Fräulein Doktor

Plot synopsis:
A woman spy and some male agents working for the Germans during World War I land at night near the British naval 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 Fraulein Doktor. Fraulein Doktor is portrayed as a brilliant spy who stole a formula for a nerve gas which the Germans used to great effect against the Allies on the battlefield.
Meanwhile, Fraulein Doktor seduces a laundryman to find out which ship Lord Kitchener will be sailing on to Russia, 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 Pour Le Merite. Meyer re-appears in Berlin and courts her. The German intelligence service is suspicious of Meyer's escape from the British, but use him to poison Fraulein Doktor because of her addiction to morphine and their distaste for her having murdered Lord Kitchener. Meyer is shown her dead body and later makes his way back to the British to confirm her death.
However, Fraulein 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 penetrate Belgium Army headquarters and steal the plans.
Col. Foremen 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 Fraulein Doktor. Meyer kills Foreman but is in turned killed by the advancing German troops. Fraulein 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.

Tags: flashback

Review:
But this film shows for the first time a spy who sees first hand the results of her work.
Like others have mentioned, the battlefield scenes contain some of the most horrific scenes of war carnage ever shot.
This is also poignantly shown in a scene when a German general reluctantly pins a medal on "Fraulein Doktor" because she'd killed Lord Kitchener and Kitchener had been a personal friend of his.
One has to put aside some of the 60s-style make-up and hairstyles, but most of the acting is very good and the whole movie will keep your attention all the way through to to the riveting climax.
Id' rank this along with "Gallipoli", "Paths of Glory" and "King and Country" as one of the best WWI movies ever made.
It is, for its time, a reasonably well crafted story revolving around true events such as the death of Kitchener and the German offensives of 1918.It also has a female spy who is much more believable than Julie Andrews!
As with other reviewers the first and strongest memory was of the well produced battle scenes and of men and horses in gas masks.
Like other people who commented on "Fräulein Doktor" I stumbled by chance upon this little gem on late-night TV without having heard of it before.
The strange mixture of a pulp fiction story about a sexy but unscrupulous anti-heroine on the one hand and a realistic and well-researched portrayal of war in the trenches on the other hand had me hooked from the beginning.To me this is one of the five best movies about WWI (the others are "All Quiet On The Western Front", "Paths Of Glory", "Gallipoli" and the post-war "La vie et rien d'autre").
And the scene with the poison gas attack is really chilling; the horses and men appear like riders of the apocalypse with their gas masks.I only wish I had taped the film..
The most memorable and scary scene is when the German army attacks with yellow cross mustard gas for the first time.
The experienced British soldiers don gas masks (only) and once again await the clouds of gas and the German attackers.
Now you will know why I have remembered this scene for the last 30+ years and still shiver, I think that you will too!.
There are movies, and there are films.
Movies are more often than not merely cinematic "candy," whereas films are true works of art.
As most viewers, I was highly impressed with the battle scenes, but the poignancy of the portrayal of the central character is what I consider to be the most sterling quality of the film.
Having done everything possible to serve her country as a true daughter of Deutschland, all the while in the throes of morphine addiction, die Fraulein is treated very shabbily by the German high command despite all of her efforts.
The scene in which the Doktor is being conveyed in the rear seat of a Mercedes Benz command auto, alone, desolate, and sobbing is perhaps one of the saddest yet truest depictions of a "spy's" lot in life.
Fraulein Doktor is a far deeper film than one may realize upon a singular viewing.
I only wish that its producers would see fit to release it on DVD so that those who have never experienced it can, and those who have seen it can again (perhaps again and again)enjoy this exceptional motion picture..
It has a fantastic and chilling scene about poisonous gas.
show it again Sam. I havent seen that movie in 20 or more years but I remember the attack scene with the horses wearing gas-masks vividly, this scene ranks way up there with the best of them including the beach scene on Saving private Ryan, I recommend it strongly..
Anyone know where I can get a copy of this film from?.
I remember seeing this film years ago on, I think, BBC2.
As I remember, it was an especially powerful movie, in particular the scene that stands out is of the horses wearing gas masks.
It seems more than passing strange that such utter dreck as "Dukes of Hazzard" and "The Hills Have Eyes" (the new version) can find DVD distributors while older - and far superior works such as this film - are nowhere to be found.
With all the on-going debate about the morality (or lack thereof) of warfare, and interest in espionage (consider the multiple Jack Ryan, Bourne, XXX, and "Mission: Impossible" productions, this would seem to be an obvious choice for release on DVD.
The gas attack scene is impressive without a doubt...
The comparisons with later films such as Jacob's Ladder are fine as long as this one gets the nod as the superior one (no cheap letdown surprise in the end!).But what makes this film stand out for me is that it breaks a barrier - an important one even for the ''sexy year'' of 1969...For the first time ever to my knowledge we had two major female stars embrace in such a suggestive way it left nothing to the imagination and it was thus the first ''big'' sapphic display with two stars!
We would have to wait until the 80's for another such exhibition - Catherine Deneuve (the new Capucine?) and another Suzy (Susan Sarandon) in The Hunger.Capucine was a major star - bigger than Suzy Kendall at the time.
