsh scene. It's so, it's so strong and rough. This film is full of these wonderful touches. Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
And since you're talking about it, I gotta say I was really stunned by how absolutely beautiful this film was. It was hard for me to believe that given the time era that these were actually sets built because looked very expensive. And I, I know there probably was a shaky mall or two here or there, but for the most part it was gorgeous. And like you said, when they're walk, they're up on the kind of the atrium of the hotel and they're up on a high floor looking down. It reminded me of the Marriott in Atlanta, which has courtyard going straight down. And what's funny is right after that hotel opened, somebody jumped. So the fact that they were looking at that and talking about jumping, I'm like, oh, this is a little bit real. But not to be gruesome, but it made me think of that.

Brad Shreve:
It just was gorgeous.

Tony Maietta:
It's gorgeous that. Yeah, that. Who doesn't want to stay in a hotel like that? I mean, my God, what an incredible. The lobby alone. Incredible.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Tony Maietta:
So I want to give a brief background about the, about the film and just where it came from and what it was. So. So the film Grand Hotel is based on a play and A book. The book was first. It's on based by Vicky Baum and it's called Menschen Hotel. Excuse that if you will. And it's about what we watch in the movie about a group of people staying at this fabulous hotel in Germany. Now Vicki Baum actually worked as a chambermaid for several hotels and she heard stories about.

Tony Maietta:
One particular story caught her eye. It was a scandal between a ballerina, a businessman and. And a prostitute. Now does that ring a bell with anybody? That's pretty much the characters are different but we got a ballerina, we got a businessman and we have an air quotes prostitute in this film. There's also interesting, there was a lot of nudity in Vicki Baum's book the ballerina Gruzenskaya. Garbo is nude when the baron first meets her. When the, when she runs into the baron in her hotel room. The Baron's nude.

Tony Maietta:
He hangs around his hotel room just in his socks. Which I thought was kind of cool. Flemchen. When Joan Crawford's character, Flemchen, when she discovers that Priceling has killed the Baron, she runs out into the hotel lobby. Not the lobby, the hallway. Nude. Obviously that one gonna fly in Hollywood if it was pre code or not. So there's not, there's no nudity in the movie obviously, except for, you know how low Joan Crawford's neckline is.

Tony Maietta:
But what was interesting about this was that Thalberg purchased the rights to the book but before the play ever happened. So MGM basically financed the play when it was. Because this is so genius about Thalberg because what are they doing? They're financing a play, it's a success. So they don't have to worry about buying the film rights. They already own them. And you also have this built in buzz for this property. So you know another. Thalberg knew everything about everything to do with films.

Tony Maietta:
And it's just, it's. It's such an incredible. The film, the play was a huge hit. It opened on Broadway in 1930. It ran for 459 performances. And yes, Thalberg then had the idea of making this into an all star cast epic. Now this cast, we've kind of danced around them a little bit and I just. We'll just give you a little more background about them when the film went into production.

Tony Maietta:
It's so funny to me. What strikes me so funny about this is that nobody wanted to do this movie. It's so funny. You have this hit Broadway play. Nobody to a man wanted to be in this movie. Garbo didn't want to do it. Crawford didn't want to do it. Wally Beery didn't want to do it.

Tony Maietta:
I think Lewis Stone probably wanted to do it because he wasn't doing anything else.

Brad Shreve:
What, what were the. Are you going to get into the reasons?

Tony Maietta:
Yeah, yeah.

Brad Shreve:
Okay.

Tony Maietta:
Yes, because Garbo. Garbo didn't want to do anything. I mean, that's just Garbo. You know, they never knew if Garbo was going to do a film or if she was going to go back to Sweden, you know, and this was nearing the end of her contract. And it's always, always a question about whether or not she's gonna sign the contract or just go home and leave. And eventually she just went home and left. But they did. They did get her back.

Tony Maietta:
But this was getting the. Near the end of her contract in 32. So they wanted to get her in something, a couple things before she left and came back. God knows when.

Brad Shreve:
It sounds like she was very similar to the character in this film.

Tony Maietta:
She is. That's the thing. This is. This is why it's interesting because in that respect, the whole, you know, leave me alone thing is very similar to her. But Garbo, this. This was not natural for her, this type of character. Garbo was a very pragmatic Swede, you know, she was not. She has this image of being the sphinx and this.

Tony Maietta:
She's a riddle. No one really understood her. Well, it was. She was actually very simple in some ways. She didn't understand. She's not from this country. She didn't understand our customs. She didn't.

