World War I yarn, based on the exploits of German spy Anna Maria Lesser. Suzy Kendall, Kenneth More. Dr. Saforet: Capucine. Meyer: James Booth. Peronne: Alexander Knox. Mathesius: Nigel Green. Schell: Roberto Bisacco. Latemar: Mario Novelli. Filmed in Hungary and Yugoslavia. Directed by Alberto Lattuada.
In a muddled espionage story, Kendall plays a shifty German master spy during WW I, a mystery woman who brings devastation to the Allies far beyond the boudoir exploits of the more infamous Mata Hari. She and two German agents are spotted emerging from a sub at Scapa Flow in the Scottish Orkney Islands, where the British fleet lies at anchor. Kendall's job is to kill the redoubtable British military leader Lord Kitchener. Though her confederates are captured, Kendall manages to make it back to the submarine with information detailing the movements of the warship taking Kitchener to Russia on a hush-hush mission. The sub lays a series of mines in the path of the H.M.S. Hampshire and the ship is blown up, taking Kitchener and 700 more victims to a watery death. Kendall celebrates by taking morphine injections. Her unsavory past is examined by British intelligence officer More, who sends Booth to Germany to kill the dangerous woman. Meanwhile, Kendall forms an association with Capucine, a lesbian French scientist and the creator of a deadly poison gas. After murdering Capucine, Kendall steals the formula and turns it over to the Germans, who use it with devastating results. Booth tracks down Kendall and prepares to kill her, an act now sanctioned by the Germans, who have no more use for their drug-addicted spy. However, Booth falls in love with Kendall, and the Germans merely stage Kendall's death.