Written as part of the weekly blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Join in the fun by picking three movies that fit the week's theme and telling us about them!
Ah, hotels! The glamour! The romance! The allure of travel!
...or at least it used to be, way back when. Nowadays, hotels are either super-luxurious (and thus super-expensive) or cheap cinder-block rooms with barely any class to them at all.
Guess which I prefer?
The Gay Divorcee (Mark Sandrich, 1934) Not the best of the Astaire-Rogers pictures, but one of their earliest and most enjoyable. All the tropes of their films are set here, and in high style (the film received an Oscar nomination for Art Direction) at a European hotel where Ginger goes to stage an affair so she can get a divorce. Edward Everett Horton is her bumbling lawyer (and was there a better, gayer bumbler in Old Hollywood?) and ex-fiancee of her much-married Aunt Hortense (Alice Brady), Erik Rhodes the man she's supposed to get caught with, and Fred of course a friend of Horton's who once nurtured a crush on Ginger. If that all sounds like every other of the pair's films, then let me help: This is the one with "Night and Day", Betty Grable, and the fabulous 20-minute finale to "The Continental".
Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961) One of the great mysteries of cinema, Last Year at Marienbad sort of defies description at a plot level. It concerns a man and woman meeting at a hotel. He says they have met before, she says they have not. But in the hands of screenwriter Alain Robbe-Grillet, founder of the "new novel", it becomes so much more: a treatise on memory, a puzzle to be solved, a gorgeous bauble to look at as a jeweler looks at a diamond.
Plaza Suite (Arthur Hiller, 1971) Neil Simon wrote three Suite plays (the other two are California and London), and this is the best. Three scenes take place in the same suite at New York's famed Plaza Hotel. These films perhaps don't feel like great choices for adaptations from the stage, as the plays are designed to take place on one set and make good use of the three-act structure, but the star turns from Barbara Harris, Lee Grant, Maureen Stapleton, and of course Walter Matthau, justify the film's existence. If you're allergic to Matthau, stay away, but otherwise, this is an alternately touching and funny picture.
The Gay Divorcee is a great choice, that hotel is awesome. Who knows if even back in those days of rococo hotel design if anything so lavish ever existed but then an Astaire/Rogers picture was never the place to check for reality. Just out of curiosity what is your favorite of their films? I've always had a fondness for Swing Time myself.
I love 2/3 of Plaza Suite, the middle vignette leaves me cold for some reason though I adore Barbara Harris. Maureen Stapleton is heartbreaking in the first and Matthau and Lee Grant work like a finely oiled machine in the last. Who the hell names their kid Mimsy!?
Haven't seen Last Year at Marienbad yet but this is the second time this week I've seen it referenced. Kevin over at Speaks in Movie Lines has picked it for his Blind Spot series for next year so I guess I better get on it!
This was a fun theme, so many choices. My second and third picks are two of my favorite films.
Bobby (2006)-Intermingling stories set in the Ambassador Hotel on June 4th and 5th 1968 as several groups prepare to attend the Democratic presidential primary rally at which Robert F. Kennedy will speak and will ultimately have a tragic outcome, his assassination. Filmed at the actual locations that events occurred just before the hotel was demolished.
Evil Under the Sun (1982)-In an absolutely gorgeous island hotel in the Adriatic a group of wealthy people sun themselves and bitch at each other until one of them turns up murdered. Thank goodness Hercule Poirot is among the guests and can put the "little gray cells" to use solving the crime. Hugely enjoyable version of Agatha Christie's mystery with Peter Ustinov a perfect Poirot-clever, urbane, canny and sly. The entire cast seems to be having fun with a brilliant Diana Rigg and Maggie Smith making great sparring partners with dialog dipped in venom. Amazing costume design.
Dear Heart (1964)-In New York for a postmaster's convention Geraldine Page, a single kind hearted postmistress meets traveling salesman Glenn Ford who is staying in the same hotel. Tired of the road he’s become engaged to a pushy woman more out of a longing to put down roots than passion. Now an unexpected spark ignites between the two strangers, what to do? Sweet, gentle comedy/drama of two lonely souls slowly realizing they are meant for each other. Great supporting cast includes Angela Lansbury and both the actresses, Alice Pearce and Sandra Gould that eventually played Gladys Kravitz on Bewitched.