Tony Maietta:
Barely spoke the language when she came here. And then her great mentor, Moritz Stiller left, so she was on her own. So she really was very guarded. She didn't quite understand this whole flamboyant diva like character because that's not who she was. She was a very pragmatic. And it sounds funny to say this about Garbo. Plain thinking woman. That's just the way she was.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, I've never heard that.

Tony Maietta:
Well, her best films reflect that. Queen Christina, Ninotchka, she's very simple in these films. She's very much. Now Camille, there's an argument about Camille because, I mean, it's Camille. But if you watch Camille, you'll see what I'm talking about. Because in Camille, she's very simple. She's very unadorned. Her costumes are beautiful, but her manner, very simple and straightforward.

Brad Shreve:
Listen, I want to tell you that I was on vacation all last week, and so I had to fit this movie in and I was gonna, I was scurrying to try and get details beyond just the obvious, like background, because I tried to get a little bit so that Tony's not doing all the talking. And because I was so hurried, I said, you know what? I know Tony probably knows this movies backwards and forwards. So I'm just gonna let him do most of the talking. And that's what I'm doing today. So. And actually this is very enlightening. It's fascinating. So I'm enjoying it.

Brad Shreve:
I hope you are as well.

Tony Maietta:
I'm glad I'm entertaining my audience of one.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, everybody else turned this off by now, but I'm enjoying it.

Tony Maietta:
So. Yeah. So in, in Garbo's best roles, she's unaffected, she's simple. She is very, very far from this type of diva, like flamboyant character. So that could be a reason why she sometimes seems a little over the top in her performance because she was really kind of uncomfortable. However, you also have to remember these films were designed to be shown on 30 foot high screens in huge arenas. We're watching them on our TVs or God forbid, on our phones. And it's not the same impact as if it was a big event.

Tony Maietta:
So you have to keep that in mind. So she decided that she would do it because like I said, they said they would bill her just as Garbo. And most importantly, she wanted the opportunity to work with John Barrymore. She originally wanted her great love, air quotes, John Gilbert and this. But John Gilbert was having problems at this point with his career. So they gave her a Barrymore. And there was no way she was going to turn down a Barrymore. In fact, so unlike her, usually she was very much to herself.

Tony Maietta:
She, you know, she famously had screens around when she was filming a scene. Screens would be put up and the only people that were allowed to be in her eye line, kind of like Faye Dunaway, but much, much, much less entitled. The only people that could be there were the director and the cameraman because it would ruin the illusion for her. She was so very much into that character. She would stay on the set and talk to Barrymore and laugh with Barrymore. And people were stunned because this isn't Garbo. Who's this, who's this woman who's actually laughing and talking and being jovial with this man because she adored John Barrymore. She said to him, after they did, after they did one of their scenes, she said, you have no idea what it means to me to work with so great an artist.

Tony Maietta:
So that was another reason why she did it too. She wanted to work with Barrymore and thank God she did because I think they're wonderful together.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, they really are. They. They probably had the best chemistry out of the. The whole thing. Now, granted, Crawford and Beery were not supposed to have chemistry given their characters, but those two just were perfect together. Just absolutely perfect. They. They seemed like a real couple to me.

Tony Maietta:
I think Barrymore and Crawford have chemistry. I think. I think they have a great actual chemistry.

Brad Shreve:
I said Beery and.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, Beery. Well, I'm sorry, I think it's a Barrymore Beery. Yeah, he's another story. It's kind of, you know, it's kind of difficult and I'm going to make the assumption here for us to understand the appeal of Wallace Beery today, you know, but he really was one of the biggest stars in early sound. I mean, when you think about that, that era of the he man, of the tough guys, you can't get much more he man, tough guy than Wallace Beery. Even though he started out as a comic, he was actually married to Gloria Swanson. Isn't that funny?

Brad Shreve:
Well, I thought he was great in this role. I mean, I absolutely despised him, which was the. You were supposed to. So I thought he did really well. Beyond that, I don't. I've seen him in things, but I don't know much about him.

Tony Maietta:
Well, he's one of MGM's biggest stars at this time. He was in the Champ with Jackie Cooper, the Big House, Min and Bill, you know, and he started with them all. He started against. He. He started opposite Garbo Gable, Harlow Crawford. He was huge. And audiences loved Beery. His co stars were not quite as enamored of him, including, and mostly Joan Crawford.

