Hotel Reserve
Encyclopedia
Hotel Reserve is a spy film
Spy film
The spy film genre deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way or as a basis for fantasy . Many novels in the spy fiction genre have been adapted as films, including works by John Buchan, John Le Carré, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton...

 starring James Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...

 as an innocent man caught up in pre-Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 espionage. It was based on Eric Ambler
Eric Ambler
Eric Clifford Ambler OBE was an influential British author of spy novels who introduced a new realism to the genre. Ambler also used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for books co-written with Charles Rodda.-Life:...

's novel Epitaph for a Spy.

Plot

In 1938, refugee Peter Vadassy (James Mason) decides to take a vacation at the Hotel Reserve to celebrate both his completion of medical school and his impending French citizenship. When he goes to pick up some photographs at the local pharmacy, he is taken away and questioned by Michel Beghin (Julien Mitchell) of French naval intelligence. When his nagatives had been developed, some of them turned out to be of French military installations. It is discovered that while the camera is the same make as Peter's, the serial number is different. Peter is released on condition that he find out which other hotel guests have cameras like his.

Peter does some snooping and eavesdrops on a suspicious conversation between Paul Heimberger (Frederick Valk) and the hotel's proprietor, Madame Suzanne Koch (Lucie Mannheim
Lucie Mannheim
Lucie Mannheim was a German singer and actress.Mannheim was born in Berlin–Köpenick where she studied drama and quickly became a popular figure appearing on stage in plays and musicals. Among other roles, she played Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House, Marie in Büchner's Woyzeck, and Juliet in...

). He searches Heimberger's room and finds several passports, all with different names and nationalities. Heimberger catches him in the act, but eventually matters are straightened out. Heimberger explains that he was originally a National Socialist newspaper publisher who had turned anti-Nazi
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 and been sent to a concentration camp for two years. After he was released, he joined an underground movement against the German regime.

Peter spots his camera in the pocketof a dressing-gown belonging to Odette Roux (Patricia Medina
Patricia Medina
Patricia Paz Maria Medina is an English actress from Liverpool, England. Her father was a Spaniard and her mother was English. Medina began acting as a teenager in the late 1930s...

) and Andre (Herbert Lom
Herbert Lom
Herbert Lom is a Czech film actor, best known for his role as former Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther movie series.-Life and career:...

), a couple on their honeymoon. Andre first tries to bribe Peter into giving him the negative and, when that fails, threatens him with a pistol. The police arrive at that moment and arrest Peter for espionage.

The Rouxs leave the hotel, but find Heimberger trying to disable the hotel's car. Andre shoots him dead and the couple speed off to Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....

, unaware that they are being tracked by the police. Beghin had known the identity of the spies all along and merely used Peter to further his true goal; to find out who the Rouxs are reporting to. The spy ring is captured. Andre gets away, but is caught on a roof by Peter. Andre slips and falls to his death.

Cast

  • James Mason
    James Mason
    James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...

     as Peter Vadassy
  • Lucie Mannheim
    Lucie Mannheim
    Lucie Mannheim was a German singer and actress.Mannheim was born in Berlin–Köpenick where she studied drama and quickly became a popular figure appearing on stage in plays and musicals. Among other roles, she played Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House, Marie in Büchner's Woyzeck, and Juliet in...

     as Madame Suzanne Koch
  • Raymond Lovell
    Raymond Lovell
    Raymond Lovell was a Canadian-born film actor who performed in British produced films. He mainly played supporting roles, and was often seen as slightly pompous characters...

     as Robert Duclos, a hotel guest given to exaggeration
  • Julien Mitchell as Michel Beghin
  • Herbert Lom
    Herbert Lom
    Herbert Lom is a Czech film actor, best known for his role as former Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus in the Pink Panther movie series.-Life and career:...

     as Andre Roux
  • Martin Miller
    Martin Miller (Czech actor)
    Martin Miller, born Rudolph Muller was a Czech character actor who played many small roles in British films and television series from the early 1940s until his death...

     as Walter Vogel
  • Clare Hamilton as Mary Skelton, a hotel guest who is attracted to Peter
  • Frederick Valk
    Frederick Valk
    Frederick Valk was a German-born Jewish stage and screen actor of Czech descent who fled to the United Kingdom in the late 1930s to escape Nazi persecution, and subsequently became a naturalised British citizen...

     as Emil Schimler, alias Paul Heimberger
  • Patricia Medina
    Patricia Medina
    Patricia Paz Maria Medina is an English actress from Liverpool, England. Her father was a Spaniard and her mother was English. Medina began acting as a teenager in the late 1930s...

     as Odette Roux
  • Anthony Shaw as Major Anthony Chandon-Hartley, a guest
  • Laurence Hanray
    Laurence Hanray
    Laurence Hanray , sometimes credited as Lawrence Hanray, was a British film actor born in London, England.-Partial filmography:* Beyond the Cities * Her Reputation * The Faithful Heart...

     as Police Commissioner (as Lawrence Hanray)
  • David Ward as Henri Asticot, a guest
  • Valentine Dyall
    Valentine Dyall
    Valentine Dyall was an English character actor, the son of veteran actor Franklin Dyall. Dyall was especially popular as a voice actor, due to his very distinctive sepulchral voice, he was known for many years as "The Man in Black", narrator of the BBC Radio horror series Appointment With Fear.In...

     as Warren Skelton
  • Joseph Almas as Albert, the waiter (as Josef Almas)
  • Patricia Hayes
    Patricia Hayes
    Patricia Lawlor Hayes, OBE was an English comedy actress.Hayes was born in Streatham, London. As a child Hayes attended Sacred Heart School in Wandsworth....

     as Woman
  • Hella Kürty as Hilda Vogel
  • Ivor Barnard
    Ivor Barnard
    Ivor Barnard was an English film actor. In 1929 he appeared on stage in "Bird In Hand" at the Morosco Theatre in New York City. He appeared in 84 films between 1921 and 1953. He appeared in the Alfred Hitchcock film The 39 Steps in 1935. In 1943, he played the stationmaster in the Ealing war movie...

    as P. Molon, the pharmacist
  • Ernst Ulman as Detective in Black Suit
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