Doctor at war… Fräulein Doktor (1969)

This takes the sixties fascination with war films into new and surprising directions by showing us a narrative based on German success most of which is built on the superior cunning and ruthlessness of a female protagonist.

It culminates in a quite spectacular attack on Allied forces by German cavalry with horses wearing gas masks and coats: quite the most disturbing thing I’ve seen for a while. Extra precautions are required for a gas that permeates anything less than full body cover and as the French, Belgian and English troops reel from the gas, a relentless tide rushes through their lines… if you didn’t know any better you’d swear this was the turning point in a victory for the Fatherland.

The haunting image of horses in gas masks

The gas, developed by the Allies who were too principled - or squeamish - to use it, was obtained through the undercover activities of the woman known as Fräulein Doktor an unconventional role for Suzy Kendall in many ways and one she does very well in.

The film loosely based on the life of Elsbeth Schragmüller a First World War spy who had already inspired a number of films from the thirties onwards. Schragmüller did indeed have a doctoral degree in political science from the University of Freiburg and had smashed the glass ceiling academically before excelling her male colleagues in the war by rising through the ranks of the intelligence corps to become chief of the Kriegsnachrichten Antwerpen. She was awarded the Iron Cross First Class but much of her record is obscure and the subject of myth.

Did she even snog Capucine in order to obtain secrets? Suzy’s Doktor does in another eye-poppingly atypical moment - well, if it’s good enough for James Bond…

All's fair in war and love?

But first, to the capture of two German spies sneaking onto British soil – Meyer (James Booth) proves less robust than his colleague Schell (Roberto Bisacco) and cracks under pressure as the Brits – led by Kenneth More as Colonel Foreman - stage phoney firing squads. He agrees to spill the beans and to tell all about his mission to assassinate Lord Kitchener and to reveal the threat posed by the super spy Fräulein Doktor.

While Meyer tells all das Doktor goes about her business, blending into the coastal town from which she can learn of Kitchener’s plans. She gets a job a a cleaner and seduces a sailor (played by Michael Elphic) who tells her all she needs to know. Picked up by a German U-Boat she heads out to where the Kitchener’s ship will be and sees her mission succeed with its destruction.

Kitchener's battleship

She’s smart this one but she has a weakness: she is addicted to morphine…

Back at British intelligence, Meyer tells of how his colleague had acquired a deadly gas from underneath the noses of the Allies… The Doktor has passed herself off as a maid for Dr. Saforet (Capucine) who is a chemist developing an unstoppable gas. Dr. Saforet cannot resist a pretty face and falls hard for her young maid as the two begin a relationship that followed on from The Killing of Sister George – released just four months before.

Capucine falls

The older woman shares everything including her work and there’s a genuinely unsettling sequence during which she gases numerous caged dogs: her lover screams and you also wonder how they achieved the effect of so many animals in fear…

Dr. Saforet is convinced by the young woman’s reactions to the brutality of the chemical weapon – it is for the greater good something the sweet thing might not understand but then, just as the formula is completed, Frauline Doktor strikes, shooting her in the back and making off with the key to possibly swing the war in Germany’s favour.

Kill or be killed?

Now things get complicated as the British try to use Meyer to get to the Doktor whilst her commanders appear to respect what she has done but not her methods. She receives the Iron Cross for assassinating Kitchener but military solidarity prevents the German Generals from congratulating her.

Her morphine addiction is also a concern for her commander Colonel Mathesius (Nigel Green – excellent as always!) a mna every bit as sharp as his British counterpart. When Meyer turns up after apparently escaping the Brits, Mathesius quickly assesses what has been planned – helped by a traitor in the opposing camp. Meyer has been lined up to kill the Frauline with poisoned champagne… a plan that Mathesius seemingly allows to happen – killing two birds with one stone?

