bkoganbing
James Mason, refugee from what was formerly Austria is now at a resort hotel
on the French Riviera when he's picked up as a spy. Of course he's not our
spy, however he's let go by the authorities and put under essentially house
arrest at the hotel. Someone switched cameras there on him and he'd like to
find out who is a real spy at the hotel.He's got quite a few choices. Some he'd like not to think of as a spy others look like they could have come from central casting as sneaky and spy like.
As a detective he's not very good and it is fortunate the authorities do have
the situation closely monitored.The object of all this is the French naval base at Toulon. It's been the home of
their Mediterranean fleet since the middle ages. Still is.The film is based on a novel by Eric Ambler and Mason himself didn't feel it was something that belonged in his best work. Still he's not bad as the Eric
Ambler protagonist in this film.
Prismark10
Hotel Reserve could had been a great wartime thriller under the hands of a better director with a more polished script.Set in 1938, James Mason is Peter Vadassy who staying at the Hotel Reserve in the south of France. He is a medical student, teaches languages to make ends meet and likes taking photographs as a hobby.He was born in Austria but has resided in France and hopes to be naturalised soon as a French citizen. He plans to be working as a doctor soon.Vadassy is suddenly arrested and accused of being a German spy. The photos he sent to be developed had photos of military installations. Luckily for Vadassy the authorities know he is innocent and his camera was mistakenly switched. They plan to use him as a decoy to flush out the real spy that is staying at the hotel. Vadassy has no option but to go along with the plan and turns detective when he returns to the hotel.It is nice to see a breezy performance from Mason who so often used to appear as brooding. However the film becomes too plodding as it really was a propaganda B movie made in 1944. He needed to be paired up with a strong female character that really does not happen here.
Leofwine_draca
HOTEL RESERVE is a film that hasn't dated very well since its release during WW2; I'm guessing wartime audiences would have had a more emotional reaction to the storyline. It's a spy mystery set in and around a hotel in France in the years immediately preceding WW2, and the erstwhile hero of the piece is a young and breezy James Mason, who's wrongly accused of being a spy and who is then blackmailed into figuring out which of the suspects staying at the hotel is the real Nazi.Despite the intriguing set-up with its shades of Agatha Christie, this is largely a slice of hokum that goes nowhere. The running time feels at least twice as long as it actually is, and in terms of action, suspense and danger there's virtually zero to be found here. The director can just about muster up a relatively suspenseful scene at the climax, but up until that point the viewer is treated to endless scenes of talking, quasi-romance, and general boredom.Mason is an able actor but he has little to do in his central role, a role which offers little depth for any actor. Herbert Lom is better as one of the suspects, as he's able to bring his trademark darkness to the part, but the rest of the cast seems to be populated by caricatures instead of real people. There's not much here at all for modern audiences to engage with.
Roger Burke
Another old goodie from RKO studios, in the era when they were churning out spy melodramas almost by the dozen.I decide to watch this one for two main reasons: first, it has a still young-looking James Mason, appearing in his thirtieth movie (he first appeared in 1935) and there's also one of the heavies of the thirties and forties, Herbert Lom, once again showing his under-rated acting ability.I was also surprised at the great camera work: some truly imaginative interiors, great use of shadows and lighting, and quite an interesting denouement between the two men at the top of a building, again with some brilliant camera work. The setting was supposed to be in 1938 southern France, but in wartime, one makes do with the back lot at Pinewood; unhappily, that was all too obvious. There are other technical faults and shortcomings but just pretend you're in the local Palace on a bleak afternoon in 1944 London.The story about a young man, Peter Vadassy (Mason), being framed for espionage seemed to me a bit weak, at the outset: the local gendarmerie allow him to go free so that he can help trap the real spy, after he proves, sort of, that he is not the guilty party. Why then would the director of French Naval Intelligence rope in a stranger to help do their work? Ah, well, that's a bit of the puzzle that all comes together at the end, and very nicely done too... Of course, that's what one should expect from an Alistair Maclean novel, I reckon.Given the times, it's a good cast and the acting is generally good, even if the characters are a bit stereotypical. Hey, it was wartime, so it was good propaganda, I guess...At 85 minutes, it was a nice break after a busy day and the office...my PC! It won't appeal to the younger set, of course, but RKO and spy-story enthusiasts, who probably tend to be a bit older, would enjoy this one. I did.
AD
