Novelist Vicki Baum, of GRAND HOTEL fame, had a fabulous idea here, a sort of HOTEL GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, set in Berlin as WWII gasps to a close, and with much the same multi-storyline action to follow as desperate staff, guests and passers-thru struggle to get a break, get a loan, get a decent pair of shoes and get out of their fast collapsing city. Main characters include Faye Emerson’s stage actress (expediently playing whatever role, or political angle, fits the occasion); Helmut Dantine’s on-the-run resistance leader (this real life war refugee finally cast not as some Nazi officer but as the good guy/hero he actually was). And there’s General Raymond Massey, last survivor of the anti-Hitler plotters; Peter Lorre’s demoralized ‘good’ German . . . many, many more.* Alas, too many more for director Peter Godfrey & scripters Jo Pagano & Alvah Bessie to accommodate or keep track of. Not completely satisfying, but worth the effort in spite of gaps in execution. And, by the end, surprisingly powerful.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Including Alan Hale in a rare despicable turn as a virulent, anti-Semitic Nazi officer.
DOUBLE-BILL: Stanley Kramer’s pretentious SHIP OF FOOLS/’65 floats the Grand Hotel template on a German ocean liner not long before the war.
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