Honorable Mention-Week-End at the Waldorf (1945)-Glossy remake and relocation of Grand Hotel to New York's Waldorf-Astoria. Slick and well-acted by a star studded cast, Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon, Edward Arnold and Van Johnson among them, but missing both the grit and pathos of the original.
You're so right - Hollywood is not the place to go for realism in design but I do like to think all hotels back then looked like the one in The Gay Divorcee. Swing Time is BY FAR my favorite of their films, with Barkleys of Broadway in second. I like Top Hat, too, but the last number is so awful that it nearly ruins the film for me.
I agree that the middle section of Plaza Suite is the lesser of the three. I think a large reason for this is that the part is too far outside of Matthau's wheelhouse. But, as in the play, it just drags its conceit out for too long. The last is of course the best, a perfect farce.
Marienbad is, if nothing else, absolutely gorgeous to look at, so even if you find the film too remote (as many do), there's at least that.
I've seen NONE of your picks this week, although I have seen part of Evil Under the Sun. Ustinov makes for a far better Poirot than Albert Finney, but David Suchet is still the only Poirot for me. I've heard of Dear Heart and it sounds lovely, but I haven't heard of Week-End at the Waldorf which sounds worthwhile despite not living up to Grand Hotel (which I don't LOVE, frankly), if only for the cast.
Oh you really must see Evil Under the Sun all the way through if only to see Dames Diana and Maggie poke at each other with pointed barbs and Sylvia Miles all dolled up in one astonishing outfit after another. Then there is Nicolas Clay cavorting in a teeny tiny speedo too.
Glad to see we agree on Swing Time. I have a soft spot for The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle too. It's much more earthbound than their other films so maybe it's that difference, and Edna May Oliver, that draw me too it. You can't really go wrong with any of their films though.
I have not had the nerve to watch Last Year in Marienbad but maybe after a couple of glasses of wine I will. It is one of those French New Wave screw you head up flicks:) Love the Gay Divorcee! I almost picked Top Hat because of the insane Venice and Art Deco look. I was hoping someone would pick one of the Suites. I know California Suite best. I am one who like Matthau
I dare say Marienbad might be even more inscrutable after a couple glasses of wine hehe. Yes, the hotel in Top Hat is very nice, too, maybe even nicer than the one in Gay Divorcee.
Haven't seen any of these. The only one I've even heard of is The Gay Divorcee. Surprised I didn't know about Plaza Suite because I have actually seen California Suite, though I was probably 8 when I did so I couldn't tell you anything about it other than Richard Pryor was in it. Thanks for adding these to my ever-growing to-watch list.
I haven't seen any of these, nor have I even heard about them. Thanks for sharing them!
ReplyDeleteOooooooooooooooooh you're in for a treat when you finally watch them!
DeleteThe Gay Divorcee is a great choice, that hotel is awesome. Who knows if even back in those days of rococo hotel design if anything so lavish ever existed but then an Astaire/Rogers picture was never the place to check for reality. Just out of curiosity what is your favorite of their films? I've always had a fondness for Swing Time myself.
ReplyDeleteI love 2/3 of Plaza Suite, the middle vignette leaves me cold for some reason though I adore Barbara Harris. Maureen Stapleton is heartbreaking in the first and Matthau and Lee Grant work like a finely oiled machine in the last. Who the hell names their kid Mimsy!?
Haven't seen Last Year at Marienbad yet but this is the second time this week I've seen it referenced. Kevin over at Speaks in Movie Lines has picked it for his Blind Spot series for next year so I guess I better get on it!
This was a fun theme, so many choices. My second and third picks are two of my favorite films.
Bobby (2006)-Intermingling stories set in the Ambassador Hotel on June 4th and 5th 1968 as several groups prepare to attend the Democratic presidential primary rally at which Robert F. Kennedy will speak and will ultimately have a tragic outcome, his assassination. Filmed at the actual locations that events occurred just before the hotel was demolished.
