Mademoiselle Docteur

This melodramatic account of Germany’s most famous spy, Anne-Marie Lesser, is given distinction by a fine cast and the evocative direction of GW Pabst. The plotting and assignations during the First World War are vividly re-created in salons, cabarets and railway stations, while delicately beautiful Dita Parlo (whose most celebrated role was in Renoir’s La Grande Illusion makes an ethereal heroine. An English language version was made similtaneously by Edmond T Gréville with Erich von Stroheim in the role played here by Louis Jouvet. The same story had been filmed by MGM in 1934 as Stamboul Quest with Myrna Loy, and would be made again as Fraulein Doktor (1969) with Suzy Kendall — but this is by far the best version.