User reviews

I watched this more for Myrna Loy than for George Brent, whom I'd always considered wooden and stolid. Imagine my surprise to see a playful, puppyish Brent, with only a few small foreshadowings of his priggish side.

Myrna Loy is even more beautiful than usual, in a series of spectacular gowns (most notably one that is backless, nearly sideless, with a front that consists mostly of a flower, two rhinestone straps, and good intentions). She plays a German counter-espionage spy, Fraulein Doktor, who is notorious in many countries for her skill at getting information. It is clear that she didn't mind using sex to do so, which must have made negotiations with the Hays Office more fraught than usual.

There was a real Fraulein Doktor, who had run a school for spies in Belgium. She was still alive when the film was made (though suffering from drug addiction in a Swiss sanitorium), so the writers and producers had to tread carefully in their depiction of her. Loy's trademark sang-froid serves her well as she jokes about missions with her boss (the excellent Lionel Atwill), manipulates targets, and deals with the smitten Brent. The plot twists and twists and then twists a final time (just when you think you've anticipated the double-crosses, there's one last to surprise you). The cautionary references to Mata Hari help ground the story in its historical context.

The cast is great fun, with Mischa Auer as an efficient aide-de-camp, Leo G Carroll as a double-agent, and the wonderfully villainous C. Henry Gordon as Fraulein Doktor's main target.

The end, however, is simply odd. One hardly knows what to make of that final scene--it seems almost like an hallucination. Its unsatisfactory cap to the movie led me to give it a lower rating than I would have otherwise.

It's unusual in that the story is about espionage and counter espionage (and perhaps counter counter espionage) among the Germans during World War I, at a time before America entered the war.

Myrna Loy plays a German spy, sent by her spy boss (Lionel Atwill) to find out whether the head of the Turkish forces (very well played by C. Henry Gordon) is a double agent, spying for the British. The Dardanelles are involved, and military secrets. Myrna's life and mission are complicated by the fact that George Brent, an American studying medicine in Germany, is accidentally arrested in a dentist's office, during the ambush of Leo G. Carroll, who is also a double agent. Rudolph Amendt (who would play the mad doctor in She Demons nearly 25 years later) has a small role.

There are nuns in this movie, and a convent, at the opening and closing. Myrna, having outed Mata Hari as a double agent, herself falls in love, jeopardizing her work. There is some very clever dialogue in this film, as well as a little bit of well placed humor, and a great scene in which C. Henry Gordon writes secrets in invisible ink on Myrna Loy's naked back.

MYRNA LOY uses her exotic beauty well as a German spy who finds herself being wooed by a persistent American medical student (GEORGE BRENT) who follows her (stalks her is more like it) until she finds herself succumbing to his charms. Their relationship, although it becomes intense, is played out with humor and wit, helped by a script that is totally unpredictable in the amount of twists and turns it takes to get to a rather abrupt conclusion.

C. HENRY GORDON has a prominent role as a Turkish commander and LIONEL ATWILL gets some humor out of his role as her boss in espionage. Loy is photographed with great care and looks exquisite in her Orry-Kelly costumes. She appears to be enjoying her role here almost as much as the "Thin Man" roles she would soon be playing opposite William Powell.

As with all espionage yarns, the plot gets thicker as things go on and anyone who dozes off will have a hard time getting back on track--that's how complicated the yarn gets before the happy ending.

All told, it's a trifle but a pleasant one in the careers of Myrna Loy and George Brent, who is a little livelier than usual in his playful role.

By the time this movie was shown, Myrna Loy had grown into the American sweetheart that made her a natural in the Thin Man and other great films. She might have pulled off this role better a few years earlier when she more looked the part (and was made up to be) of the mysterious woman. She looks neither the spy Fräulein Doktor nor in love -- granted she does look good nonetheless. Story line is fair but one wonders why a medical student has the means and time to leave wartime Germany to cross the border into Turkey? Basic question is whether Myrna will complete her mission successfully or succumb to the charms of George Brent having just burned Mata Hari for falling in love. Scenes where the lovers and later Myrna and her boss openly discuss in a hotel room her role as a spy obviously predate hidden microphones. An American doing nothing about a German spy who will not give up her career for him is probably technically true (the story is based upon an actual incident) but still is a stretch. Lionel Atwill C. Henry Gordon do very well as the heavies. Some excellent camera work with good shadows and interesting transitions. One of the Turkish hotel scenes looks remarkably like the same set used later in Ninotchka. Not a great movie, but not bad either. Recommended.

Before her sophisticated flair for comedy was discovered, Myrna Loy played many roles that relied on her exotic beauty.

One is Stamboul Quest from 1934, also starring George Brent. Loy plays a German spy, Annemarie, a sort of Mati Hari, a love 'em and leave 'em type adept at gathering information.

In 1915, her boss, German Counter-Intelligence Chief Von Sturm (Lionel Atwill) asks her to go to Turkey, as he believes Ali Bey, a Turkish Comannder for the Dardenelles, is selling secrets to the British.

While she is attempting to carry out this mission, she meets Douglas Beall (Brent) and although she fights it, she falls in love with him, helping him to get into Turkey as her servant under her passport. This makes for many complications.

Melodramatic, with Loy luminescent as well as resplendent in her various outfits. Brent is mustacheless and lively, though in later years we would see a mustached and more somber version.

The plot is a little complicated, but the two stars are worth seeing.

Myrna Loy is a German spy on a mission to Istanbul. It is of the highest importance to Germany; the entire course of the war may depend on it. But she has met an American, George Brent, and is in love. Can she carry out her job through the haze of conflicting emotions?

