Hotel Paradiso

Hotel Paradiso
Theatrical release poster by Frank Frazetta
Directed by	Peter Glenville
Produced by	Peter Glenville, Pierre Jourdan
Written by	Jean-Claude Carrière Peter Glenville
Based on	L'Hôtel du libre échange (1894 play) by Georges Feydeau Maurice Desvallières
Starring	Alec Guinness Gina Lollobrigida Robert Morley
Music by	Laurence Rosenthal
Cinematography	Henri Decaë
Edited by	Anne V. Coates
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	14 October 1966 (NYC)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Hotel Paradiso is a Metrocolor 1966 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. Guinness played 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.

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, to say the least, 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.