Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

George Wright This movie has a stellar cast and lavish hotel for a setting. Rod Taylor, as Peter McDermott, hotel manager, and Melvyn Douglas as Mr. Warren Trent, hotel owner, are the most interesting characters in the movie. New money hotel tycoon, played by Kevin McCarthy as Curtis O'Keefe, tries to take over a venerable hotel called the St. Gregory. Into this environment, we find a key thief, Karl Malden, swindler, Richard Conte, and a corrupt aristocratic couple, Michael Rennie and Merle Oberon. The opening credits are creatively designed but lead to false expectations as to the quality of the production. Edith Head, the legendary costume designer, once again makes her mark with her stunning wardrobes on female actors, Catherine Spaak and Merle Oberon. Carmen McRae appears as a night club singer and the street scenes and jazz music are very fitting for New Orleans. McCarthy is badly miscast and seems worlds away from his patented roles in b-movies of the 1950's. Douglas, in his limited role, represents the old money world of a hospitality industry that no longer exists: elegant on the outside but full of vice and inefficiency. Trent dislikes O'Keefe and his profits-first mentality, that would see his hotel stripped of its beauty and tradition. As hotel manager, Taylor is able to keep the St. Gregory from sliding into bankruptcy by smart public relations and his personal rapport with the staff. Taylor is the rugged, well- groomed guy, a smart operator with a heart, a role that suits him to a tee. He also keeps Douglas in line, almost like a dutiful son to an elderly father. The movie has a certain style, impressive setting and cast but there is no coherence in the meandering storyline with several subplots.

williwaw Warner Bros cast Rod Taylor, a perfect leading man, in this film directed by Richard Quine who made those great Kim Novak films at Columbia -Strangers When We Meet, Pal Joey, Notorious Landlady-when Hotel features two legendary stars Melvyn Douglas and Merle Oberon, both given wonderfully rich parts to play. Also cast Richard Conte and Michael Rennie. This is a film where the action on the set was likely to be even better than when the cameras rolled. Kevin McCarthy is properly tough minded. Lovely Catherine Spaak has the nominal female lead. Merle Oberon one of the cinema's great all time beauties steals the movie. The real show stopper is Ms. Oberon then 60 but looking 35 and gorgeous to behold, and I recall Merle Oberon wore her own fantastic jewel collection in Hotel. While Oberon's peers like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Ann Sothern, and Olivia De Havilland were starring in horror films to stay in the public eye, Merle Oberon who in her legendary career worked with Brando, Cooper, Wyler, Laughton, et al stayed above the fray and lived the live of a real Movie Queen.

edwagreen 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.

silverscreen888 "Hotel" was a very popular novel by Arthur Hailey. It told the story of the last days of the St. Gregory Hotel, an historic edifice in New Orleans, and of those who run it, visit it, covet it and try to use it for their own purposes. The conception of the screenplay that Wendell Mayes based on the novel is probably even better than the lovely execution of this cinematic gem; but that is only true I suggest because the idea was very clever indeed. The plot line concerns the hotel's aging owner, the great Melvyn Douglas, his young manager ably played by Rod Taylor, the man who wants to buy the hotel, Kevin McCarthy, and others such as troubled guests Michael Rennie and Merle Oberon, hotel thief Karl Malden, hotel detective Richard Conte, and the girl who comes into Rod Taylor's life, attractive but weak actress Catherine Spaak, plus many others touched by the edifice's power and struggling with the question of its future. These include Alfred Ryder, Harry Hickox, Ken Lynch, Clinton Sundberg, Roy Roberts, Tol Avery, Davis Roberts, Carmen McRae and many more. The art decoration by Casey O'Dell is memorable; the film has a very spacious look and fine fluid camera-work by director Richard Quine. The plot to expose Douglas as a racist that eventually ruins all deals to save the place from being sold and "modernized"or razed is equally memorable; so is the search for a murderer, Malden as a hot prowl "key-case" bandit who speaks no dialogue, and the use of the city of New Orleans as more than background to the hotel's past, present and future. Even the music is quite good. The movie lacks strong style, but voids gloss and achieves something quite unusual I assert; it becomes better than its material because it is functional, clean, intelligent--a sort of modern-architected house that provides a space for sparkling things to happen within. If it lack great meaning, this dramatic look at people's lives being lived in a fascinating building is one of the best of its sort since "Weekend at the Waldorf". For many reasons, it is a low-key but well-paced film that I can watch many times with pleasure.