Thursday Movie Picks #50: Movies Set in a Hotel

We matched up on two again! I also chose Lost in Translation and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Grand Budapest is a good one too.

Well this week is right up your alley! I’ve seen and liked all three of your picks and while I wasn’t bowled over by any of them Grand Budapest is beautiful to look at, Murray and Johannsen are affection in Translation and Sarah Marshall is deceptively sweet considering some of the raunchier elements. It’s my favorite of the three.

Here’s what I came up with, curious to see if you’re familiar with any of them:

Bobby (2006)-Intermingling stories set in the Ambassador Hotel on June 4th and 5th 1968 as several groups prepare to attend the Democratic presidential primary rally at which Robert F. Kennedy will speak and will ultimately have a tragic outcome, his assassination. Filmed at the actual locations that events occurred just before the hotel was demolished.

Evil Under the Sun (1982)-In an absolutely gorgeous island hotel in the Adriatic a group of wealthy people sun themselves and bitch at each other until one of them turns up murdered. Thank goodness Hercule Poirot is among the guests and can put the “little gray cells” to use solving the crime. Hugely enjoyable version of Agatha Christie’s mystery with Peter Ustinov a perfect Poirot-clever, urbane, canny and sly. The entire cast seems to be having fun with a brilliant Diana Rigg and Maggie Smith making great sparring partners with dialog dipped in venom. Amazing costume design.

Dear Heart (1964)-In New York for a postmaster’s convention Geraldine Page, a single kind hearted postmistress meets traveling salesman Glenn Ford who is staying in the same hotel. Tired of the road he’s become engaged to a pushy woman more out of a longing to put down roots than passion. Now an unexpected spark ignites between the two strangers, what to do? Sweet, gentle comedy/drama of two lonely souls slowly realizing they are meant for each other. Great supporting cast includes Angela Lansbury and both the actresses, Alice Pearce and Sandra Gould that eventually played Gladys Kravitz on Bewitched.

Honorable Mention-Week-End at the Waldorf (1945)-Glossy remake and relocation of Grand Hotel to New York’s Waldorf-Astoria. Slick and well-acted by a star studded cast, Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon, Edward Arnold and Van Johnson among them, but missing both the grit and pathos of the original.

Old familiars – great picks – forgot about Sarah Marshall.