Hotel Imperial (1927 film)

Hotel Imperial is a 1927 American silent war drama film directed by Mauritz Stiller and released by Paramount Pictures. The film is set in Austria-Hungary during World War I and starring Pola Negri as a hotel chambermaid. It is based on the 1917 Hungarian play of the same name by Lajos Bíró.[1][2][3]

Hotel Imperial
Lobby card
Directed byMauritz Stiller
Written byJules Furthman
Based onSzinmü négy felvon (Hotel Imperial)
by Lajos Bíró
Produced byErich Pommer
StarringPola Negri
James Hall
CinematographyBert Glennon
Edited byE. Lloyd Sheldon
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • January 1, 1927 (1927-01-01)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)

Plot

Officer Paul Almasy (Hall) is separated from his unit behind enemy lines and hides in the Hotel Imperial in Lemberg (nowadays Lviv, Ukraine), where chambermaid Anna (Negri) disguises him as a waiter. The invading Russian troops make the hotel their headquarters. Paul later kills the Russian spy Petroff and Anna arranges the room to depict the death as being a suicide. Later, when the Russians accuse Paul of the killing, Anna provides an alibi by saying that Paul was instead with her in her room and while so doing rips the fine clothing that General Juschkiewitsch (Siegmann) has provided her. She later helps Paul elude the Russians and leave the hotel so that he can rejoin his unit. After Austrian troops regain the city, the lovers are reunited and their bravery is recognized.[4]

Cast

Production

The film used the same exterior town square set from Negri's film The Spanish Dancer (1923).[3]

Commentary

In a departure from her former vampish roles, and Negri depicted Anna as tense and fidgeting, experiencing the anxiety of war time noncombatents, a woman surrounded by foreign army men in the hotel. She watches carefully and, when she sees the need, takes decisive action to avoid sexual assault and save her lover and, indirectly, her nation.[4]

Preservation

Hotel Imperial is one of Negri's few Paramount films to survive and is preserved in several film archives.[5][3]

References
  1. The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: Hotel Imperial Retrieved December 11, 2014
  2. Magill's Survey of Silent Films, Vol. 2. FLE-POT p. 558, edited by Frank N. Magill c.1982 ISBN 0-89356-241-6 (3 book set ISBN 0-89356-239-4) Retrieved December 11, 2014
  3. Progressive Silent Film List: Hotel Imperial at silentera.com
  4. Girelli, Elisabetta (2019). ""Our Bravest and Most Beautiful Soldier": Pola Negri, Wartime and the Gendering of Anxiety in Hotel Imperial". Film-Philosophy. Edinburgh University Press. 32 (2): 159–76. doi:10.3366/film.2019.0107. ISSN 1466-4615.
  5. The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: Hotel Imperial Retrieved December 11, 2014
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