“GRAND HOTEL”

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 662, 16 January 1933, Page 3

“GRAND HOTEL”

Box Plans Now Open for Outstanding Film.

The box plans for the New Zealand premiere of the outstanding film, “ Grand Hotel,” at the Regent Theatre next Saturday, are now open at The Bristol. Special arrangements have been made for the gala presentation of “ Grand Hotel ” next Saturday night. A description of the patrons arriving will be broadcast over the air from a microphone installed in the foyer of the Regent, between 7 and 8 o’clock, and, in addition, motion pictures of the firstnight patrons will be taken in the lounge. These pictures will be exhibited at the Regent Theatre at a later date. “ Grand Hotel ” is the most outstanding achievement of the motion picture industry, outdoing even such great successes of the silent era as “ Ben Hur ” and “ The Ten Commandments.” Based on the Vicki Baum novel, “ Grand Hotel ” brings to the screen the greatest galaxy of stars and players m o t i o n picture. Each of the five principal roles is filled by an outstanding screen star. The exotic Greta Garbo plays the Russian dancer, Grusinskaya, who lives on the acclaim of her audiences and .s ready to die when they no longer applaud. John Barrymore plays the impecunious nobleman whose love for the dancer prevents him from turning thief. Joan Crawford is cast as the seductive stenographer, who is willing to sell herself to the industrial magnate Preysing, portrayed by Wallace Beery; and Lionel Barrymore plays the provincial bookkeeper Ivringelein, who. broken in health, spends his hoarded savings to enjoy his last days in the splendour of the Grand Hotel. Lewis Stone and Jean Hersholt head the supporting cast, which also includes Robert M’Wade, Purnell B. Pratt, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Rafaela Otiano, Morgan Wallace, Tully Marshall, Frank Conroy, Murray Kinnell and Edwin Maxwell. The lives of these strangely different characters are drawn together in the vortex of the fashionable Berlin hotel, and the result is a fascinating di'amatic panorama in which love, intrigue, murder, comedy and tragedy all play a part.