Aquí empieza la vida

As in many movies made toward the end of World War Two, this film deals with some of the unpleasant effects on the personalities of those veterans who were part to the fighting. In this case, Captain James Hollis (Van Johnson) is amalgam of the troubled soldier: he needs an operation because of a fragment of shrapnel near his heart, he has no family, his friends were all killed in the war, and he is suffering from battle fatigue. This is all complicated in that he is seen as not having the "will to live." He is a hero looking for a long rest, hounded by a war correspondent. These images are quite different from those one finds in the propaganda films of 1940-1943. With victory in sight in 1945, the walking wounded needed help since battle shock was being recognized as a malady of warfare. As a film this is a fairly classy production, with good writing and a host of respectable actors in solid roles. Best of all, the film contrasts glamour on the homefront with the agony of soldiering. Week-ends may be short, but the lasting effect of this "Week-end at the Waldorf" echoes through the decades.

In many ways Weekend At The Waldorf as a remake for Grand Hotel simply doesn't work. It certainly couldn't have worked at all as a melodrama the way the original was. Remember Grand Hotel was set in Weimar Republic Germany, a time that was most negative, the film came out just before Hitler took power in Germany. Many of the elements of Nazism are to be found in the original, a very pessimistic work.

1945 however was one of the most optimistic times that America ever saw. When the film was released World War II was won in both theaters, the troops were coming home, the Cold War hadn't yet started. You couldn't make a film like Grand Hotel remade to that time in America without changing the plot to have the audience accept it.

So a more optimistic Grand Hotel was done with Weekend At The Waldorf and the parts played by John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Greta Garbo, Wallace Beery, and Joan Crawford were done in this version by Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson, Ginger Rogers, Edward Arnold, and Lana Turner. Some of those cast names should tell you right away this will be a much lighter film.

The bittersweet interlude between John Barrymore and Greta Garbo becomes a romantic comedy between war correspondent Walter Pidgeon and movie star Ginger Rogers. She's stopping at the Waldorf on a tour and ready to start a new film, Pidgeon just back from covering the war is looking for some peace and quiet. But his reporter's instincts are aroused with the presence of crooked industrialist Edward Arnold at the hotel and trying to sneak into Arnold's room, he mistakenly is smuggled into Rogers's room in a serving cart.

Arnold is up to no good, he's about to put over a sweet deal with visiting oil sheik George Zucco. He needs a stenographer so the hotel sends up Lana Turner, but she impresses Arnold with more than her ability with shorthand.

Turner's a girl whose been done wrong in her life and she's determined to get ahead, no matter what. Even the presence of flier Van Johnson in the hotel who's about to have a delicate operation to remove some shrapnel near his heart, an operation which could kill him and whom she falls for doesn't deter her from making the play for Arnold.

That's not as gimmicky as it sounds. President Andrew Jackson carried around a bullet in his cheat because doctors would not risk an operation at first. He did it for about 20 years. So the writers were on solid ground with Johnson's plight. Zucco's casting as an oil rich Arab sheik, borrowed quite liberally from King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabis whom FDR visited on the way back from Yalta was also certainly a harbinger of things to come.

Things turn out a whole lot better for the cast members here than in Grand Hotel for the most part. Some other roles of interest are Robert Benchley as gossip columnist and Keenan Wynn as a cub reporter who is from the Lois Lane snoop and scoop journalism school. So is Pidgeon who tells Wynn to get creative in his search for a story. His methods though, not his writing.

Weekend At The Waldorf is done with typical MGM gloss and made Louis B. Mayer quite a bundle. It's not a classic like the film it was based on, but it's still a good piece of entertainment. And of course it's quite the commercial for the Waldorf Astoria hotel. It's still there in New York, not having been taken over by any of the hotel chains. At one time, Herbert Hoover, Douglas MacArthur, and Cole Porter maintained permanent residences on its premises. Two out of those three were there when the film was made.

They probably would recognize the place now. It's still an elegant place, but old fashioned, reflective of their era. But for us we have Weekend At The Waldorf to remind us.

This movie was a very entertaining film. I would love to have it on DVD and incidentally, why isn't it on DVD? The romantic situation between Walter Pigeon and Ginger Rogers is enough to make you want to own it. Also, the film has several small stories that give it an extra appeal. An added tidbit is Robert Benchley's dog having puppies while he nervously reacts to the event as would an expectant father. Van Johnson is superb as a Army pilot whose fate is in the balance because of some previous injury. The film industry of today should recognize Van Johnson's contributions to films in the 1940's and 1950's. The character actors are as ever perfect in their roles.

