Grand Hotel (1932)

Everything seems to be happening at the luxury Grand Hotel, from romance to robbery to an accidental death. [wiki]

Nominated for 1 Oscar:

Best Picture (WINNER)

The 5th Best Picture winner holds a very interesting record: it's the only BP winner with no other Oscar nominations. This would never happen today. Yet, it's an unfortunate trivia: the film deserved more nominations, at least for Best Director and Best Actress: Joan Crawford. Grand Hotel is not the masterpiece many critics want you to believe; but it's a good film, quite interesting and the first one to have a true ensemble cast!

That means 5 big names: Garbo, Crawford, the two Barrymore brothers and Berry. In a way, they're all supporting and the storylines aren't always interconnected. The screenplay has great parts, but also some that aren't so interesting. But I understand that it was difficult to write and what seems obvious now was quite revolutionary back then. It's not a film I love, but I admire its class and acting. Lionel Barrymore is great, Garbo is devine to look at, but Joan Crawford is the one to watch. I haven't seen almost any of her early films (from the 30s), so I was a bit surprised by how beautiful & talented she was. She gives a wonderful, likeable, flirty performance.

My rating for the film: 7.5/10. I might change my mind and give it more. There were some boring parts I can't get over. But anyway, it's a very interesting film, and possibly worthy of its win.