Hotel Paradiso (film)

98 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglish

Hotel Paradiso is a 1966 British comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Panavision. It was directed by Peter Glenville and based on the play L'Hôtel du libre échange by Maurice Desvallières and Georges Feydeau. The film allowed Alec Guinness to reprise the role he had played in the London West End theatre production of Hotel Paradiso, which opened at the Winter Garden Theatre, Drury Lane, London on 2 May 1956.^[1] In the play, Guinness performed alongside Martita Hunt (Angelique), Irene Worth (Marcelle), Frank Pettingell (Cot), Kenneth Williams (Maxime) and Billie Whitelaw (Victoire). Douglas Byng also reprised his part from the stage play.^[2]

Playwright Monsieur Feydeau is staying in the Parisian Hotel Paradiso. He needs to write a new play, but has writer's block. He takes the opportunity to observe his fellow guests: Monsieur Boniface, henpecked by his domineering wife, and Marcelle, the beautiful but neglected wife of Henri, a building inspector. Henri is sent to the hotel to investigate rumours of ghosts (which turn out to be caused by drains). However, the hotel is the trysting place of Marcelle and Boniface, who are having an affair.

In the 'by-the-hour' hotel, there are two husbands and one wife, plus Henri's nephew and Boniface's maid, who are also having an affair. Marcelle and Boniface's affair is severely compromised (not least by a police raid). All these events provide Feydeau with the material for his play, which becomes the succès fou of the next season.

• Alec Guinness as Benedict Boniface
• Gina Lollobrigida as Marcelle Cotte
• Robert Morley as Henri Cotte
• David Battley as George
• Ann Beach as Victoire
• Marie Bell as la Grande Antoinette
• Douglas Byng as Mr. Martin
• Derek Fowlds as Maxime
• Eddra Gale as Guest
• Peter Glenville as the Playwright
• Robertson Hare as the Duke
• Darío Moreno as the Turk
• Peggy Mount as Angelique Boniface
• Leonard Rossiter as the Inspector
• Akim Tamiroff as Anniello

Writing for The New York Times, Thomas Lask said "essentially, 'Hotel Paradiso' is a bedroom farce in the old tradition, and the picture is based on a frothy example of the genre by a master, Georges Feydeau, who worked with Maurice Desvallieres on the play. That kind of exercise calls for a crispness, a propulsive energy that Mr. Glenville's film has only fitfully. The result is that the picture is charming when it should be brisk, amiable when it should be ridiculous."^[3] However, he praised the cast, particularly Guinness.^[3]

• Hotel Paradiso at IMDb
• Hotel Paradiso at AllMovie
• Hotel Paradiso at the TCM Movie Database
• Hotel Paradiso at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Hotel Paradiso at the British Film Institute^{[better source needed]}
• Alec Guiness shoots Hotel Paradiso in Paris at Institut national de l'audiovisuel