Hotel Reserve (1944)
- General info
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- Synopsis:
In 1938, medical student Peter Vadassy (James Mason), an Austrian national, is vacationing at the Hotel Reserve along the French Riviera. Half French, Vadassy has been living in France for the past five years because of the Nazi invasion of Austria. He hopes of becoming a naturalized French citizen, the completion of that process which is imminent. Because of some photographs on the film in his camera, Vadassy is questioned by the French police on the suspicion of being a Nazi spy. In reality, the police know that Vadassy is innocent of these charges, and that someone switched cameras with him. That someone is currently staying or working at the Hotel Reserve. The police are not averse to using Vadassy as a scapegoat for what has happened and deport him back to Nazi occupied Austria following his certain imprisonment. They leave it up to Vadassy to figure out who the Nazi spy is in an effort to clear his name. - Actors:
- James Mason, Lucie Mannheim, Raymond Lovell, Julien Mitchell, Herbert Lom, Martin Miller, Clare Hamilton, Frederick Valk, Patricia Medina, Anthony Shaw, Lawrence Hanray, David Ward, Valentine Dyall, Joseph Almas, Patricia Hayes, Hella Kürty, Ivor Barnard, Ernst Ulman, John Baker, Mike Johnson
- Directors:
- Lance Comfort, Mutz Greenbaum, Victor Hanbury
- Producers:
- Lance Comfort, Mutz Greenbaum, Victor Hanbury, Charles Koerner
- Writers:
- Eric Ambler, John Davenport
- Aka:
- Epitaph for a Spy
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics, Thrillers
More like Hotel Reserve
Reviews (1) of Hotel Reserve
Spy Thriller (spoiler). - Hotel Reserve review by Steve
Sombre and quite stylish spy thriller set on the French Riviera before WWII, but obviously entirely filmed in a studio in London. Even though the painted scenery is extremely artificial, it has a rustic charm which makes it feel like this is staged in a cute Provençal town from a dream.
James Mason plays an Austrian student with an interest in photography who gets into deep trouble when his reel of holiday snaps is developed to reveal pictures of military defences. So which of his fellow hotel residents swapped his identical camera by mistake and is a danger to the Republic?
The French police get the innocent tourist to investigate, threatening him with deportation into his Nazi controlled homeland. Well, they were different times. Soon Mason is chasing a convincingly sinister Herbert Lom across a precarious rooftop in Toulon in an exciting climax.
Lance Comfort is the key director of those named, and could be relied on to turn a small budget into polished entertainment. The hotel of diverse and gossipy guests under suspicion, is pure Agatha Christie. But Eric Ambler's source novel also draws on international intrigue. It's 1938 and France will soon be at war.