Evil Under the Sun (1982)-In an absolutely gorgeous island hotel in the Adriatic a group of wealthy people sun themselves and bitch at each other until one of them turns up murdered. Thank goodness Hercule Poirot is among the guests and can put the "little gray cells" to use solving the crime. Hugely enjoyable version of Agatha Christie's mystery with Peter Ustinov a perfect Poirot-clever, urbane, canny and sly. The entire cast seems to be having fun with a brilliant Diana Rigg and Maggie Smith making great sparring partners with dialog dipped in venom. Amazing costume design.
Dear Heart (1964)-In New York for a postmaster's convention Geraldine Page, a single kind hearted postmistress meets traveling salesman Glenn Ford who is staying in the same hotel. Tired of the road he’s become engaged to a pushy woman more out of a longing to put down roots than passion. Now an unexpected spark ignites between the two strangers, what to do? Sweet, gentle comedy/drama of two lonely souls slowly realizing they are meant for each other. Great supporting cast includes Angela Lansbury and both the actresses, Alice Pearce and Sandra Gould that eventually played Gladys Kravitz on Bewitched.
Honorable Mention-Week-End at the Waldorf (1945)-Glossy remake and relocation of Grand Hotel to New York's Waldorf-Astoria. Slick and well-acted by a star studded cast, Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon, Edward Arnold and Van Johnson among them, but missing both the grit and pathos of the original.
You're so right - Hollywood is not the place to go for realism in design but I do like to think all hotels back then looked like the one in The Gay Divorcee. Swing Time is BY FAR my favorite of their films, with Barkleys of Broadway in second. I like Top Hat, too, but the last number is so awful that it nearly ruins the film for me.
DeleteI agree that the middle section of Plaza Suite is the lesser of the three. I think a large reason for this is that the part is too far outside of Matthau's wheelhouse. But, as in the play, it just drags its conceit out for too long. The last is of course the best, a perfect farce.
Marienbad is, if nothing else, absolutely gorgeous to look at, so even if you find the film too remote (as many do), there's at least that.
I've seen NONE of your picks this week, although I have seen part of Evil Under the Sun. Ustinov makes for a far better Poirot than Albert Finney, but David Suchet is still the only Poirot for me. I've heard of Dear Heart and it sounds lovely, but I haven't heard of Week-End at the Waldorf which sounds worthwhile despite not living up to Grand Hotel (which I don't LOVE, frankly), if only for the cast.
Oh you really must see Evil Under the Sun all the way through if only to see Dames Diana and Maggie poke at each other with pointed barbs and Sylvia Miles all dolled up in one astonishing outfit after another. Then there is Nicolas Clay cavorting in a teeny tiny speedo too.
DeleteGlad to see we agree on Swing Time. I have a soft spot for The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle too. It's much more earthbound than their other films so maybe it's that difference, and Edna May Oliver, that draw me too it. You can't really go wrong with any of their films though.
I have not had the nerve to watch Last Year in Marienbad but maybe after a couple of glasses of wine I will. It is one of those French New Wave screw you head up flicks:) Love the Gay Divorcee! I almost picked Top Hat because of the insane Venice and Art Deco look. I was hoping someone would pick one of the Suites. I know California Suite best. I am one who like Matthau
ReplyDeleteI dare say Marienbad might be even more inscrutable after a couple glasses of wine hehe. Yes, the hotel in Top Hat is very nice, too, maybe even nicer than the one in Gay Divorcee.
DeleteThe Gay Divorcee is my favourite Astair and Rogers film but its so darn difficult to find on DVD. Great film!
ReplyDeleteYay! Love for the Gay Divorcee! I only have it as part of the Astaire & Rogers box set.
DeleteHaven't seen any of these...yet. Last Year at Marienbad is on my Blind Spot list this year. So stoked.
ReplyDeleteOh man. Marienbad is a TRIP. Can't wait to see what you think of it!
DeleteHaven't seen any of these. The only one I've even heard of is The Gay Divorcee. Surprised I didn't know about Plaza Suite because I have actually seen California Suite, though I was probably 8 when I did so I couldn't tell you anything about it other than Richard Pryor was in it. Thanks for adding these to my ever-growing to-watch list.
ReplyDelete