Fräulein
Cast & Crew
Henry Koster
Dana Wynter
Mel Ferrer
Dolores Michaels
Maggie Hayes
Theodore Bikel
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In the waning weeks of World War II, chaos reigns in the nearly defeated Nazi Germany. As people flee for cover from the omnipresent air raids, American prisoner of war Foster MacLain escapes his German captors and seeks refuge in the house of Professor Julius Angermann. The professor, fervently awaiting an end to the war, breaks the law by abetting Foster, the enemy. Soon after, the professor's daughter Erika arrives home and eagerly opens a letter from her soldier fiancé, Hugo Von Metzler. Erika is angry when she learns that her father is harboring a fugitive, but when German soldiers, looking for the American, knock at their door, she hides Foster in her bathroom. After the soldiers have gone, the professor gives Foster a coat to wear over his uniform and he leaves. When gunfire follows his departure, the Angermanns are certain that Foster has been killed. Soon after, a bomb strikes the house and kills the professor. Now alone, Erika ventures to Berlin in search of her cousin Karl. In Berlin's bombed-out streets, the Germans are fleeing the oncoming Russians, but Karl welcomes Erika to his house. He introduces her to his lodgers, the self-centered, opportunistic Berta and Fritz Graubach, who resent Erika's intrusion. Several days later, Russian troops arrive to occupy the city, and fearing for Erika's safety, Karl hides her in the attic. The Russians take over Karl's house, and one night, during a drunken revelry, a corporal finds Berta hiding in the kitchen and begins to molest her. To save herself, Berta tells of the attractive young girl in the attic, sending the corporal rushing up the stairs to break down the door. When Karl tries to defend his cousin, the Russians shoot him in the back. After the corporal tries to rape Erika, she climbs out onto the roof and he follows and falls to his death. Erika is charged with murder until the lustful Col. Dmitri intervenes on her behalf. Dmitri expects sexual favors in return, and even though Erika rejects his advances, he forces her to go out with him. At a nightclub, Dmitri drunkenly proposes to Erika and then passionately kisses her. After excusing herself to fix her lipstick, Erika meets Lori, the club's sympathetic piano player, who shows her a hidden stairway and directs her to a barge that will transport her across the river to American occupied territory. Meanwhile, Foster, who has survived the war and was promoted to major, has been sent to American occupied Berlin, and has kept the coat given to him by the professor who saved his life. Foster's adoring female assistant, Lt. Berdie Dubbin, offers to help him find his benefactor and discovers that the professor has been killed but Erika is still alive. One day, Erika is picking through the rubble of Berlin when the now prosperous Graubachs chance upon her and insist that she come home with them. When they introduce her to their "nieces," Erika fails to realize that the Graubachs are running a brothel until one night, one of the Graubachs' gentlemen callers assails her in her room. Erika runs out onto the street, where Graubach reproaches her for offending his patron. Just then, two American MPs drive by and come to her rescue. When Graubach hurls a racial epithet at Corp. S. Hanks, a black soldier, Erika earnestly apologizes for his behavior. Soon after, Erika meets Lori, who is now playing piano at a local club. Lori takes pity on Erika and gets her a job in a dunk game which requires her to sit on a diving board while GIs throw balls a target that will dump her into a pool below. One night, Foster comes to the club and sees Erika. When he offers to help her, Erika is wary, but asks him to find Hugo. Soon after, a man from the health department comes to Erika's apartment and is greeted by Lori, her roommate. The man tells a shocked Lori that Erika has been registered as a prostitute by the Graubachs and therefore must report monthly for examinations. Right after the man leaves, Foster arrives and asks Erika to go for a drive. In a bombed-out area of the city, Foster points Erika to the sorry hut where Hugo is now living with another woman. Hugo, who has lost an arm in war, has become bitter and indifferent, and when he asks Erika to return her cherished engagement ring so that he can buy an artificial arm, she is devastated. Erika silently hands him the ring and leaves. On the drive home, Foster, sensing her disappointment, asks Erika to join him on a barge trip along the Rhine. As they travel the countryside, Foster forces Erika to confront the losses and sadness in her life and she finally breaks into tears. Foster then confides that he has fallen in love with her and they kiss. Back in Berlin, Erika tells Lori that she plans to apply for a passport so that she can accompany Foster back to America. When Lori informs Erika that she is registered as a prostitute and therefore is unable to leave the country, Erika rushes to the security administration office in disbelief. Lori tries to notify Foster about Erika's distress, but Lt. Dubbin intercepts the call and snidely advises Foster that he offer Erika nylons and not marriage. At the security office, Erika is waited on by Hanks, the black soldier who saved her from Graubach. Remembering her kindness, Hanks obliterates the designation "prostitute" from the record and then hands over her papers. Her name cleared, Erika runs to meet Foster and begin a new life.
Director
Henry Koster
Cast
Dana Wynter
Mel Ferrer
Dolores Michaels
Maggie Hayes
Theodore Bikel
Luis Van Rooten
Helmut Dantine
Herbert Berghof
James Edwards
Ivan Triesault
Blandine Ebinger
Jack Kruschen
Alexander Goudovitch
John March
George Razdin
Peter Coe
David Lichine
Don Diamond
Michael Panaieff
Friedrich Ledebur
Otto Reichow
Norbert Schiller
Renata Huy
Rita Paul
Louis Mercier
Gabriel Curtiz
Joe Ploski
Trude Wyler
Gerry Gaylor
Joyce Vanderveen
Edith Claire
John Banner
Dorothy Arnold
Ed Erwin
Crew
L. B. Abbott
Daniele Amfitheatrof
Jimmy Clark
Leonard Doss
Marjorie Fowler
Bernard Freericks
Leland Fuller
Stan Goldsmith
Bertram Granger
David Hall
Charles Le Maire
Harry M. Leonard
David Lichine
Ben Nye
Walter Reisch
Walter M. Scott
Herbert W. Spencer
Leo Tover
Leo Townsend
Helen Turpin
E. Clayton Ward
Lyle R. Wheeler
Mary Wills
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to a June 1956 Los Angeles Times news item, Ernest Borgnine was originally to star as the male lead and Ursula Thiess was tested for the role of "Erika." A September 1956 Hollywood Reporter news item adds that Maria Schell was also considered for the role of "Erika." A March 1956 Los Angeles Times news item states that Jay Dratler was writing a screen adaptation of the novel for producer Buddy Adler. By May 1957, a Hollywood Reporter news item announced that Norman Corwin had been signed to collaborate on a screenplay with producer Norman Reisch. The contributions of Dratler and Corwin have not been determined, however.
According to Hollywood Reporter production charts and news items, Fräulein was shot on location in Berlin, Cologne and Munich from early August-late August 1957. It then moved to the Twentieth Century-Fox studios in Los Angeles. According to an October 1957 Hollywood Reporter news item, David Lichine, the princial dancer with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, choreographed the Russian soldiers' dance and also portrayed one of the soldiers.
