Under False Flag (1932 film)

Under False Flag (German: Unter falscher Flagge) is a 1932 German spy thriller film directed by Johannes Meyer and starring Charlotte Susa, Gustav Fröhlich and Friedrich Kayssler. It was shot at the Johannisthal Studios in Berlin from the end of November 1931 to the beginning of 1932. It was made by Deutsche Universal, the German branch of Universal Pictures, in co-production with Tobis Film. The film's sets were designed by the art director Otto Hunte. It premiered at Berlin's Ufa-Palast am Zoo. The film was based on the novel of the same title by Max W. Kimmich, who also worked on the screenplay.[1]

Under False Flag
Directed byJohannes Meyer
Screenplay by
Based onUnder False Flag by Max W. Kimmich
Produced byHans von Wolzogen
Max Wogritsch
StarringCharlotte Susa
Gustav Fröhlich
Friedrich Kayssler
CinematographyOtto Kanturek
Edited byCarl Otto Bartning
Music byGiuseppe Becce
Production
companies
Distributed byDeutsche Universal-Film
Release date
12 February 1932
Running time
96 minutes
CountryGermany
LanguageGerman

In 1934 Universal made an American remake Madame Spy in Hollywood with Fay Wray and Edward Arnold and directed by Karl Freund.

Plot

Captain Herbert Frank (Gustav Fröhlich), a German intelligence officer, fights in World War I and gets severely wounded in 1916. While in hospital, he is cared for devotional by a nurse called Maria Horn (Charlotte Susa). Later on, he asks her to become his wife, and she gives in to him. But just a few days after their wartime wedding, her husband is commanded to Berlin, where he is appointed to the chief of the counterintelligence service against Russia.

Meanwhile, the Russian secret service has got wind of a coming-up German attack and is eager to get hold of the German attack plans. Frank and his two assistants, Captain Weber and Commissioner Schulz soon find out that the most dangerous agent at the Russian side is a certain Sulkin, whom nobody seems to know. After a short time, Schulz and Weber begin throwing their suspicion on Maria. But as they do not want to destroy their boss's marriage, they begin to observe her secretly. One day, they follow her to the Marabou-Bar, where Maria's brother is acting as a singer. Here they get final evidence that Maria and the mysterious Sulkin are identical. But Maria manages to escape, while her brother, whom she had informed about her work for the secret service, is killed by the Russian counterespionage. When Frank learns that his wife had been an enemy agent, he nearly collapses. Later on, he asks for being sent to the front with a suicide squad.

Meanwhile, Maria has returned to Russia. She feels sorry for the abuse of confidence she offended at her husband, and wants to make up for it again. But when she tries to withdraw her giving-in to working as a secret agent, her bosses pretend that Frank had killed her brother, so that she begins to hate him. Some time later, she and Frank meet each other at a big ball in Russia by accident. First she wants to tell him on and leads his fingerprints to the Russian secret service, but in the end he is able to convince her of his innocence at her brother's death. Now that she is convinced of his innocence, she helps him to escape, but is killed at this occasion.

Cast

References
  1. Goble p.259

Bibliography
  • Goble, Alan. The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter, 1999.
  • Klaus, Ulrich J.: German soundfilms. Film encyclopedia of full-length German and German-speaking sound films, sorted by their German first showings. - Ulrich J. Klaus / Berlin [et al.] - (Klaus-Archive, Vol. 3, 1932)
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