“Hotel is a film released by Warner Bros. January 19, 1967, based on the best selling novel by Arthur Hailey of the same name. The film was written and produced by Wendell Mayes and directed by Richard Quine. It is one of the last, if not the last, “all-star” film produced by Warner starring Rod Taylor, Catherine Spaak, Karl Malden, Richard Conte, Merle Oberon, Michael Rennie, Melvyn Douglas, Kevin McCarthy, Carmen McRae, Alfred Ryder, Roy Roberts, Al Checco, et. al.
“Keycase” Milne is a major character in both the novel and the 1967 film. Milne is noted for the simple fact that no one can ever remember his face, making him extremely difficult to locate when the hotel house detectives were attempting to capture him. Karl Malden said, both in interviews and in his autobiography, that he enjoyed the role of “Keycase” Milne in “HOTEL” as much or more than any other role he had played, largely because it was a great deal of fun doing a role that had almost no dialogue and making it work. The screenplay was nearly prophetic as the scene ends with Milne crying out, “Damned credit cards…those goddamn credit cards!”; as nearly a decade later he would be telling us “Don’t leave home without them” and “do you know me?”, as the spokesman for American Express.
On a personal note, I became a Karl Malden fan, not from “Streetcar…”, but from the nearly impossible line he was given as Father Barry in “On the Waterfront”, “OK Kayo”; a line he pulled off superbly.
The copyright for the film is owned by Warner Bros. There is no intent to infringe upon that copyright. The video is offered for educational and historical purposes in accordance with the Fair Use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, as amended.
