The black and white, pessimistic film is one of the greatest British thrillers of the post-war era, in the best Alfred Hitchcock tradition, and beautifully produced and directed by Britisher Carol Reed." He doesn""t believe questioning her would do any good: "She""ll just waltz in with some superstar lawyer who""ll get us all canned for wasting the taxpayers"" money.The hotel sign indicated the proprietor was James Temple.McCloud entered with his single bag into the mostly-deserted lobby and rang the front desk bell, noting that there was only one male (a dapper young gentleman wearing spats, wide suspenders, a white ie and fedora hat) reading a newspaper there - later identified as Edward ""Toots"" Bass (Harry Lewis).Adam plays piano in the nearby downstairs bistro.There, Henri shows Adam a picture of his 19 year old girlfriend/fiancee Lise Bouvier (young teen Leslie Caron in her screen debut), a beautiful dancer who works in a French perfume shop.