As cunning as she is ruthless, actress Suzy Kendall is wunderbar as a seductive and efficient German spy in the title role of Fraulein Doktor. After narrowly escaping a British ambush after her fellow German agents are caught landing ashore near a British naval base in World War I, the spy known only as the Fraulein Doktor (Kendall) will use her brains, as well as her body, with weaponized bi-sexual precision, and a dependency on morphine, in order to achieve her objectives. The most diabolical being her attempt to steal the formula for a deadly chemical gas. Set to a score by Ennio Morricone, director Alberto Lattuada combines strong performances with stylized graphic war images, while allowing the cloak and dagger subterfuge from both sides to appear as accomplices in the carnage. Kenneth Moore, Capucine, James Booth and Alexander Knox rounds out this underrated cast. Don’t let this seldom seen and surprisingly smart spy thriller sneak past you.
“Fraulein Doktor spins out a dazzling cat-and-mouse thriller of spying and counterspying, with the whole bygone era splashed across the screen in striking color, costumes and settings. Its climax is a nightmarish antiwar spectacle – a poison-gas slaughter in no man’s land – that will bring you straight up in your seat.” – Howard Thompson, New York Times
