Anything can happen during a weekend at New Yorks Waldorf-Astoria a glamorous movie star meets a world-weary war correspondent and mistakes him for a jewel thief a soldier learns that without an operation hell die and so looks for one last romance with a beautiful but ambitious stenographer a cub reporter tries to get the goods on a shady mans dealing with a foreign potentate. And it all happens in the opulent grandiose New York landmark hotel as a sort of tongue-in-cheek take-off on the classic movie Grand Hotel.
Review
This is my favorite wartime satirecomedy 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 worlds first selfcontained hotelresidence center the twintowered WaldorfAstoria Hotel known all over the world by its single initial "W" the third is because it is a very United States adaptation of Vicki Baums "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 intertwined storylines. 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 maids errant boyfriend a second focused on a soldier facing a 5050 lifedeath 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 lackedby denial action indirect efforts etc. Within their stories there move two rich abouttobemarrieds the actresss maid and her boyfriend (whom we never meet) bandleader Xavier Cugat who is appearing at the hotel and agrees to play a song written by the soldiers dead comrade the war correspondents boss a man from a State Department office also wooing the sheik and the hotel staffespecially the banks of human female telephone operators and the stenographers. The BW 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 lowkey comedy and a narration here and there Phyllis Thaxter was the nervous bride Leon Ames was the actresss 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 halfbrother this narrative in my view was supposed to be and is a genial onlyslightlycynical wartime film that extracted some people from the recent war and showed them trying to find a strong personal reason for livingwhether as in the soliders case for great reasons or in the actresss 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.