The Strange Case Of Grand Hotel, The Best Picture Winner That Wasn’t Nominated For Anything Else

This was just the 5th Academy Awards. A lot of trial and error was still going on to get to the Oscars we know today. This past year, 23 awards were given out. Back in 1932, there were just 12. They had no categories for editing, music, costumes, or makeup. They hadn’t even split the acting categories into lead and supporting yet. Funnily enough, this year saw a big increase in the number of categories because of the introduction of three short film awards, so that means feature films actually only competed in nine. But that isn’t precisely true because the Best Sound category was awarded to a studio’s sound department and not a specific film. Making things even tougher, there were only three nominees per category and not five.

Except one category saw a major expansion in how many films were nominated, and that was Best Picture, which grew from five nominees the previous year to eight. Because this category represented so many more movies than anywhere else at the ceremony, four of the Best Picture nominees were completely shut out elsewhere. In the case of “Grand Hotel,” some of the snubs are understandable.

This is a large, starry ensemble cast, and rallying around a performance to nominate proves difficult when only six actors get nominated with no differentiation between lead and supporting. For its adapted screenplay, William A. Drake, who wrote the play on which the film is based, adapted his own work, and though the film received positive notices, it was generally regarded as a slight step down from what played on Broadway. “Grand Hotel” was a well-made, populist drama. Singling out specific superlatives isn’t what made it successful. This was a film emblematic of the phrase “greater than the sum of its parts.”