The Climactic Scene with Taylor, Douglas, and McCarthy(SPOILERS)

I've got a post elsewhere here about my general love and high regard for "Hotel" (1967), which, I might add parenthetically, got a rave review from Time magazine back in '67 that stood out in the year of the New Hollywood.

I would here like to focus on probably my favorite scene in the movie, which comes near the end, and showcases three characters (and a fourth in another room) with great wit, conflict, and rueful sadness when its all over.

The set-up: Multi-millionaire hotel mogul Kevin McCarthy comes calling on St. Gregory owner Melvyn Douglas and his ace hotel manager Rod Taylor, to make his final closing offer to buy the hotel. Its the last offer on the table -- a union buyout collapsed because a "Negro" doctor and his wife were turned away by a desk clerk while McCarthy's French girlfriend-of-the-moment(Catherine Spaak) kept manager Taylor away from the hotel while the incident occurred and was photographed. And she seduced Taylor at his French Quarter apartment.

So McCarthy has the aged owner Douglas and his manager Taylor "behind the eight ball" and has arrived to take what's his.

But he doesn't get it.

What's great about this scene, to me, is how the elderly but elegant Douglas and the young and vibrant Taylor -- clearly surrogate father and son throughout the movie -- come together to fight off McCarthy's plot...even at the cost of "losing by winning." If they turn down McCarthy's offer, the hotel will be closed and torn down. But -- in the tradition of sacrificial heroes everywhere -- they turn down the corruption behind McCarthy's offer.

It is a scene of great humor, with a key gag. Taylor reveals to Douglas that McCarthy has offered money to Taylor to "persuade you" to let McCarthy buy the hotel. Douglas quickly figures out that Taylor will be doing no such thing, but rather revealing all the corruption. So Douglas keeps happily egging Taylor on: "Go on, Pete -- PERSUADE me!"

Taylor lays out all of McCarthy's perfidy -- sending in the Negro(not a doctor; actually an employee of a McCarthy hotel) to ask for the room while simultaneously dispatching HIS OWN GIRLFRIEND(but probably just one of many) to seduce Taylor and keep him away.

Taylor notes, "(McCarthy) offered me money -- NOT to talk to you, mind you! -- but to keep my mouth SHUT!" A smiling, funny line reading by Taylor.

Though there are angry flashpoints in the scene("You're not going to listen to this ex-bellhop," McCarthy snarls, drawing a Rod Taylor Furious action reaction), it all plays out rather civilly. McCarthy laughs at the revelation of his plot; the French girlfriend in the other room determines that she loves Taylor more than McCarthy. Everybody agrees there is no deal, and the scene ends on a high note that turns very, very sad.

This leads shortly to a wonderfully melancholy and emotional scene as hotel owner Douglas looks out from his penthouse suite over a nighttime New Orleans skyline to say to Taylor "13 Presidents have stayed at the St. Gregory" and to take up an owner's saddest task: dictating the severance terms for all his employees. "Hotel" understands that one of the unhappiest endings of all is: job loss.

Things shift back to upbeat for the duration of the film. The French girl will stay with Taylor, Taylor and Douglas will seek a new hotel to run(but smaller) and Taylor calls Douglas up in the penthouse to tell him "I'm giving away all your booze" in the hotel bar.

Its a great little movie, "Hotel" is. Acting, writing, characterization and music combine to give us a smart and sad little experience. Nowhere better than in these final scenes with Taylor and Douglas and the rest.

PS. This scene is available on YouTube.