Tony Maietta:
He was famously combative on sets. Rude. He actually walked off the set one day saying he wouldn't return until Crawford learned how to act.

Brad Shreve:
Oh, my goodness.

Tony Maietta:
He was constantly doing shit like this, trying to upstage people. I mean, he. You know, he was a real prick. He was a real prick.

Brad Shreve:
So like Garbo, he wasn't really acting in this film?

Tony Maietta:
Well, that's the thing. See, that's the thing. So he was perfect for the role of Priceling because that's who Pricely is. Although Priceling starts out saying he's an honest businessman, he's, of course, the killer at the end. But he agreed to do it because Goulding told him he would be the only actor who would have a German accent. And that appealed to his ego. So There you go. That's why Wallace Berry died.

Tony Maietta:
It.

Brad Shreve:
I'm going to steer us a little bit off course here, because one thing I've never been able to keep track of is the Barrymores. You know, we have the two Barrymores here, and I know that, you know, they're Hollywood royalty all the way down to Drew. I. It can be questioned whether, I mean, everybody loves her, but whether she's great actress. I think she is. Oh, she's one of them. Yeah, she is, but she's just not royalty like her grandparents, et cetera. So give me the rundown of the Barrymore family when it comes to acting and celebrity status.

Tony Maietta:
I would love to Brad.

Brad Shreve:
And connections.

Tony Maietta:
I would love to Brad. And first, I'll say that there's a fabulous documentary available for free on Amazon called the True Story of the Barrymores featuring one of the hosts of this podcast.

Brad Shreve:
I don't remember doing that.

Tony Maietta:
I didn't do it. See? Well, it's okay. So.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, so I had no idea that you did that.

Tony Maietta:
I did, yeah. We'll leave a link in the show. You don't know everything I do, buddy. We'll leave a link in the show. Notes. It's a lot of fun. It's a great documentary, if I do say so myself. But the Barrymores, yes.

Tony Maietta:
Today, when we think about the Barrymores, we think of Drew, because Drew is the granddaughter of John and the daughter of John Barrymore Jr. So, anyway, so it. There's three of the big three. Ethel, Lionel and John. Lionel. Lionel, who plays Kringlein, is the oldest. Ethel, next. John was the baby.

Tony Maietta:
They were all three big Broadway stars. However, it was really Ethel and John who were the huge, huge Broadway stars. Lionel, not so much. Lionel was a character actor. John was the biggest leading man of his time. He. It's hard to give perspective on it. So that's why I'm saying go watch the documentary to really get the perspective on it.

Tony Maietta:
But John, it's. It's kind of like the effect that audiences had in 46 when they first saw Brando. Seeing John Barrymore in Hamlet, he brought such an intensity to it. He brought such a sexuality to it. And we look at him in this film, and he looks great. He's 50 years old, and he's hungover almost every time he just shot a scene. He was an alcoholic. It killed him.

Tony Maietta:
But we see it now. We're like, really? This guy who looks like he has makeup on and he's. But that. You got to go back in Time and look at some of his earlier films. He was doing films in the silent era. The impact of Barrymore. Everybody loved Barrymore. All actors, Tracy, Gable, they all admired and loved Barrymore.

Tony Maietta:
Despite Hepburn. Hepburn made her first film with Barrymore. Despite the fact that he was an alcoholic, he was only harmful to himself. And I think that he was really the benchmark for so many romantic leading mans for so many years. And the thing about the Barrymores is that they did. The idea of having the Barrymores come together in this film actually began. They did a film about the same time John and Lionel called Arson Lupin. First film together.

Tony Maietta:
And then all three Barrymores came and did Rasputin and the Empress Ethel joined them. Ethel was never really crazy about movies. She was truly one of the first ladies of Broadway. So they're an acting dynasty. And the thing about Lionel and John is that they were very competitive. They were constantly trying to upstage each other. This film is full of people trying to upstage each other. You just have to watch it.

Tony Maietta:
They were constantly trying to upstage each other. But it was a healthy rivalry. By this point, Lionel had become a big movie star. He had just won the Oscar the year before as best actor. So Lionel was really, you know, as far as movie stars go, they were kind of on equal par right now. And Lionel continued for years and years and years. I mean, he's in It's a Wonderful Life, you know, And John died 10 years after this. So they're a mythic theatrical acting dynasty.

Tony Maietta:
And to a lesser extent, but not much lesser, they're a mythic film dynasty. All the way up to Drew, all the way up to E.T.

