This is a very good black and white adaptation of the Eric Ambler novel Epitaph for a Spy written in 1938 and it sticks to the book fairly faithfully. As were a few of his books before the war, it is a warning against the Fascist threat looming over Europe. Another one of Ambler's themes is an innocent caught up in the world of spies who sort of muddles his way through. Very Hitchcockian and it is a little bit surprising that Hitchcock never adapted one of his books. Of course, the movie was shot six years after the book and in the middle of WWII - so the film doesn't feel as prescient or foreboding as the book must have.


The innocent in this case is James Mason who finds himself suspected of being a German spy by the French intelligence. He has to find the real spy among the guests at the Hotel Reserve. This set-up was used to some degree in Ambler's later book and film (starring Joseph Cotton as the innocent) Journey into Fear, in which an assassin is on board a ship and Cotton has to figure out who he is before he is killed by him. This keeps the tension simmering and throws you into the shoes of Peter Vadassy (Mason) who left Austria when the Nazis came in and is waiting for his French citizenship. A roll of camera film that he shot turns out to have some pictures of French defenses - he has no idea how - but the police arrest him. Naval intel though believes him and gives him two days to ferret out the real spy. If he doesn't, he gets sent back to the waiting Gestapo. So exactly how does one go about this? He is an amateur and acts like one - just as we would.


Also, in the cast is a very young and dashing looking Herbert Lom, who was born in Prague. Lucie Mannheim is also on hand as the owner of the hotel. She had been a star in Germany until she had to flee due to being Jewish. She was Annabella Smith in the 39 Steps. Another one of the guests is played by Frederick Valk - he plays an anti-Nazi activist who had to go into hiding - and in fact Valk also had to escape from Germany. Hella Kurty also had to leave Germany because she was Jewish and go to England. She was more of an opera singer. The film unspools a little slowly in the mid-section and Mason's character feels rather useless at times but Mason does a good job of making us feel every jangled nerve in his character.