Both actresses perhaps paid with their careers for their daring avant-gardedness here, in this most unique war film, or so it seems....
Fräulein Doktor Pretty Good War Movie, Could Have Been A Lot Better.
After seeing again Fräulein Doktor on NetFlix streaming video (before I cut that service, thanks to its notifying me two days ago of its massive pricing increase in September), I realize that this movie was nowhere near as good as I thought for years.
So I am making a massive rewrite of my previous very positive review of this WWI spy movie.
As others here at IMDb have commented, that brief scene of soldiers on horseback marching onto a gassed battlefield is very impressive, the group of seven or so horses wearing horse gas masks and protective body covers.
The problem is the closing scenes in the final third of Fräulein Doktor on or near the battlefield wreck this movie.In the end, the character of Fräulein Doktor is pushed of the stage by scenes of trench warfare, scenes of soldiers with the flesh on their hands being eaten away by poison gas and a subplot tossed in about German soldiers posing as French soldiers to break into military HQ to copy battle plans.
While these goings on are happening, Suzy Kendall's Fräulein Doktor is busy running around in a nurse's uniform as part of a Spanish contingent of nurses on their way to the Western Front to treat wounded allied soldiers.
Somehow the Doktor speaks Spanish perfectly, with no German accent.Netflix's streaming video version of this movie seems to have included the full lesbian scene between Suzy Kendall and Capucine, a scene censored on TV airings of the movie.
Capucine plays Dr. Saforet, who is developing a new poison gas.
In the scene, Capucine kisses Kendall on the lips, hot stuff back then.
The scene does serve a real purpose, to show how Fräulein Doktor gets her hands on the poison gas.Another scene, not censored, shows Kenneth More, playing a British intelligence officer, telling a caught spy to either talk or the spy will play the Wall Game.
That sort of cynical attitude played well across national borders in the Vietnam War era.Fräulein Doktor is a demonstration of how, 40 years ago, the once great film industry in Western Europe could turn out movies that had broad appeal all over the world.
In the late 60s, while the big Hollywood studios were on the ropes, Italy, France and England were turning out movies to fill the void left by Hollywood's decline.
There were the James Bond pictures (Doctor No was a surprise hit in the USA, it was first released at the Century theater chain in NYC with a 99 cent afternoon admission price), the Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns (with A Fistful of Dollars released by a distributor that never paid the Italian producers a dime) and French crime movies that usually went to art houses, with exceptions like The Sicilian Clan.
And there were European co-productions like Doctor Zhivago and, of course, Fräulein Doktor.
Fräulein Doktor was good enough that some viewers still remember the movie decades later, long after it was out of circulation.Trouble is, my memories of Fräulein Doktor do not include the badly photographed battle scenes, the poorly done model work showing a warship in a storm, the terrible ending of this movie and the unnecessarily graphic scenes of soldiers' rotting flesh.
Suzy Kendall, though, is just as beautiful as I remember her..
Fraulein Doktor should've long been on video.
Two films of the 1960s I want to see in their entirety but as time goes by I don't think I ever will.
Those films are Fraulein Doktor(1969) & Sands of the Kalahari(1965), both released by Paramount in the US.
I have a reasonably good copy of Kalahari taped off of TV with the expected commercial cuts.
I haven't seen nothing of Fraulein Doktor since I last saw it 25 to 30 years ago and as time goes by memory fades.
I remember two scenes in Fraulein Doktor distinctly, the horseback poison gas scene & Suzy Kendall crying her eyes out in the back of a military vehicle after having committed once last deceit and afterward she wanted no more of espionage.
I agree with the other posters that the major studios will give a goofy modern joke of a film a wide video release but will completely ignore these gems.
If I'm not mistaken neither Fraulein Doktor nor Sands of the Kalahari have had a home video release of any kind be it: Betamax, VHS, 8mm, Laserdisc or DVD.
five different formats from the last 30 years and these two movies cannot get a home video release of some sorts.
There are other films from this era that also have never seen the light of the 'video' day.
But time marches on, 40 years now, for the best print materials from films like FD & SotK.
Excellent film and not on video yet either to my knowledge.
But the other two films are wonderful and deserve to be on DVD..
Luckily, not knowing anything about this movie I was curious enough to tape it from TV.
And then the tape ran out just five minutes before the ending!But I'm glad I managed to get most of it because this is a really great spy movie.
And it's not just because of the two George's actresses.The gas attack seems to hit every viewer very strongly, no wonder, And it certainly did hit me.
This is not just a heroic war tale of one victorious side, but shows what lies behind the victory in good and bad.
And I think I have to try to catch more movies with Suzy Kendall.
Let's hope they get this on DVD soon, so I can have the entire movie in my collection and more people will become familiar with this very little known gem..
One scene that has always stayed with me is the German cavalry gas attack.
Like almost everyone else who has commented on this movie, I can only wonder why this has never appeared on video.I recall seeing it at about age 12 on the "The Late Show," circa 1972.