Brad Shreve:
Thank you.

Tony Maietta:
Clear that up for me and go watch the documentary. I can clear it up more.

Brad Shreve:
I will. It's moved up my list. I don't think I want to know everything about you, but that's when I wish I did.

Tony Maietta:
And finally, we have Lewis Stone, who plays the doctor who. Basically, his function in this film is to say Grand Hotel. No. People come, people go. Nothing ever happens.

Brad Shreve:
He pretty much walks around like a stereotypical stuffy mortician.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah, he does. He really does. So I think I'm going to talk a little bit about the movie itself. We talked. Brad gave a brief synopsis of what happens. I think what's important about this film and when people might be, like, a little put off by it if they know this is a film about death and money. Who doesn't want to see a film about death and money? Almost everybody in this Film needs money and will do just about anything to get it. The Baron, he is going to steal the ballerinas pearls.

Tony Maietta:
Flemchen is willing to sleep with this reprehensible price sling in order to be a kept woman. To get money. He is. Priceling is doing all kinds of machinations in his business to. To get money. Kringlein, who never had any money, but who is dying there's the death is. Is in there as well. So it's about.

Tony Maietta:
It's funny. It's another movie about greedy and what greed does to people. And all these major characters in crisis and they all come together in this hotel. Again, it's circular. They all. They all come together in this hotel, which is a character in this film. And it's. If you notice in the beginning of the movie, the film is bustling and alive.

Tony Maietta:
You know, people are coming and going and they're running all over the place. And then at the end, after the Baron dies, it's suddenly quiet. It's like. It's like something shifted, you know what I mean? The. The heartbeat of this film is gone when the Baron goes. And I think that it's really amazing that the way this film is structured and, and how it takes you on this ride, this journey with these people who all interact. And at the end, how did you feel at the end of this movie when it was all over and you realized, you know, Grand Hotel, people come, people go, nothing ever happens. How did you feel emotionally about this film?

Brad Shreve:
Emotionally, I was hurt. I wouldn't say distraught, but I. I was shocked. I didn't expect the Baron to die. And then when he was dead, I thought, he's not dead. This is. This is some kind of scam going on here. So I was really disappointed when I learned he was dead.

Brad Shreve:
It just took a turn I did not expect at all. I was happy that Lionel and Crawford ran off together basically in a friendly thing because I felt like they needed each other. Yeah, he certainly needs a friend. So I had real mixed emotions about it.

Tony Maietta:
It's kind of. Yeah, if there's any sweetness at all to the ending, it's. It's Crawford and Barrymore going off together, you know, for going to Paris, you know, for however long he has left to live and spend his money on her. So that. That's kind of a satisfying thing. But the death of the Baron, which by the way was a much more violent scene, but it was cut. Wallace Berry's character, Priceling, the Baron is in Priceling's apartment in the hotel to steal And Beery catches him. Priceling catches him and kills him with a telephone.

Tony Maietta:
Which is kind of an interesting comment on the telephone. The telephone is very important in Grand Hotel. People are constantly on the phone. The opening shots is everybody on the phone telling what their problems are. The phone.

Brad Shreve:
I love that.

Tony Maietta:
Isn't that great, the way it's introduced.

Brad Shreve:
Introduce every character.

Tony Maietta:
Do you know what the original opening shot was?

Brad Shreve:
No.

Tony Maietta:
A bowl of soup. It was of a bowl of soup coming out of the kitchen, being carried and put in front of a customer. And thank God someone went, no, not soup. What they do is. And it's a great way because you get the exposition. You get the background of the characters. There are all these really short little kinetic scenes of every character. Almost every character talking on the telephone to someone about the crisis they're in.

Tony Maietta:
You get it all in, like, five minutes.

Brad Shreve:
It's all exposition. But you don't even catch that it's exposition because you really. You're getting the feel. Okay, we're. We're getting the feel for a busy hotel with a lot going.

Tony Maietta:
Yes, exactly.

Brad Shreve:
So it's kind of hidden and it tricks you into introducing to every character.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah, it's a brilliant. It's a brilliant opening.

Brad Shreve:
Very impressive.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah, it's a brilliant opening. There are so many wonderful, wonderful scenes in this film. I love. I love the time. I love anytime the brothers are together. I think it's so delicious to see Lionel and John interact. They're so fun together. Yes.

