Hotel Imperial (1927 film)

{{Infobox film

| name = Hotel Imperial

| image = Hotel Imperial advertisement in Moving Picture World on January 1, 1927.jpg

| caption = Advertisement

| director = Mauritz Stiller

| producer = Erich Pommer

| writer = Jules Furthman

| based_on = {{based on|Szinmü négy felvon (Hotel Imperial)|Lajos Bíró}}

| starring = Pola Negri
James Hall

| cinematography = Bert Glennon

| editing = E. Lloyd Sheldon

| studio = Famous Players–Lasky

| distributor = Paramount Pictures

| released = {{Film date|1927|1|1}}

| runtime = 85 minutes

| country = United States

| language = Silent (English intertitles)

| budget =

| gross =

}}

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.[http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=9830 The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: Hotel Imperial] Retrieved December 11, 2014Magill'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[http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/H/HotelImperial1927.html Progressive Silent Film List: Hotel Imperial] at silentera.com

Plot

Officer Paul Almasy is separated from his unit behind enemy lines and hides in the Hotel Imperial in Lemberg (nowadays Lviv, Ukraine), where chambermaid Anna 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 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.{{cite journal |last=Girelli |first=Elisabetta |title="Our Bravest and Most Beautiful Soldier": Pola Negri, Wartime and the Gendering of Anxiety in Hotel Imperial |journal=Film-Philosophy |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=159–76 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |date=2019 |issn=1466-4615 |doi=10.3366/film.2019.0107 |doi-access=free |hdl=10023/17747 |hdl-access=free }}

Cast

Pola Negri as Anna Sedlak
James Hall as Lieutenant Paul Almasy
George Siegmann as General Juschkiewitsch
Max Davidson as Elias Butterman
Michael Vavitch as Tabakowitsch
Otto Fries as Anton Klinak
Nicholas Soussanin as Baron Fredrikson
Golden Wadhams as Major General Sultanov
George Berrell as Old Man with White Hair
Josef Swickard as Austrian General (uncredited)
Carl von Haartman as Russian Soldier (uncredited)

Production

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

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.

Preservation

Hotel Imperial is one of Negri's few Paramount films to survive and is preserved in several film archives.[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.756/default.html The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: Hotel Imperial] Retrieved December 11, 2014