One of my all time favorites.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

"Hotel Reserve", a spy movie from the '40s, is thoroughly enjoyable, though it does have its faults.The story deals with a vacationing medical student (a very young and good-looking James Mason) who is mistaken for an enemy spy by the French police. Realizing he is innocent, the police department send him back to his hotel with the mission of finding out which of the guests is really the spy.Though a good film, the supporting cast is weak. Mr Mason is at his usual elegant standard, and I must say that I love the guy playing Duclos, but many of the other parts could have been better filled. I agree that it would have been interesting to see what Hitch would have done with it, but Alfred or no Alfred, "Hotel Reserve" is still very much worth seeing.

I overall found Hotel Reserve to be a good movie, albeit not a great one. There are some very tense and thrilling moments such as the climb to the roof top at the end, but some of the story does drag a bit and does feel thin at times, the script could have been tighter and Patricia Medina and Lucie Mannheim have little to do and are rather bland on the whole. Conversely, James Mason and Herbert Lom are very good in roles that I think are perfect for them, the film with nice cinematography, camera angles and production values is well made, the film is competently directed and the music is brooding and atmospheric. All in all, a good movie but part of me felt it could have been better. 7/10 Bethany Cox

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.

A modest but quite competently done spy-thriller set in 1939 France. The plot-line is strongly reminiscent of 1930s British drawing room detective thrillers - you expect Hercule Poirot to reveal himself at any moment. James Mason is an Austrian refugee from the Nazis who is accused of spying and then used as a decoy by the French authorities to flush out the real spy, who turns out to be Herbert Lom playing his usual sinister baddie. Mason and Lom turn in their usual workmanlike performances and give the whole thing credibility, winding up to a rousing finale in the best Hitchcock tradition.