Tony Maietta:
They're brothers. They. So they're, you know, they're playing tricks on each other, trying to upstage each other. But it's a wonderful relationship. It's wonderful chemistry. As I said before, Crawford, you know, you don't know Joan if you haven't seen this film. She's so alive. She's so vivacious.

Tony Maietta:
And Garbo is wonderful. Garbo is Garbo. Even though. Yes, she might not be as effective as she is in other films. You know, there's a very funny scene when she's. When she's. In the very beginning, before she meets the Baron, but when she's on her way to I Can't Dance tonight. And they talk her into going.

Tony Maietta:
And Goulding said to Garbo, I want you to race through the lobby like you're being hunted, like you're being pursued. And apparently Garbo went. I did that just last month in San Moritz because she was being pursued then, too. So, anyway, I just. I love this thing, this film. I just find it fascinating on so Many levels. So many. It tells you it's just a.

Tony Maietta:
It's a wonderful, wonderful write. And it's a fun movie. I think I want to point that out, too. Yes. It's about greed, it's about death, but it's a fun movie.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah. And that's what I really enjoyed about it. It was just plain fun. I enjoyed the stories, obviously, some more than others, but I was enthralled by every character. It was over the top, as I said, but not in a bad way. And the overacting that was done really wasn't overacting. It just fit the tone of the movie. It was just.

Brad Shreve:
I really enjoyed this film.

Tony Maietta:
Good. I'm glad. I'm glad. Well, do you want to tell a little bit about how the film performed and when it was released?

Brad Shreve:
Yes, absolutely. It was released in 1932. And you mentioned director Edmund Golding and you mentioned Vicki Bauman's as the one that wrote the novel. And I was surprised to see that Vicki Baum amongst the men was actually. There's a Bella as well, was a writer in the film. The budget for this film was $70,000. Not a drop in the bucket in 1932. No, it earned $2 million.

Brad Shreve:
So I'm gonna try and do the math. Let's just say that it's really good.

Tony Maietta:
Tremendous. It's like something like 60 or 70 million today. Tremendous hit. The biggest hit of 1932. The biggest film of 1932.

Brad Shreve:
And award winning.

Tony Maietta:
Well, here's an interesting thing, too. Of course it won. Of course. Of course it won. The best film of 1932. And that was its only nomination.

Brad Shreve:
I was gonna say. I knew. I did read that little bit of trivia. It's the only. At least at that time, you can tell me if it's still true. The only winning film that had no other nominations.

Tony Maietta:
No other nominations. Not director, not. I always makes me. I'm like, who do they think directed this film? Did it direct itself?

Brad Shreve:
I know. Isn't that funny to write itself?

Tony Maietta:
But, yeah, one nomination, one win, done. It had a huge, huge premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theater. And what's wonderful is, is that it still exists. The footage of this night. You can go on YouTube or wherever you go, and you'll see the footage of the stars arriving. A very young Clark Gable, Jean Harlow for this film. In fact, the opening scene in Singing in the Rain is kind of based on this premiere of Grand Hotel because it was a massive premiere. The film was humongous, and the film was the biggest hit, as I said, of 1932.

Tony Maietta:
It was remade a few years later as Weekend at the Waldorf, which. Okay. And it's the basis for two musicals. The first one was called at the grand in 1956, and the second one, I think most of us know, maybe is called Grand Hotel from 1989. And it's. It's a wonderful, wonderful. I don't think it's been revived lately because it's a big musical, but it was. It ran forever.

Tony Maietta:
It was. It's a wonderful show. This, this movie has been inspired, inspires so many movies in different ways. But I think what the most inspirational thing of all is it created the All Star cast. This is truly the origin of that. And you can thank MGM for that and you can thank Irving Thalberg for that because he. Nobody did it better. This, this film is.

Tony Maietta:
Is phenomenal in that respect.

Brad Shreve:
And here a couple weeks ago, I said it was. It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world. And this beat them by 30 years.

Tony Maietta:
Well, it's a different kind of All Star cast.

Brad Shreve:
That was all true.

Tony Maietta:
That is all comic cast. All comic cast. I think what I want to say, though, and now you know how I feel about Pauline Kale. Pauline Kayla was a film critic back in the day for the New Yorker. She wrote for a couple days. So I have my issues with Pauline Kael, but I love this. This is what Pauline Kael wrote about this film. She said, there is every reason to reject Grand Hotel as an elaborate chunk of artifice.

