Hotel (1967)

Very Cool!!!

Simply A Masterpiece

People are voting emotionally.

Nice effects though.

HOTEL was the 1967 all star soap opera based on the novel by Arthur Hailey revolving around the goings-on at an old, yet elegant New Orleans hotel called the Saint Gregory. Basically, this is just a grounded version of Hailey's later AIRPORT, only not quite as interesting, but pleasant to look at with a competent enough cast. Rod Taylor plays Peter McDermott, the hard-nosed, but compassionate manager of the hotel. Melvyn Douglas plays Warren Trent, the owner of the hotel, trying to conceal his concern about a possible buyout from Kevin McCarthy as O'Keefe, who arrives with his mistress (the plastic Catherine Spaak), who falls in love with McDermott in about five minutes. Michael Rennie and a still gorgeous Merle Oberon play a Duke and Duchess staying in the hotel who are concealing an accident they were involved in and are being blackmailed by house detective Richard Conte and Karl Malden is amusing as Keycase, a thief and conman working the hotel. OK, it's not GRAND HOTEL...it's not even AIRPORT...but there are worse ways to spend two hours.

Unfortunately this is the impression you get of this film when watching it, although the excellent acting and very grandiose set pieces have nothing in common with the crap, long-running English soap opera. In addition to the already mentioned, top marks go to Rod Taylor as the no-nonsense hotel manager and Kevin McCarthy as the obsessed businessman intent on buying the hotel to settle a petty score. The supporting cast were also great and eased the sometimes mundane scenes. Likewise I agree that the 'outside' scenes were too obviously the Warner Brother's backlot and the big-band score was a bit annoying and repetitive.I think the problem with this film is that, although Arthur Hailey's novels make great easy reading, they don't really transfer well onto the big screen which is probably why you get many adapted and spectacular disaster sequels of his 'Airport' series. Sequels of 'Hotel' were obviously never going to happen.

The late Arthur Hailey was not a great writer, but he was a great storyteller, which made up for it. And that's evident in the films of his books, as well. The original "Airport" is probably the best known, but "Hotel," which later became a hit TV series in the 1980s, is a good, overlooked adaptation as well. One can easily dismiss it as colorful, all-star glitz and gloss, but one is fascinated by it as well.As directed by Richard Quine, written and produced by Wendell Mayes, and costumed by the legendary Edith Head, it has atmosphere to spare, even if most of that atmosphere is courtesy of the Warner back lot. The story is slight and somewhat diffuse, but the atmosphere and cast, especially Rod Taylor, Melvyn Douglas, Kevin McCarthy, Karl Malden (In a role with almost no dialog!), and the ageless Merle Oberon, keep you riveted every step of the way. And, as with "Airport," there's the usual crisis element, in this case an elevator crash sequence that's suspsnsefully staged.One complaint, though: Johnny Keating's music, while nice, is often loud and intrusive. Background music is supposed to be just that, BACKGROUND music. If I wanted to hear the score that badly, I would have bought the soundtrack album.

I was attracted to this movie because of the all-star cast and it takes place in my favorite city, New Orleans, Louisiana. Sadly, only three scenes were actually filmed in the "Crescent City," the rest are PAINFULLY evident that they were filmed on the Warner Brothers Studio backlot. As for the movie itself, it's very dated and not very good. The background music is so distracting that it drove me mad! Blaring away whenever dialog is not being spoken. Proves that silence, at times, is indeed golden.