James Mason is a guest at the "Hotel Reserve," and runs into some problems in this 1944 film. He plays a young man, Vadassy, whose camera is used to photograph a military installation, which is the crime of espionage. Since the camera number on his declarations form doesn't match the camera's, the officials know the camera was switched. They want Vadassay to find the spy in the hotel. The suspects are a honeymooning couple (Herbert Lom and Patricia Medina), a man using an alias (Frederick Valk), an attractive young woman (Mary Skelton), a major (Anthony Shaw), an older couple, several others.<br /><br />I liked this film a little better than some others on the board, though it does not have the suspense or urgency of a Hitchcock film. It does have an overpowering score, one of the most dramatic I've ever heard by Lennox Berkeley, interesting photography by Mutz Greenbaum (who was one of the directors as Max Greene), and it's based on a story by Eric Ambler, a fine suspense writer. What it also had going for it was a very European setting and sensibility, very fitting for the plot.<br /><br />James Mason is very young and handsome here, and Herbert Lom is nearly unrecognizable, he's so young. Mason is very good but the depth of his abilities was as yet untapped. The rest of the cast is good.<br /><br />Yes, Hitchcock would have gone to town on this one. Still, "Hotel Reserve" has its good points in storyline and visuals. And that music - intrusive but good.