Pleasant reworking of Grand Hotel changes most of what made that film a classic but is entertaining enough on its own. For starters, the tone to this one is far different than Grand Hotel. This is a lighter film with more focus on romance and humor. The setting is changed as well as it is updated to WW2 America. The war figures heavily into several of the story lines. As with Grand Hotel, this is about various characters staying at a plush hotel and how their stories intertwine. The hotel here is the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Most of the plots have been altered from the original but certain characteristics remain. Ginger Rogers plays a weary actress who falls for equally weary war correspondent Walter Pidgeon, believing him to be a jewel thief. Lana Turner is a stenographer who ponders boss Edward Arnold's "indecent proposal" while falling for bomber pilot Van Johnson. Other actors include Robert Benchley, George Zucco, Keenan Wynn, Samuel S. Hinds, and Leon Ames. Xavier Cugat plays himself and provides a little music. It's all watchable enough and even enjoyable, especially if you aren't nagged by comparisons to Grand Hotel. The cast is nice (except for an overacting Rosemary DeCamp) and the MGM production is classy as you might expect. It won't change your life but I highly doubt you'll regret watching it.

This is my favorite wartime satire-comedy for three reasons. One is the towering performance by Walter Pigeon as the war correspondent Chip Collyer who falls in love with a lovely actress; the second is the setting in the world's first self-contained hotel-residence center, the twin-towered Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, known all over the world by its single initial "W"; the third is because it is a very United States' adaptation of Vicki Baum's "Grand Hotel", and as a writer, its adaptation problem has always interested me. The second film is related to the film much as "Marlowe" is related to the novel "The Little Sister". Angst, heavy drama and most of the shadows were removed; what was left was a genial, sometimes thoughtful and I assert an interesting set of four major inter-twined story-lines. They have, I suggest, a common theme, namely "one must find a reason to enjoy life, even if it takes risks, honesty and perseverance." One story line involved a war correspondent and an actress who mistakes him for the Jewel thief she has been expecting, her maid's errant boyfriend; a second focused on a soldier facing a 50-50 life-death operation and the pretty secretary he meets who is looking for a rich husband, not him; third there was the young reporter seeking an interviews with a visiting sheik who is shunted by the war correspondent into exposing a fraudulent entrepreneur; and fourth there was the shady entrepreneur trying to steal millions from the sheik, and hire the secretary. All four main protagonists of the story lines were missing something in their lives, and trying to understand how to deal with what they lacked--by denial, action, indirect efforts, etc. Within their stories, there move two rich about-to-be-marrieds, the actress's maid and her boyfriend (whom we never meet), band-leader Xavier Cugat who is appearing at the hotel and agrees to play a song written by the soldier's dead comrade, the war correspondent's boss, a man from a State Department office also wooing the sheik, and the hotel staff--especially the banks of human female telephone operators and the stenographers. The B/W cinematography by Robert H. Planck is very good, and nearly all shot indoors; music was provided by Johnny Green and the Cugat band. Veteran Robert Z. Leonard directed, and somehow managed to give the film a consistent and lucid style all its own, no mean feat by my standards. The script altering the much darker play "Grand Hotel" was adapted by Guy Bolton and written by Sam and Sella Spewack. The sound by Douglas Shearer is remarkably adroit at all points. Art direction was performed by Daniel B. Cathcart and legendary Cedric Gibbons, with set decorations by Edwin B. Willis and Jack Bonar. Irene and Marion Herwood Keyes provided the many costumes. In the cast, Pigeon deserved an award for his work as the war correspondent, and Edward Arnold did a solid job as the shady promoter. Van Johnson played the soldier opposite Lana Turner, both being adequately cast; the Shiekh was George Zucco, the actress attractive Ginger Rogers, the maid Rosemary De Camp with a German accent. Keenan Wynn was lively as the young reporter, Robert Benchley provided low-key comedy and a narration here and there, Phyllis Thaxter was the nervous bride, Leon Ames was the actress's manager, with Jacqueline De Witt, Warner Anderson and Miles Mander in good roles also, along with the volatile Cugat. The film cannot really be compared to its illustrious half-brother; this narrative in my view was supposed to be and is a genial, only-slightly-cynical wartime film that extracted some people from the recent war and showed them trying to find a strong personal reason for living--whether as in the solider's case for great reasons or in the actress's case because she had put off thinking of herself for far too long. It is a charming, discursive and attractive project, in my estimation; and it could be remade very well, if the right leads could perhaps be found and the project given a third life in another great hostelry.