Fräulein Doktor (film)

{{Infobox film

| name = Fräulein Doktor

| image = Fräulein Doktor.jpg

| caption = US theatrical release poster

| director = Alberto Lattuada

| producer = Dino De Laurentiis

| story = Vittoriano Petrilli

| screenplay = H. A. L. Craig
Vittoriano Petrilli
Alberto Lattuada
Uncredited:
Duilio Coletti
Stanley Mann

| starring = Suzy Kendall
Kenneth More
Nigel Green
Alexander Knox
Olivera Katarina
Capucine
James Booth

| music = Ennio Morricone

| cinematography = Luigi Kuveiller

| editing = Nino Baragli

| studio = Avala Film
Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica

| distributor = Paramount Pictures

| released = {{Film date|1969|01|24|Italy|1969|05|15|U.S.|df=y}}

| runtime = 104 minutes

| country = Yugoslavia
Italy

| language = English

| budget =

| gross =

}}

Fräulein Doktor is a 1969 spy film loosely based on the life of Elsbeth Schragmüller. 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 Fräulein Doktor. Fräulein 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, Fräulein 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 Mérite. 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 Fräulein 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, Fräulein 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 Fräulein Doktor. Meyer kills Foreman but is in turn killed by the advancing German troops. Fräulein 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 Fräulein Doktor
Kenneth More as Colonel Foreman
Capucine as Dr. Saforet
James Booth as Meyer
Alexander Knox as General Peronne
Nigel Green as Colonel Mathesius
Giancarlo Giannini as Lt. Hans Ruppert
Ralph Nossek as Lean agent

Production and release

Location shooting took place in Yugoslavia and Hungary.{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/75613/fraulein-doktor#notes |title=Fraulein Doktor (1969) − Notes |website=Turner Classic Movies |access-date=26 July 2024}} The set for the final battle sequence was one of the most ambitious constructs of no man's land ever filmed.

The film was released in Yugoslavia under the name Gospođica Doktor − špijunka bez imena, and in Italy as Fraulein Doktor. In the United States, consideration was given to the possible titles Nameless and The Betrayal.{{cite web|url=http://www.mymovies.it/dizionario/recensione.asp?id=9679|title=Fraulein Doktor (1969)|first=Mo-Net s.r.l.|last=Milano-Firenze|date=|website=MyMovies.it|access-date=29 May 2017}}

Suzy Kendall was a casting choice reflecting Virginia McKenna's portrayal of the French-born Violette Szabo in the 1958 WW2 action drama Carve Her Name with Pride.

Home media

In 2011 Fräulein Doktor was released on DVD by Underground Empire, most likely a bootleg. Other screenshots of the film which can be found online frequently refer to a Finnish airing on Yle Teema.{{cite web|url=http://www.ioffer.com/i/fraulein-doktor-dvd-1969-suzy-kendall-kenneth-more-518181691|title=Fraulein Doktor DVD 1969 Suzy Kendall Kenneth More for sale|website=iOffer.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922200307/http://www.ioffer.com/i/fraulein-doktor-dvd-1969-suzy-kendall-kenneth-more-518181691|archive-date=22 September 2017}}

The soundtrack by Ennio Morricone was released on its own in 2010 by Intermezzo Media.{{cite web|title=Fräulein Doktor Soundtrack (Ennio Morricone) − Legend (2010) |url=https://www.filmmusicsite.com/en/soundtracks.cgi?id=10838 |website=Film Music Site |date=6 August 2010}}