A couple at the New Orleans airport take their room key from the hotel they were staying at, the Saint Gregory, and having forgotten to turn it in, throw it into an ashtray where it is picked up by a professional thief (Karl Malden) who heads to the hotel, ready to begin a burglary binge. At the hotel, we see that the #3 elevator is a bit rickety but hasn't been reported yet (let’s call this Chekhov's elevator). The hotel owner (Melvyn Douglas), who laments the passing of the old days (he is, among other things, against desegregating the hotel), has to sell the hotel. His choices: 1) sell to hotel magnate Kevin McCarthy who wants to completely renovate it into a modern mechanized place full of conveyor belts, which would most likely displace most of the current workers; 2) get funding from a union, which would, of course, mean unionizing the current workers; 3) sell to a real estate company that wants to tear down the hotel and put up an office building. Douglas relies on his manager (Rod Taylor) to help him make a decision even while Taylor has his hands full with the day-to-day concerns of the guests. McCarthy and his retinue are staying in a high-class suite; he makes his assistants pray with him on their knees to make their mission a success, even as he has meetings in an open bathrobe and sleeps with his younger French mistress (Catherine Spaak). In another suite are a British duke (Michael Rennie) and duchess (Merle Oberon); we first see them sneaking up to their room by the service stairs because they're ducking a hit-and-run investigation involving the death of a child. Rennie is up for an important diplomatic post and Oberon bribes the house detective (Richard Conte) into getting rid of their car. McCarthy sends Spaak to be squired about the French Quarter for a day by Taylor so she can play spy and report back with information McCarthy can use in negotiations. She gets some info, but Taylor takes her to his apartment where they listen to jazz and have sex. In another plotline, a Black couple show up with reservations, but Douglas turns them away; it turns out they are part of McCarthy's plan to squelch Douglas' deal with the union by exposing the incident to the press. And let's not forget that elevator which hasn’t been fixed yet.
Many critics see this as an update of the old warhorse GRAND HOTEL which follows various characters and their interlocking relationships over the period of a couple of days. Here, however, there is a central character, Taylor, who is far more charismatic and interesting than any of the guests. The two main plots (McCarthy's machinations and Oberon's attempt to save her husband from the law) are fairly predictable, and Spaak is the only one to get a fleshed-out backstory. In Malden's sideplot, he is stuck with grinning idiotically as he creeps about in rooms and runs from the cops. His predictable story runs out of steam quickly. That leaves Taylor carrying the movie, and he is almost successful. Taylor is handsome, charming, and dynamic, though his character is awfully flat considering we're supposed to identify with him. Taylor, far and away, does the best acting here, with Oberon and Rennie doing OK. Spaak feels like she's sleepwalking through her part, and McCarthy doesn't have the gravitas to make his character seem serious or threatening. There are some nice side turns by Clinton Sundburg, Alfred Ryder and Harry Hickox (the anvil salesman from The Music Man), and jazz singer Carmen McRae is good in a small role as, yes, the singer in the hotel's bar—she and Taylor show hints of an interesting relationship that isn't examined. Oddly, I feel like this movie is a bit too short. A couple of side stories are glimpsed (in addition to McRae, there's a bell captain who meddles in things and a couple of rich lads who invite whores up to their room for a party) that might have been interesting. There are a handful of location shots in New Orleans but they don't amount to much. Still, the hotel sets are effective. The ending is not especially satisfying, with the Rennie/Oberon story left with loose ends, but the last scene is nice. Directed by Richard Quine, a character actor in the 40s who became a rather undistinguished director in the 50s (except for Bell, Book and Candle). Based on a bestseller by Arthur Hailey (Airport). The whole thing is lazily involving if not engrossing, but I’d watch it again for the sexy Rod Taylor (pictured). [TCM]