Frau Doktor briefs the assasins

But, whilst Meyer reports back that the Doktor is dead, she is very much alive and now sent to Spain as a volunteer nurse to infiltrate the Belgians in order to steal battle plans for the allied front. The Americans are about to enter the war and the Germans are getting desperate to land the knockout blow…

All of which leads to that climactic battle – a scene from Hell every bit as frightening as any contemporary re-enactment.

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I won’t reveal the ending…

Beautiful from all angles: Suzy Kendall

Dusty verdict: Fraulein Doktor employs enough style and twist to transcend the period of its making. Suzy Kendall is one of the defining “it” girls of the sixties but she plays this horrific character really well, overcoming the not inconsiderable distraction of being beautiful from every angle…

There's also good support from Kenneth More and James Booth - two British greats from different generations who both bring believability to their roles.

Kenneth More knows the score and so does James Booth

Stylishly directed by Alberto Lattuada the film also features a super score from young Ennio Morricone.

It's available on DVD from Amazon and elsewhere: definitely worth watching and being disturbed by... the image of horses in gas masks, protected from the poisonous clouds, reinforces the literal inhumanity of chemical warfare.

Britannia waves the rules… The Ruling Class (1972)

It’s pretty quaint to see some present day reviewers describing this film as “dated” with its earnest concerns about the nobility. It’s not so much the target of this satire, they say, but the left-wing consensus behind it that may well no longer exist to the same extent… Whilst it’s true that the politics of the left have changed, the film and the play it was based on were always out of step with mainstream thought and are only dated by the reserve that now dominates the politico-creative arena.

Politics is more disorientated than it was but the modern nobility are no less powerful than they were in the 1960s and most of us only see the tip of the iceberg. This country has always been run by a loose self-perpetuating oligarchy that sustains itself through pragmatism and the genuine social mobility Britain can offer the talented exceptions. I don’t even think that’s a political observation in itself: just a statement of fact?

People, regardless of their abilities can still obtain great power and wealth simply by being born to the right parents and the Lords still sit in their own House, albeit in reduced, more qualified numbers. Wealth inequality is even greater than it was in 1972 and the ruling classes still send their sons to public schools and they still dominate the Government from which they still make decisions that lead to the deaths of working men and women in the national interest…

I don’t see that the satire of The Ruling Class is no longer relevant and whilst stylistically it may be of its time, it’s well directed by Peter Medak and has more cutting edge than the mountain of mainstream gag-merchants clogging our TV stations, theatres and arenas.

Mr O'Toole

Most of all it’s got Peter O’Toole throwing himself absolutely into the role of insane. His is such a wholehearted and sincere performance that quite often this film is one you watch through gritted teeth… it’s not comfortable viewing watching someone so evidently disturbed and the human instinct is to look away from abnormality. But, imagine the creative imagination employed to achieve this effect? O’Toole was an actor who took things to extremes and then pushed on.

Harry Andrews

The film opens with a speech from the 13th Earl of Gurney (Harry Andrews) in one of the Guild Halls – there’s not much substance but a collective recognition of Great British values. The Earl drives home to his massive mansion to be greeted by his faithful servant Tucker (Arthur Lowe on brilliant form) who patiently collects his lordships clothes as he discards them ready for bed then brings him the ballet skirt, stepladder and fine silken noose for his regular “nightcap” of auto-erotic asphyxiation.

Unfortunately this particular evening the Judge tries himself too hard and ends up paying the ultimate price…

Alistair Sim, James Villiers, Coral Browne and William Mervyn

The family gather for the reading of the will and what a mixed lot they are… the Earl’s brother, Sir Charles (William Mervyn) , his wife Lady Claire (Coral Browne)  and their  son Dinsdale (James Villiers) along with Bishop Lampton (the great Alastair Sim), appalled at the suggestion of an improper death. Sir Charles is eager to get matters resolved and to enjoy the fruits of the family estate but there’s a problem in the form of the Earl’s son, the rightful heir to the title but who has been locked up in a mental hospital for years.

The will is read and tucker receives a payment of £30,000 – he’ll drink to that – but then something stranger happens as Jack Arnold Alexander Tancred Gurney (O'Toole) arrives to claim his title of 14th Earl of Gurney.

