One of the reasons I love old Hollywood is the studios will throw in curve balls like this - a re-do of Grand Hotel only told from the POV of the Germans in a Berlin Hotel towards the end of the war - shot at the time it was happening.
Plenty of enjoyable subplots: an arrogant German general (Raymond Massey) involved in the assassination of Hitler is told to kill himself, a smart Nazi (Henry Daniell) plans fleeing to America, a self-loathing scientist (Peter Lorre) awaits German defeat, a prostitute (Faye Emersen) realises her old Jewish love is still alive, a member of the German underground (Helmut Dantine) tries to find allies and escape the SS (George Colouris), an old Nazi (Alan Hale) is in trouble for embezzlement, a little old Jewish lady (Helen Thimig) tries to escape detection, an actress and general's mistress (Andrea King) tries to secure her own escape.
It doesn't have the star power of Grant Hotel but there are some very accomplished actors here - Daniell, Lorre, Massey and Colouris are in particular wonderful. Emersen and King aren't in their league but they're brilliant roles. Dantine struggles as a leading man - he normally played baddies, this was a chance to be a hero (albeit a ruthless one), but he's very stiff. There's an incredible finale where Dantine shoots King, who has betrayed him, and Daniell heads off to America to try and keep the Nazi flame alive.
On a historical level it's fascinating to see a war time Hollywood film consisting almost entirely of German characters - and most of them are sympathetic. (There's an awful lot of people working for the German resistance here and the leader of the underground we see at the end is almost Christ-like.) It's also tough and humanistic and I just really liked this movie.
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