I too recall the poison gas attack and the weirdly garbed horses.
(I don't recall the more horrific bits I've seen described here; they were likely cut out for the TV audience.) But the scenes I REALLY liked were the ones involving the death of Lord Kitchener aboard the HMS Hampshire, almost exactly 90 years ago.
The scenes of the doomed cruiser approaching the minefield in the storm were really chilling, as I recall.Don't recall the musical score, but the comments of the others now have me curious.
The movie with the most memorable war scene ever..
When people ask "what's the most memorable movie scene for you", this is the movie I remember.
The mounted German soldier, he and horse in gas masks, emerging from the clouds of poisonous gas.
The rest of the movie was fascinating and enjoyable, but that scene stays with me.
well done giving the perspective of the other side fraulein doktor captures both the cost and the futility of war.
In my opinion to make a good war movie is quite difficult.
If you don't know much about WWI you will find a little bit difficult to get some references.
And German Uhlans and horses with masks and protections against the gas is something I remember since I was 14.
This is an excellent but hard to find trippy World War I spy thriller in the inimitable 60's Italian style.
From the psychedelic graphics of the introductory credits and the great score by Ennio Morricone to the lesbian love scene with Capucine and the elaborately produced apocalyptic no man's land battle scenes with poison gas and German cavalry in full gas proof 'storm trooper' gear, this is a movie that should not be missed.
It is a film that captures the horrors and cruelty of war and the ruthlessness of the players on and off the battlefield.
Apart from the battle scenes, some of the production and special effects are primitive, apparently because the bulk of the budget for this movie was saved for the battle scenes, but for lovers of 60's cinema it should not be an issue.
I first saw this movie on television many years ago and had the foresight to tape it on VHS.
I liked this movie, been trying to get a video of it..
This is a marvelous WWI movie.
It has U-boat scenes, a German gas attack in the western front trenches, and a multitude of other thrills.
I don't know why this movie isn't out on videotape.
I saw this movie once in or close to its release year 36 years ago (1969).
The parts I remember, rightly or wrongly, include Mustard gas in the trenches and Suzie Kendall as a German spy, offering some bloke sexual favours in the back of an enclosed truck to get military information from him.
A lot of good actors, Suzy Kendall, Capucine, Nigel Green, Kenneth More, Alexander Knox, James Booth, Giannarlo Giannini.
In short, a movie worth seeing, I've seen it several times.
It has a bit of everything: drama, war movie, action and suspense scenes, everything made credible and very dynamic..
Everyone talks about the famous and horrible noir devastating poison gas attack,one reviewer states that it is on the British troops, but actually I recall it is on the Belgian-held part of the line, small detail, whatever, the outcome would have looked the same.
Also, the thing with the ambush of Lord Kitchener, although the HMS Hampton carrying Kitchener in real life struck a sea-mine, I thought the movie had him being torpedoed by a U-boat acting on information about his movements by the Fraulein...perhaps the sub actually laid sea-mines in his path in the movie, Im maybe unclear.
If you like either noir or war movies, then you must see it to appreciate it..
"Fräulein Doktor" owes most of its fame to the fact that it's still difficult to find today; if you do find it and see it, however, you may end up wondering if it was worth the trouble.
The film's structure is far too episodic and the title character is far too remote to command interest the way a central character should.
Neither Suzy Kendall nor Nigel Green are convincing as Germans.
It looks like the beginning of a grindhouse movie or one of those Japanese entries in which human organs are flung around with abandon.
It's a World War I spy movie about a pulchritudinous agent.
The priest blesses you, you're marched out, stood against a wall, offered a smoke and a blindfold, the firing squad lines up and addresses you -- and then the whole thing is called off.This story is about a German spy, Suzy Kendall, a morphine addict who penetrates British intelligence in 1916.
That initial fake execution, staged by Colonel Kenneth More, has convinced another spy, James Booth, that he'd better play cricket with the Brits, so he spills the beans about Kendall's appearance and activities.
She's the one who gave the French poison gas formula to the Hun. Enough!
Kendall is a very adroit spy.
Capucine demonstrates to Kendall how the gas works in a disturbing scene that has a dozen white rats apparently dying and then dogs spinning around as if impelled by an internal motor, before expiring in a spasm of shivers.
I don't know if the animals went unharmed in the making of this movie.
Kendall makes off with the gas formula and returns to Germany, where she is decorated by a disapproving general.Booth, now turned by the Brits, is allowed to escape and report to his superior in Berlin, played by a delightfully hammy Nigel Greene -- hammy even for him.
Green informs Booth that Kendall, though once valuable, has now been spoiled by her morphine addiction and is no longer of any use.
And the murder of Suzy Kendall is another fake.
Now, being thought dead by the Brits, Kendall will no longer be looked for, so she can work more freely.
It gets complicated but ends up on the battlefield, with Kendall pretending to be a Spanish nurse.
Hundreds, maybe thousands, of men die when the Germans use the mustard gas that Kendall supplied them with.It's not often that some elements of the production are so poor that they draw attention to themselves, but in this case it has to be said that the sound stinks.