Fraulein Doktor (1969)

Fraulein Doktor is one of those big international co-productions (in this case Italian-Yugoslav), full of recognisable actors and with high productions values which, ultimately, never fully realises its promise.  The clue is in the cast - whilst it is headlined by familiar names, they are either past their prime, with their best work behind them - like Kenneth More or they are not quite top drawer - like James Booth and Nigel Green, both excellent actors, but never really stars in their own right - or the sort of actor bigger abroad than they ever were at home - like Suzy Kendall, who starred in many such continental productions as this, but who really achieved he same status in British or US films.  Likewise, the film itself - in the English language version I saw, at least - never quite manages to rise above the level of being a competent programmer.  It clearly wants to be an epic, but lacks the substance.

Ostensibly a World War One espionage thriller, concerning the activities of Suzy Kendall as the titular character - a morphine-addicted medic who is also a mistress of disguise - as she works as a spy for the Germans, Fraulein Doktor also has ambitions to be both an action movie and a serious commentary on the futility and hell of World War One. Unfortunately, these elements never gel, with the action sequences and battle scenes feeling as if they come from another movie.   Also problematic is the film's episodic nature - we open with Kendall landing in Scotland from a U-boat, on a mission to infiltrate Scapa Flow and ascertain the course to be taken by HMS Hampshire, which is to take Lord Kitchener to Russia, so that the U-boat can lay mines on its route and sink it.  Having succeeded in assassinating Kitchener, we then flash back to an earlier mission which involves Kendall's character infiltrating the household of a French lady scientist, played by Capucine, who is developing a new poison gas for the allies.  Kendall seduces Capucine and steals her secret formula for the Germans.  This episode seems to exist primarily as an excuse to inject some mild lesbian love scenes into the film.  We then come back to the 'present' for Kendall's battle of withs with double agent Booth, who apparently succeeds in assassinating her.  But this is just a ruse to fool the allies before Kendall embarks on her last mission: the infiltration of the Belgian HQ on the Western front in order to steal vital battle plans.  This episode climaxes with a spectacular battle scenes, as the Germans use the poison gas against the allied trenches, and series of double crosses which eliminate most of the main characters.

All of this means that the film never establishes a proper rhythm - all of the episodes could have formed the basis of a film themselves, but instead, just as they seem to gather pace, they abruptly end. Perhaps the biggest problem that Fraulein Doktor suffers from is the lack of a truly sympathetic character for the viewer to identify with.  From the perspective of audiences in the UK, Us or France, for instance, the lead character is, of course, working for the enemy.  It is difficult for British viewers to identify someone who conspires to assassinate a key military figure and whose activities give the Germans access to the poison gas they use against British troops at the climax.  Equally problematic is Kenneth More's British intelligence chief.  Playing against type, More portrays him as an unsympathetic stuffed shirt, ruthlessly manipulating James Booth's double agent.  This latter character is also difficult to identify with as he continually shifts allegiances, betrays former friends and colleagues and tries to play one side against the other in order to save his own skin.  In the end, I found that I just didn't care about the fates of any of them.

But the film does have many strengths,  The characters might not be likeable or sympathetic, but they are well played.  Also, on the whole, the film has excellent production values, only let down somewhat by poor model work during the sinking of HMS Hampshire.  The climactic battle scene is spectacularly staged, with the gas attack being depicted in harrowing detail.  The scenes of the advancing Germans, with even their horses clad in gas masks and chemical protection gear give the whole sequence a suitably bizarre and sinister slant.  However, despite being well staged, the whole sequence feels as if it has been shoe horned into the film simply to provide a big climax and, to be honest, is superfluous to the plot.  Which really sums up the film's problem - whilst individual sequences are well staged and entertaining, they never seem to gel together to form a satisfactory whole.  That said, Fraulein Doktor is still an entertaining enough hour and forty minutes or so, as long your expectations aren't too high.