Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1969


Frulein Doktor (film)

Buy Frulein Doktor (film) now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




'Frulein Doktor' is a 1969 spy film loosely based on the life of Elsbeth Schragmller. It was an Italian and Yugoslavian co-production directed by Alberto Lattuada, starring Suzy Kendall and Kenneth More, and featuring Capucine, James Booth, Giancarlo Giannini and Nigel Green. It was produced by Dino De Laurentiis and has a music score by Ennio Morricone. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures in the United States.

Plot



A woman spy and some male agents working for the Germans during World War I land at night near the Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow, from a U-boat. The British, led by Col. Foreman, ambush the landing party, capturing two of the men, but the woman gets away. Foreman fakes the execution of one of the spies, thus tricking the second one, Meyer, into becoming a double agent in the hopes of using him to capture his woman accomplice, whom Meyer identifies under the codename Frulein Doktor. Frulein Doktor is portrayed as a brilliant spy who stole a formula for a skin blistering gas similar to mustard gas which the Germans have since used to great effect against the Allies on the battlefield.

Meanwhile, Frulein Doktor poses as a prostitute and seduces a laundryman to find out which ship Lord Kitchener will be sailing on to the Russian Empire, and when it will sail. She then helps a German U-boat to sink HMS 'Hampshire' outside Scapa Flow with Kitchener on it, taking his life. For this, she is awarded the German Pour le Mrite. Meyer re-appears in Berlin and courts her. The German military intelligence service and its head, Col. Walter Nicolai, are suspicious of Meyer's escape from the British, but use him to poison Frulein Doktor because of her addiction to morphine. Meyer is shown her dead body and later makes his way back to the British to confirm her death.

However, Frulein Doktor's death was faked for Meyer's benefit so she would be free of suspicion for her next assignment, getting Allied defense plans for a German attack in Belgium. Under cover as a Spanish contessa, she recruits Spanish nurses to staff a hospital train to serve the Allied front. During the trip from Spain to France, she brings aboard German agents who will impersonate Belgian officers to infiltrate Belgian Army headquarters and steal the plans.

Col. Foreman is still not convinced of her death and shows up at the same army headquarters with Meyer in tow. The German agents steal the plans and in a deadly shootout with sentries, one gets away back to German lines. The Germans then launch their attack with great success, but Col. Foreman confronts Frulein Doktor. The set for the battle was one of the most ambitious constructs of no man's land ever filmed. Meyer kills Foreman but is in turn killed by the advancing German troops. Frulein Doktor is then whisked away by the Germans, but suffers a breakdown as she is being driven off through all the carnage and death about her.

Cast



* Suzy Kendall as Frulein Doktor

* Kenneth More as Colonel Foreman

* Capucine as Dr. Saforet

* James Booth as Meyer

* Alexander Knox as General Peronne

* Nigel Green as Col. Mathesius

* Giancarlo Giannini as Lieutenant Hans Rupert

*Ralph Nossek a Lean

Production and release



Location shooting for 'Frulein Doktor' took place in Yugoslavia and Hungary.

It was released in Yugoslavia under the name 'Gospoica Doktor - pijunka bez imena', and in Italy as 'Fraulein Doktor'. In the United States, consideration was given to the possible titles "Nameless" and "The Betrayal".
Colonel Mathesius was played by Eric von Stroheim in the 1937 film 'Under Secret Orders'.
Suzy Kendall as Frulein Doktor was a casting choice reflecting Virginia McKenna's portrayal of the French born Violet Szabo in the WW2 action drama Carve Her Name with Pride, 1958.

Home media



In 2011 'Frulein Doktor' was released on DVD by Underground Empire, most likely a bootleg. All available screenshots online refer to a TV screening on Finnish TV YLE Teema.

The soundtrack by Ennio Morricone was released on its own in 2010 by Intermezzo Media.[http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=8253797&style=music 'Fraulein Doktor', soundtrack, IntermezzoMedia] released August 6, 2010

See also



* Elsbeth Schragmller

* Other films about the spy known as "Mademoiselle Docteur" or "Frulein Doktor":

** 'Stamboul Quest' – 1934 American film starring Myrna Loy

** 'Mademoiselle Docteur' (also known as 'Salonique, nid despions' and 'Street of Shadows') – 1937 French film directed by G.W. Pabst

** 'Mademoiselle Doctor' (also known as 'Under Secret Orders') – 1937 English film directed by Edmond T. Grville, an English version of the above, shot at the same time, but with some cast changes.Thames, Stephanie. [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/3181/Stamboul-Quest/articles.html "Stamboul Quest (1934)" (article)] on TCM.com

References



'Notes'


Buy Frulein Doktor (film) now from Amazon

<-- Return to movies from 1969



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1106395760.