Watch Hotel For Free

Sadly Over-hyped

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Hotel is a film concerning a few days at the end of the life of one of those old fashioned hotels, the St. Gregory's in New Orleans. It's owner Melvyn Douglas is facing some financial problems and he's hired Rod Taylor as manager whose made some improvements and the place is beginning to turn around. But way too slowly to keep Douglas's creditors off his back. The story on which Hotel is based is from an Arthur Hailey novel who wrote Airport and inspired that series of films. The film bears some resemblance to Airport to be sure, but I also think it bears comparison to the Humphrey Bogart classic Deadline, USA about a newspaper going out of business with Bogart in the Taylor role and Ethel Barrymore in the one that Melvyn Douglas has here.Douglas and Taylor are not going down without a fight. What they don't want to do is sell out to Conrad Hilton like hotel magnate Kevin McCarthy who will turn the place antiseptic and it will lose its traditional charm. It's a problem with hotels, so many of even the finest rated old ones are being purchased by chains, a problem back then to be sure. So few independents are even operating today.McCarthy does have a secret weapon in the charming and voluptuous Catherine Spaak and her assignment is Taylor.There are a couple of other subplots working here. Titled couple Michael Rennie and Merle Oberon are involved in a hit and run accident after they've both had too much and they face a blackmailing house detective in Richard Conte. And the police are after a very clever thief who works the New Orleans hotels in Karl Malden. All these stories do connect as you will see.Director Richard Quine directed this film with an eye for style and elegance which the fictional St. Gregory is famous for. The cast is seasoned one of good professionals who give some professional performances. Hotel is a film of class and I think you'll like it.

Crisp dialogue adds to a memorable film regarding the life of a hotel on the chopping block.Melvyn Douglas, as crusty at his best, plays the old fashioned owner who knows that the time is drawing near to sell the grand old place so rich in history and memory.Rod Taylor is his able manager who started as a bell boy but rose through the ranks by hard work and slick talking.The movie details one day in the life of the hotel with Michael Rennie and Merle Oberon as aristocratic guests. Rennie has a problem as a hit and run driver. Further tragedy strikes when he is found out as the culprit.Karl Malden says little but his turn as the thief with the key is terrific given his timely expressions as he pulls off heists and avoids capture.Roy Roberts, as the man at the front desk, plays a role similar to what he did in "Gentleman's Agreement" in 1947. In that one, he denied a room to Gregory Peck when the latter said he was Jewish. In this one, Roberts is there to deny a room to a black couple. Of course, the couple has been sent by the NAACP to foment trouble.A very good film. Check in and see for yourself what is going on.

Highly enjoyable adaptation of Arthur Hailey's bestseller about tumult in an older New Orleans hotel: nearly all the guests are up to no good! Rod Taylor, excellent as always, plays the hotel manager, Melvyn Douglas is the property owner, Kevin McCarthy is a takeover shark, Karl Malden plays a thief, Merle Oberon is a troubled duchess being blackmailed by Richard Conte, etc. Lots of intricate human action, well-written and staged. The romance between Taylor and Catherine Spaak doesn't get in the way, and there are some very humorous, mordant asides. Marvelous backing score by Johnny Keating; good fun. Later a TV series. **1/2 from ****

Big, colorful, lavish, HOTEL is a very nice movie. It's set in New Orleans' French Quarter, and Warner Brothers even managed to get the NOPD star-and-crescent badges on the police officers' uniforms correct...a nice attention to detail. Even the music was properly scored to the locales depicted...another plus. True, most of the movie was shot on WB's back lots, but some of the French Quarter scenes were actually shot in New Orleans.An all-star cast performs more than adequately, but Karl Malden literally steals the movie! He plays a sneak-thief named "Keycase", and he obviously played his role with relish. In one wonderful scene, he surveys his loot after a harrowing evening's thieving, and sadly mutters "It's those damned credit cards!" If you remember that Malden later became the American Express man ("Don't leave home without it!"), this scene is priceless.Another classic is when the cops finally get him. Handcuffed to a NOPD officer, Malden can't help but swipe a hotel ashtray as he's being led to jail...grinning happily the whole time.It's great entertainment, and I rate it 9 out of 10.