I get it. Women suck at being spies. "Stamboul Quest" was just one more reminder of that. A female spy will only fall in love and fail at her task. For reference see "Mata Hari" (1931), "Dishonored" (1931), and "Operator 13" (1933). I'm gonna play spoiler here and say that the female spy didn't fail at her task, but that's because she was tricked.
"Stamboul Quest" considered itself slick by addressing the elephant in the room right away. Fraulein Doktor (Myrna Loy) was a spy and she made mention of Mata Hari (a female German spy) falling in love with a Russian and subsequently revealing herself. Doktor made sure to openly state, "A woman in love has no secrets from the man she loves," then she later followed that up by stating that she "doesn't mix love with her love making." She even had a little note to herself reminding her not to make the same mistake Mata Hari made. It was nothing but shameless foreshadowing because when she met Douglas Beall (George Brent), a charming, relentless American who was slobbering all over her, she fell in love.
Initially, the American was a mark. She was to find out if he was a spy or not and what he possibly knew; after which she was to go on her mission to Turkey to find out if Ali Bey (C. Henry Gordon) was a British spy or not.
To accomplish the first task she had to play a smitten woman which allowed Douglas (the American) to make love to her and even fall in love with her as he boldly claimed after knowing her for a couple of hours.
She found out nothing significant about him and left his company.
Where she made a mistake was letting him ride in a taxi with her to the train station instead of kicking him out. Next, she entertained him again on the train to Turkey, again, instead of kicking him out of her cabin. She finally put her foot down in the dining car and told him to kick rocks. He walked away like a wounded puppy sure to make all the viewers pity him.
I knew that their saga wasn't over, it was just a matter of how they'd be thrust together again.
It happened when enemy bombs hit near their train. Some civilian passengers got hurt and Douglas went into savior mode. He was carrying, tending, and patching up victims left and right; enough to garner Doktor's admiration and even her.... Love.
So, instead of finding a reason to abandon Douglas somewhere, or send him back to Berlin, she took him along with her to Turkey on her mission. Mind you, we still don't know if he's a spy or not. For all we know he's pouring it on thick because this was a mark he wanted to get close to himself. We just know that Doktor is too weak in the knees at this point regardless of what Douglas is.
She brought him to Turkey under the guise of being her servant. An idiot could've figured out that it was odd for a German woman to have a white American male servant, yet she followed through with the dumb plan because by now feelings had clouded her judgment.
Eventually, she did the irresponsible and the inevitable: she informed Douglas that she was a spy because she loved him and "A woman in love has no secrets from the man she loves." And remember: SHE STILL DOESN'T KNOW WHO OR WHAT DOUGLAS IS. She just knows that he pumped her up with flowery talk and she's now in love with the dude.
As poorly as the movie was going it did tick upwards. Doktor told Douglas that she was going to go through with her meeting with Ali Bey regardless of what that meeting may have yielded (i.e. Sex). As she stated, her country was at war, she had a mission and she was going to complete her mission.
Douglas gave Doktor an ultimatum: leave with him that night or lose him forever. She opted to stay. Truthfully, she didn't have a choice. If she left with Douglas before accomplishing her task, she would've been branded a traitor and executed.
Instead she conceived a brilliant plan to keep her man and out Ali Bey as a British spy.
Ali Bey was the commanding officer of the Turkish army that was supposed to be aligned with the Germans (this is what I gathered). If he was giving over German secrets to the Brits, then the Turks and the Germans certainly wanted to know.
Doktor's plan was to have her sweetheart Douglas detained and set up as a British spy for which he was to be executed. However, she wanted her superior, Herr Von Sturm (Lionel Atwill), to have Douglas switched with a Frenchman who indeed was a spy. The Frenchman would be executed while her beau would be somewhere safe. Only she would know that a Frenchman was being executed while Ali Bey would fully believe that the American was being executed. If she was the German spy Doktor, then Ali Bey would expect her to do everything to halt the execution of her lover. If she was a Brit, then she would allow the execution to go forward with little resistance.
Her plan worked to perfection and Ali Bey gave her intelligence which revealed that he was a British spy. For that he was arrested, then came the cool part.
When Ali Bey was upbraiding Doktor for allowing her own lover to be killed, she smugly stated that it wasn't her American lover, but a Frenchman instead. That's when Herr Von Sturm sadly informed her that it WAS her American lover that was killed.
Oh what an excellent twist.
Then the movie took another twist, but downward.
Upon hearing that, Doktor turned into a puddle of mush. She quite literally went cuckoo and was no more useful to the German military. Herr Von Sturm let on to another German officer that the American wasn't killed, but he wanted Doktor to believe that because there was work to do and a woman in love would be no good. As was stated in the movie "Mata Hari" (1931): "A spy in love is a tool that has outlived its usefulness." The only problem is that Von Sturm didn't expect that a woman who lost her lover would be even less useful. In either case, again, the message is that women can't be spies. They will fall in love and become totally useless.