But there’s a problem as Jack is clearly under the impression that he is Jesus Christ returned to earth to lead people back towards the light. None of this cuts any ice with Uncle Charles who quickly devises a plan to marry him off to his mistress Grace (Carolyn Seymour) produce a male heir and then have Jack declared incapable.

But Jack is not without allies and his Aunt wants him well for his own sake and also to frustrate her faithless husband’s ambitions. She encourages Jack’s psychiatrist, Dr Herder (Michael Bryant) and the two begin an affair of their own.

If this all sounds convoluted you need to remember that the film’s purpose is to lampoon Upper Class ambition and “rules”. It’s also a powerful visual fantasy in which Jack’s mental state is often shown on screen. There are Dennis Potter-esque musical numbers – often very funny – as well as the world seen through Jack’s eyes.

He is convinced that he once married The Lady of the Camellias and, as cynical planning would have it, Grace arrives as the Lady herself singing an aria from the opera. Jack is captivated as he is supposed to be but Grace also begins to develop feelings for her “mark”…

Jack’s religious mania continues and he often rests on a crucifix in the study before descending to preach to his family and anyone who visits about love.

Meanwhile Tucker is revealed as a revolutionary “cell” all on his own, dedicated to overthrowing the establishment and seizing control of the means of production… after he’s finished the next bottle that is.

Grace becomes pregnant and it becomes imperative to sober Jack up before Charles can complete his plan to have him sectioned. Dr Herder tries ever more extreme methods before bringing in a more violently insane man, McKyle (the always excellent Nigel Green), who also believes himself to be the son of God, The Electric Messiah! He launches into Jack who sees electric shocks seemingly flow from McKyle’s hands… in exhaustion he calls his own name. Is this the beginning of a cure?

Nigel Green

Grace gives birth to a son and Charles calls in an old favour from the Master of Lunacy (Graham Crowden) who will surely find any lingering slivers of psychosis. But Jack is on the road to recovery and remembering that the psychiatrist had been a sporting hero at their old school Eton. A rousing chorus of the Eton Boating Song ensures the men bond and Jack is declared sane.

But now the film takes a darker tone as Jack suppresses his true thoughts, spending long hours in the attic reading comics about Jack the Ripper and his slaughter... He stops being JC and gradually turns in to “Jack” his sublimation of loving thoughts engendering a murderous response…

But new Jack is welcomed by the local hunt and cheered for his talk about the reintroduction of proper punishment in a society weakened by excess and indulgence from the class that should lead through fear and the application of strict correction to any un-British-ness.

All a bit heavy-handed of course but the film’s grand set piece as Jack preaches to the converted in the House of Lords makes it all worthwhile. As his hard line is greeted with rapture he has a vision of the chamber filled with decaying corpses: fossils held together by centuries of cobwebs still dressed in ermine and furs…

Dusty verdict: The Ruling Class hits its obvious targets cleanly but also with wit and the almost frightening intensity of Peter O’Toole’s performance. And, without giving anything away, the ending is one that disturbs and lingers – this is not a nostalgic easy-watching experience.

The supporting cast are all excellent from Nigel Green’s electrified insanity to Michael Bryant’s conflicted psychiatrist. Carol Browne is superb as the repressed but determined Lady Claire destined to always be let down by the Gurney family whilst Arthur Lowe is effortlessly impressive as the inebriated anarchist, struggling to drink down the establishment from within.

Carolyn Seymour

Special mention should also be made of the peerless Carolyn Seymour who could well be the Lady of the Camellias but is equally convincing as the street-smart “actress” who finds love even in the midst of insanity.

The question is, does society find Jack’s love more delusional and less acceptable than his hate and that’s not just a political issue but a personal one: we have to decide our own demarcation lines in this one.

The Ruling Class is available on DVD from Amazon and there’s even a deluxe edition from Criterion over in America: interesting to see how the film is rated in the land of the free.