Hotel Reserve (1944)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Directors:

Lance Comfort
Mutz Greenbaum

Writers:

Eric Ambler (novel)
John Davenport (adaptation)

Release Date:

28 June 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Plot:

A hunt for a spy, in an hotel in the South of France just before World War Two.

Plot Keywords:

France | Hotel | Spy | Beautiful Woman | Based On Novel

Cast

James Mason	...	Peter Vadassy
Lucie Mannheim	...	Mme Suzanne Koch
Raymond Lovell	...	Robert Duclos
Julien Mitchell	...	Michel Beghin, intelligence chief
Herbert Lom	...	Andre Roux
Martin Miller	...	Walter Vogel
Clare Hamilton	...	Mary Skelton
Frederick Valk	...	Emil Schimler, alias Paul Heimberger
Patricia Medina	...	Odette Roux
Anthony Shaw	...	Major Anthony Chandon-Hartley
Laurence Hanray	...	Police Commissioner (as Lawrence Hanray)
David Ward	...	Henri Asticot
Valentine Dyall	...	Warren Skelton
Joseph Almas	...	Albert, the waiter (as Josef Almas)
Patricia Hayes	...	Woman

Also Known As:

Epitaph for a Spy

Runtime:

USA:79 min | UK:90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #10987)

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

RKO Radio British Productions

Trivia:

The camera that Peter Vadassy uses is a Zeiss Ikon Contax.

I liked this a little better than most

James Mason is a guest at the "Hotel Reserve," and runs into some problems in this 1944 film. He plays a young man, Vadassy, whose camera is used to photograph a military installation, which is the crime of espionage. Since the camera number on his declarations form doesn't match the camera's, the officials know the camera was switched. They want Vadassay to find the spy in the hotel. The suspects are a honeymooning couple (Herbert Lom and Patricia Medina), a man using an alias (Frederick Valk), an attractive young woman (Mary Skelton), a major (Anthony Shaw), an older couple, several others.

I liked this film a little better than some others on the board, though it does not have the suspense or urgency of a Hitchcock film. It does have an overpowering score, one of the most dramatic I've ever heard by Lennox Berkeley, interesting photography by Mutz Greenbaum (who was one of the directors as Max Greene), and it's based on a story by Eric Ambler, a fine suspense writer. What it also had going for it was a very European setting and sensibility, very fitting for the plot.

James Mason is very young and handsome here, and Herbert Lom is nearly unrecognizable, he's so young. Mason is very good but the depth of his abilities was as yet untapped. The rest of the cast is good.

Yes, Hitchcock would have gone to town on this one. Still, "Hotel Reserve" has its good points in storyline and visuals. And that music - intrusive but good.