For all the sentimental viewers, there was no need to worry. Doktor was reunited with Douglas in the end, so you still get your happily-ever-after.
Free on Daily Motion.
"Stamboul Quest" considered itself slick by addressing the elephant in the room right away. Fraulein Doktor (Myrna Loy) was a spy and she made mention of Mata Hari (a female German spy) falling in love with a Russian and subsequently revealing herself. Doktor made sure to openly state, "A woman in love has no secrets from the man she loves," then she later followed that up by stating that she "doesn't mix love with her love making." She even had a little note to herself reminding her not to make the same mistake Mata Hari made. It was nothing but shameless foreshadowing because when she met Douglas Beall (George Brent), a charming, relentless American who was slobbering all over her, she fell in love.
Initially, the American was a mark. She was to find out if he was a spy or not and what he possibly knew; after which she was to go on her mission to Turkey to find out if Ali Bey (C. Henry Gordon) was a British spy or not.
To accomplish the first task she had to play a smitten woman which allowed Douglas (the American) to make love to her and even fall in love with her as he boldly claimed after knowing her for a couple of hours.
She found out nothing significant about him and left his company.
Where she made a mistake was letting him ride in a taxi with her to the train station instead of kicking him out. Next, she entertained him again on the train to Turkey, again, instead of kicking him out of her cabin. She finally put her foot down in the dining car and told him to kick rocks. He walked away like a wounded puppy sure to make all the viewers pity him.
I knew that their saga wasn't over, it was just a matter of how they'd be thrust together again.
It happened when enemy bombs hit near their train. Some civilian passengers got hurt and Douglas went into savior mode. He was carrying, tending, and patching up victims left and right; enough to garner Doktor's admiration and even her.... Love.
So, instead of finding a reason to abandon Douglas somewhere, or send him back to Berlin, she took him along with her to Turkey on her mission. Mind you, we still don't know if he's a spy or not. For all we know he's pouring it on thick because this was a mark he wanted to get close to himself. We just know that Doktor is too weak in the knees at this point regardless of what Douglas is.
She brought him to Turkey under the guise of being her servant. An idiot could've figured out that it was odd for a German woman to have a white American male servant, yet she followed through with the dumb plan because by now feelings had clouded her judgment.
Eventually, she did the irresponsible and the inevitable: she informed Douglas that she was a spy because she loved him and "A woman in love has no secrets from the man she loves." And remember: SHE STILL DOESN'T KNOW WHO OR WHAT DOUGLAS IS. She just knows that he pumped her up with flowery talk and she's now in love with the dude.
As poorly as the movie was going it did tick upwards. Doktor told Douglas that she was going to go through with her meeting with Ali Bey regardless of what that meeting may have yielded (i.e. Sex). As she stated, her country was at war, she had a mission and she was going to complete her mission.
Douglas gave Doktor an ultimatum: leave with him that night or lose him forever. She opted to stay. Truthfully, she didn't have a choice. If she left with Douglas before accomplishing her task, she would've been branded a traitor and executed.
Instead she conceived a brilliant plan to keep her man and out Ali Bey as a British spy.
Ali Bey was the commanding officer of the Turkish army that was supposed to be aligned with the Germans (this is what I gathered). If he was giving over German secrets to the Brits, then the Turks and the Germans certainly wanted to know.
Doktor's plan was to have her sweetheart Douglas detained and set up as a British spy for which he was to be executed. However, she wanted her superior, Herr Von Sturm (Lionel Atwill), to have Douglas switched with a Frenchman who indeed was a spy. The Frenchman would be executed while her beau would be somewhere safe. Only she would know that a Frenchman was being executed while Ali Bey would fully believe that the American was being executed. If she was the German spy Doktor, then Ali Bey would expect her to do everything to halt the execution of her lover. If she was a Brit, then she would allow the execution to go forward with little resistance.
Her plan worked to perfection and Ali Bey gave her intelligence which revealed that he was a British spy. For that he was arrested, then came the cool part.
When Ali Bey was upbraiding Doktor for allowing her own lover to be killed, she smugly stated that it wasn't her American lover, but a Frenchman instead. That's when Herr Von Sturm sadly informed her that it WAS her American lover that was killed.
Oh what an excellent twist.
Then the movie took another twist, but downward.
Upon hearing that, Doktor turned into a puddle of mush. She quite literally went cuckoo and was no more useful to the German military. Herr Von Sturm let on to another German officer that the American wasn't killed, but he wanted Doktor to believe that because there was work to do and a woman in love would be no good. As was stated in the movie "Mata Hari" (1931): "A spy in love is a tool that has outlived its usefulness." The only problem is that Von Sturm didn't expect that a woman who lost her lover would be even less useful. In either case, again, the message is that women can't be spies. They will fall in love and become totally useless.
For all the sentimental viewers, there was no need to worry. Doktor was reunited with Douglas in the end, so you still get your happily-ever-after.
Free on Daily Motion.