Product Details

• Actors: James Mason, Lucie Mannheim, Raymond Lovell, Julien Mitchell, Herbert Lom
• Format: NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Turner Home Entertai
• VHS Release Date: July 18, 1990
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: 6301696743
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #251,454 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From IMDB: In 1938, medical student Peter Vadassy, 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. Based on Eric Ambler's novel "Epitaph for a Spy."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Where were you Alfred..., June 9, 2010

By 

C. Moss "lotzsahgoodbooks" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hotel Reserve [VHS] (VHS Tape)

One wonders what this movie would have become if Hitchcock had gotten his hands on it. Would he have revved up the plot, tightened up the script, recast some of the characters, put in a highway chase over the countryside interrupted by sheep, added a more appealing female interest for Mason? The climb up to the roof at the end, the strong lighting and direct closeups, the art and photographic direction(seemingly uncredited to one of the directors),as well as the music score and the general "look" of the film, not to mention James Mason's compelling presence all had the ingredients for a potential Hitchcockian thriller, but something is missing here. The plot's not that complicated (certainly not like "The Lady Vanishes") and there seems not to be enough risk or sense of danger (certainly not like "The 39 Steps")to Mason's life, although there is suspense and surprise along the way. One big weakness is the supporting cast. The young lady's character (can't even remember her name) isn't developed enough, nor does she have sufficient charm or sex appeal, as a Hitchcockian heroine would.

Still one watches it for Mason, before he has developed any overt mannerisms or been sadly type-cast as a villain. He seems to have made a number of these not-quite-up-to-snuff pictures in his career. Was he hard up? why didn't Hitchcock cast him and why didn't he ever accept a Powell & Pressburger offer? His presence on any number of these "grade-b" films, including the brief appearance in "Madame Bovary" (with Jenifer Jones), for example, or in the disappointing "Mayerling," adds a sense of gravitas to any of the proceedings in which he appeared, but the scripts and directors fail him, if not the cast.

Fortunately, he can be remembered for his appearance as Captain Nemo in "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea," and Sir Randolph Nettleby in "Shooting Party," both of which tapped his natural dignity and aristocratic bearing and surrounded him with a worthy cast. See those for Mason at his best.

Of four stars****, two and a half.