just watch it!

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Highly enjoyable adaptation of Arthur Hailey's bestseller about tumult in an older New Orleans hotel: nearly all the guests are up to no good! Rod Taylor, excellent as always, plays the hotel manager, Melvyn Douglas is the property owner, Kevin McCarthy is a takeover shark, Karl Malden plays a thief, Merle Oberon is a troubled duchess being blackmailed by Richard Conte, etc. Lots of intricate human action, well-written and staged. The romance between Taylor and Catherine Spaak doesn't get in the way, and there are some very humorous, mordant asides. Marvelous backing score by Johnny Keating; good fun. Later a TV series. **1/2 from ****

I find Hotel strangely compelling and have watched it countless times on cable TV. In fact, it is playing right now as I write. I remain fascinated by the fact that the hotel thief (Karl Malden) leaves his own room unlocked. Perhaps he knows there's only ever one thief in any hotel. I like the scene when the hotel security and manager describe the thief as wearing a grey suit. They too, all three of them, are wearing grey suits, like just about every other male in the hotel! At least Malden has a hat on (at about two in the morning) to distinguish him from every other male (now how dumb is that?). Plus I can never figure out why Malden, once he has the briefcase stuffed with money from the Duke, doesn't simply check out right away and go retire (to some hotel or another...). I agree with other contributors that the jazz riff in the background, especially signalling the activities of Malden is really annoying and it serves to date the movie too much.

Unfortunately this is the impression you get of this film when watching it, although the excellent acting and very grandiose set pieces have nothing in common with the crap, long-running English soap opera. In addition to the already mentioned, top marks go to Rod Taylor as the no-nonsense hotel manager and Kevin McCarthy as the obsessed businessman intent on buying the hotel to settle a petty score. The supporting cast were also great and eased the sometimes mundane scenes. Likewise I agree that the 'outside' scenes were too obviously the Warner Brother's backlot and the big-band score was a bit annoying and repetitive.I think the problem with this film is that, although Arthur Hailey's novels make great easy reading, they don't really transfer well onto the big screen which is probably why you get many adapted and spectacular disaster sequels of his 'Airport' series. Sequels of 'Hotel' were obviously never going to happen.

I didn't even want to watch this movie, but once it caught my attention I couldn't get away. It's basically about all the different characters you can find in a hotel, all bumping into each other as they do what they do. You get a feel for all the sideshows going on in a hotel.