Tony Maietta:
But if you want to see what screen glamour used to be and what originally air quotes stars were, this is perhaps the best example of all time. Grand Hotel is still entertaining because of the force of the personalities involved in. In the omnibus of the story. And Pauline, you took the words out of my mouth. That's exactly what Grand Hotel is. If you want to see glamour, if you want to see movie stars, watch Grand Hotel.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, Everything she said, nailed it. I want to go back to why I said Garbo is insane. Okay, first of all, it did get. She played a role of being a tired dancer almost too well, because I. She was making me tired every time. She's like, I'm tired. And okay. But the reason I say she's crazy is John Barrymore shows up in a room like, who are you? And I like, he starts wooing her.

Brad Shreve:
I'm a fan. I'm here every night that you. You are dancing. And she's just like, okay, you're hot kind of thing. I mean, I'm Exaggerating a little bit, but it wasn't much different than that. And she, she was awfully forgiving of this man that said, that's basically creep who says in her eyes should be because he's been saying he's hanging out in her room while she's gone because he's madly in love with her. And, well, he keeps talking about how in love with her he was when he had never even met her. It's a very toss around of the world word love.

Brad Shreve:
And she just goes for it. And next thing you know, she's ready to run off with him in a matter of minutes. It was hysterical. I am not saying that it, it wasn't good. It was fun, but it was hysterical because I'm like, this woman is insane. This.

Tony Maietta:
First of all. Yes, first of all. Argument number one against that. It's John Barrymore. If you walked out of your bathroom and a Barrymore was standing in front of you telling you how wonderful you were, how beautiful you were, you might think about. Want to have a seat? Second of all, she's suicidal.

Brad Shreve:
Yes.

Tony Maietta:
And she's at the end of her rope and he prevents her from killing herself. She's very confused, if you notice in that she, she tries, she thinks she should call for somebody, but here's this intriguing man and she's at the end of a rope. So, yeah, I get what you're saying. The character is a bit extreme, but that's the point. And you know, that's the point of this film and.

Brad Shreve:
Right. I mean, the whole reason he pops out of hiding is because she's about to kill herself. And he really. I liked him, his character, the minute he threw down her pearls and said, you know, I can't, I can't do this. That's why I was very sad when he died. I love burglars. I love movies about burglars. I have.

Brad Shreve:
My favorite mystery novel is about a burglar that gets hung up with a crime every, every, in every novel. And so I was really endeared to him when that happened. And then when he threw down the pearls and said, I can't do it, I'm like, oh, I love this guy. So when he died, I was crushed.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah, he really. Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
Plus he's incredibly charming and handsome.

Tony Maietta:
He's incredibly charming. So, Brad, is there anything else you want to say about the movie or the podcast or anything else?

Brad Shreve:
I have a couple things. You mentioned the woman earlier, and my husband worked backstage in the theater for the Women, and he loves the movie and he has been asking, when are you, Tony, going to do the women? And we've been. He's asked quite a few and I'm like, that's too early. That, you know, the. And I brought it up a few times and we just haven't gotten around to it. So, listener, if you want us to talk about the women, let us know, send us an email, text us. You can do that in the show notes or just let us know some way.

Tony Maietta:
I would love to talk about the women. I thought you hated the women. That's why I never mentioned the women.

Brad Shreve:
No, I brought it up a few times. We never had a back and forth on it. I just brought it up and we always seemed like we went somewhere else.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah. Do you want people. If people want to hear Brad decimate the women, send us a text email.

Brad Shreve:
I will rip it to shreds.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, God. God, another great Joan Crawford performance.

Brad Shreve:
Anyway, so the only other thing I have to say is if this is your first time listening, please subscribe so you know when the next episodes are coming out. And if you're a longtime listener or even a short time listener, rate and review us. When others are looking for a new show and they see those reviews, it will help them say, hey, maybe this is worth listening to. And we hope you think so.

Tony Maietta:
We do. We do. Well, Brad, I guess that brings us to another end of going Hollywood podcast. Going Hollywood podcast. Always the same. Movies come, TV shows go. Nothing ever happens.

Brad Shreve:
New shows come in, new shows are gone.

Tony Maietta:
So I guess it's time to say it, but I don't want to say it. So let's not say goodbye. Let's just say au revoir.

Brad Shreve:
No, if I knew German, I'd say goodbye in German, but I don't. So let's just say goodbye.

Tony Maietta:
A wittersehen, darling.

Brad Shreve:
Oh, my God, that's so obvious. How could I forget? Ciao.

Tony Maietta:
Bye, everybody. That's all, folks.