Teresa wanted to watch a vintage movie, so we plumped for this. Starring a youthful James Mason, with some oddly comic support, and a very young Herbert Lom as the villain. Made in ‘44, but set in 38, it’s an oddball thing. It seems to want to be both a thriller and a comedy. And in the end it’s not that great at being either.
Mason is Peter Vadassy, half French and half Austrian, looking to move to France and become a doctor, and escape Hitler’s regime. A mix up of cameras with another guest at the titular Hotel Reserve lands Vadassy in the embrace of the French police, who ask him to do a bit of sleuthing or espionage type work on their behalf.
Essentially the movie is about how Mason’s Vadassy character struggles, in a rather paranoid yet also playful environment – folk holidaying in southern France, on the edge of war – teetering between appearing too nefarious himself, whilst trying to smoke out the real villain.
Mostly filmed on a pretty unconvincing set, and with a rather oddball cast, some darkly serious, others bizarrely comical, it’s not a classic. But it is a silly slice of period fun. And by the end it felt kind of lame but enjoyable. Weird!