365+ movies in 365 days: Day 207 - Hotel (1967)

Hotel is based on the best-selling novel by Arthur Hailey. In the 1960's, 70's and 80's Hailey was king of the potboiler melodrama. He would carefully research an industry and than write a fictional tale with intriguing characters and interweaving plots. His most famous work was Airport, which was made into the Oscar nominated picture. But before Airport, there was Hotel.

Hotel is the story of a grand, but aging hotel in New Orleans(based on The Roosevelt Hotel). The jet age has passed by the type of southern hospitality the St. Gregory has to offer. The young energetic general manager Peter McDermott (Rod Taylor) has been successful in turning business around, but his success comes too late. The note on the loan is due and the financial picture is bleak. The hotel owner Warren Trent (Melvyn Douglas) has been offered a lucrative real estate deal that will result in the building being torn down. Curtis O'Keefe (Kevin McCarthy), a hotel magnate is eager to purchase the hotel for himself and add it to his roster of modern hotels.

While the hotel management tries to resolve the financial issues, some of the hotel guest have issues of their own. Burglar "keycase" Milne (Karl Malden) is systematically robbing guest. And the hotel's royal guests, the Duke and Dutchess of Croydon (Micheal Rennie & Merle Oberon), have a secret of their own.

All these stories intertwine and eventually come crashing down in a sudden conclusion.

Movies like this are popcorn melodrama and are only as entertaining as the script and the cast make them. Here the cast works hard to capture the essence of running a big hotel. Rod Taylor manages to rise above the material and Karl Malden is especially fun to watch as he plans his nightly capers and attempts to elude the hotel detectives.

From the "B-girls" on Bourbon Street to the "escorts" in the lobby there is a lot that goes on under the roof of the St. Gregory. It's all highly entertaining, but also highly forgettable.

At The Movie House rating **1/2 stars.


*notes - The character Kevin McCarthy plays was named Curtis O'Keefe in the book and that is his name in the movie, but the opening titles list his character as Charles McCrea and for some reason Warner Bros. never fixed this error.

Hotel was released on VHS for a short time, but never released on DVD, until recently. The Warner Bros. Archive now offers the title as part of their made to order series.

Four of Hailey early novels Runway Zero-Eight, The Final Diagnosis, Hotel and Airport were made into major Hollywood films. The rest Wheels, The Moneychangers, Overload, Strong Medicine, The Evening News and Detective were made into popular miniseries. The novel Hotel was also the basis for the popular TV series starring James Brolin and Connie Sellica.