Hôtel Saint-Gregory

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.

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.

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.

This slick drama based on Arthur Hailey's novel has similarities to the later "Airport" in that various plot threads eventually converge at the climax. This film's climax isn't even a fraction as exciting as the bomb in "Airport", but the film has loads of style and a fair amount of interest to keep viewers watching. Taylor plays the general manager of the New Orleans hotel The St. Gregory (switched to San Francisco in the long-running TV series based on the novel.) His feats include fending off a takeover by McCarthy, trying to thwart sneaky thief Malden, appeasing crusty owner Douglas, figuring out what's going on with Rennie and Oberon, searching for house detective Conte and cavorting with Spaak. He's an appealing man, though, believe it or not with all this to do, he still seems a tad bland. McCarthy grabs a bit more attention in his role. His Method training for some reason led him to believe that his character should undress and play with his belly and twiddle his own chest hair during business meetings! The self-appointed sex symbol of the film, he finds 3 or 4 different ways throughout of having his shirt unbuttoned! Malden's role is nearly pantomime with little opportunity to speak. He skulks around the hotel with a sh*t-eating grin on his face while the world's most annoying music plays the same riff over and OVER and O-V-E-R! Douglas is a believable curmudgeon, stubbornly holding on to his ways. Rennie has almost nothing to do, his character being completely underdeveloped. Oberon, however, is a vision. Her still-lovely face is framed in all sorts of elaborate hairstyles and Edith Head hats. Each time she appears, she's in another jaw-dropping Head concoction. Unfortunately, many of her scenes are chopped down to the bare bones and she's hardly given time to register before it's on to the next episode. She manages to give a performance despite nearly all the attention going to her clothes. Conte appears in some of her best scenes as a detective trying to extort her secret. Spaak gives new meaning to the term "decorative". Her character barely does anything but lie around in a series of trendy outfits and ornate hairdo's whispering lines in a French accent in which wrong syllables are emphasized. Even at 22, she's filmed in a soft focus that would make Lucille Ball in "Mame" jealous. The film has beautiful sets and is plush look to it. Despite this, there's really nothing special about it which explains why it's become overshadowed to almost the point of anonymity.

Very mild account of major New Orleans hotel facing closure and its last days as the owner (Douglas) and general manager (Taylor) attempt to secure its future without compromising its integrity and traditions. A number of story lines intertwine amid the closure backdrop, with Rennie & Oberon as the Duke and Duchess of Landbourne entangled in a police matter, Malden as the hotel's resident kleptomaniac and McCarthy as a potential investor keen to save the grand hotel but with a litany of changes in mind of which Douglas disapproves.

Taylor does a good job as the efficient right hand man, not tempted by McCarthy's graft offer to persuade Douglas to sell, taking Spaak instead as a consolation prize. Malden was a bit too hammy for my liking and the film never quite fulfilled its promise, although I thought Taylor and McCarthy in particular were very engaging. "Hotel" has a pseudo disaster film texture with its diverse characters coming in and out of focus against a common backdrop; it even indulges the genre with a reasonably tense elevator malfunction and a feverish rescue while the lift hangs by a thread.

The decorative touches, lounge music and brassy sets are all fashionable reminders of the mid-to-late sixties and the film itself is old-fashioned in its tone and sentiment, perhaps too dated for younger viewers today. I'd categorise this as a somewhat bittersweet tale, a window into the late sixties social culture, suitable with tea and biscuits moreso than beer and pizza.