James Mason is as pale as the script in this forties "thriller" that looks like it was performed and directed by a community theatre group. Mason is poorly miscast as a Austrian medical student accused of espionage while on vacation at a resort hotel in the south of France. The police threaten to turn him over to the Gestapo if he doesn't cooperate by uncovering the real spy among the hotel guests. With a group of arch characters, some casting sinister side glances, others acting buffoonish, a suspenseless game of Clue commences. In comparison the board game is more animated.
With the exception of Herbert Lom's fine sinister turn performances run from bad to ham to invisible. The set design is sparse, the lighting unimaginative and the photography flat. The editing is glaringly incompetent and the direction (three are given credit; talk about too many cooks) haphazard.
In an attempt to amp up the tension and showcase their matinée idol, the directors throw a trench coat on the pallid Mason and bring him along to vanquish the villain at the film's climax. It is a ridiculously contrived ending that in a way is wholly appropriate to a film that remains consistently bad from start to finish.
With the exception of Herbert Lom's fine sinister turn performances run from bad to ham to invisible. The set design is sparse, the lighting unimaginative and the photography flat. The editing is glaringly incompetent and the direction (three are given credit; talk about too many cooks) haphazard.
In an attempt to amp up the tension and showcase their matinée idol, the directors throw a trench coat on the pallid Mason and bring him along to vanquish the villain at the film's climax. It is a ridiculously contrived ending that in a way is wholly appropriate to a film that remains consistently bad from start to finish.