Miss Loy had reached stardom through her amazing beauty, and had been cast for the last five years as exotics, and here she is again. But she had already made the switch to Americans in comedies, beginning with Frank Capra the previous year, and more important for her career at MGM, in MANHATTAN MELODRAMA and THE THIN MAN. Yet here she is at her old job, and it looks a little tired, despite the pre-code touches. Still, the MGM gloss and James Wong Howe's lighting cover up a multitude of sins. With Lionel Atwill, C. Henry Gordon, and Leo G. Carroll in his screen debut.

It's 1915. The Germans are wondering about British plans in Turkey. Annemarie, codename Fräulein Doktor (Myrna Loy), is brought into the office of German intelligence head von Sturm. She's actually working counter intelligence and accuses Mata Hari of turning for love. She vows never to fall in love. She is ordered to follow Douglas Beall (George Brent) to determine if he's a British spy. Ali Bey is a Turkish commander whose loyalty is suspect.

Apparently, there was a real person behind this fiction. It starts with plenty of intrigue including a possible real outing of Mata Hari. It's a functional espionage film although the tension is never that high. It doesn't have good action or dark realism. It is sorta like Mata Hari but the character doesn't have the exotic feelings. It also doesn't exude the sexuality. It's a bit bland but it does have Myrna Loy.

With a Title that will do Nothing but Alienate Modern Movie Watchers this Pre-WWI Tale of a Real Life Female Infiltrator (not Mati Hari) is a So-So, Complex, Talky, Awkward Film that has some Appealing Actors like Myrna Loy (sporting a dazzling wardrobe with Flying Saucer hats) and Lionel Atwill, Among Others (no George Brent is not appealing in any way).

The First Act is in Deep Danger of Ruining the Intent of the Film as it has Brent Stalking Loy and his Relentless Advances and her Constant Rejection becomes Intolerable. But when She Finally Succombs and takes Him on as an "Assistant" things Settle Down to Watchable.

There is some Neat Spy Stuff like Messages in Tooth Fillings, Invisible Ink, and a Very Odd Scene where Body Art takes on a New Meaning. It is All Handled with MGM's Slick Sheen and the Result is Worth a Watch but as a Whole it is too Silly at Times and too Complicated by a Half to be Anything More than just Good.

There has always been an audience for this type of picture: the exotic adventure filled with intrigue, shadowy motives, duplicity and questionable identities. The best of such films will also be somewhat credible; the lesser ones, such as this, will bear little relation to realistic characters or believable happenings (despite the claim that this was based on a true story).

STAMBOUL QUEST is a cinematic comic strip in which everything is subordinate to the plot. Unfortunately, that plot sorely lacks suspenseful or adventurous elements, so that even with its reliance on double and triple cross, invisible ink, temporary insanity and a backdrop of references to Mata Hari, there is little to provoke the viewer's interest.

Despite an exalted Hollywood reputation, screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz characteristically loads his films with uncinematic (and often lengthy) scenes of two characters in a room, talking...and talking. When the dialog is less than stimulating, as is the case here, the scenes are flat and the picture drags. Mankiewicz's approach is much better suited to the stage.

Myrna Loy does nicely with a part that requires her to keep her more intense emotions in check. But George Brent fails as an extroverted, happy-go-lucky American set in contrast to the formal, tradition-bound Old World characters who surround him; his high-spirited cavorting may be worthy of an adolescent, but would surely not generate feelings of love in Myrna Loy's worldly, self-possessed counterspy.

The main supporting roles are handled commendably by Lionel Atwill and C. Henry Gordon, both appearing in parts they have played on more than a few other occasions: the stiff, mannered European, and the wily, scheming Middle Easterner respectively.

There is not much to recommend this picture. It has been all-but-forgotten, and deservedly so.

By the time 1934 rolled around, Myrna Loy had been cast in The Thin Man. Audiences had seen and fallen in love with her in the roll of the supportive and silly wife Nora Charles; her career change was in the making. Gone were her early years of femme fatales, loose women, and filming nude scenes. You'll have to watch the previous year's The Barbarian again if you don't like her as the proverbial supportive wife. Unless. . .you can find a copy of Stamboul Quest. Based on a true story, she plays a character very similar to Mata Hari!

It starts off in a convent, and a very tired, slightly deranged Myrna is being taken care of by some kind nuns. She's on a delirious rant, but why? Cue the flashback of the story. Myrna is a cool, confident, calculating German spy during WWI. Lionel Atwell is her boss, and when he orders her to seduce C. Henry Gordon and learn all his secrets, she thinks it will be a routine job. By chance, she meets a very young George Brent (without his mustache), an American on vacation. He doesn't know what she is, and she just might find it fun to seduce a man when she's not on the clock. . .

I enjoyed this movie far more than I thought I would. Spy movies aren't usually my genre of choice, but the twists and turns of this one were very exciting. Myrna gave a great performance, and it was very interesting to see her balance a fake romance, a real romance, being a fake spy, and being a real spy. If you thought Casablanca was as good as it got for wartime romances with state secrets flying about, check this one out instead.

Before she became famous from the Thin Man movies, MGM wasn't quite sure what to do with Myrna Loy. They often had her play exotic types who were far different from her late 30s and 1940s image. Because of MGM's ambivalence about her image, it's not surprising they'd have her star in this film, but I do think she was miscast...as she was supposed to be German and sounded about as German as a lady from Montana (as Loy was).

The film begins in 1915 with Fräulein Doktor (Loy) meeting with her employer, a German Captain (Lionel Atwill) who is in charge of spies. She is apparently a super-spy--one who can be counted on because she is heartless and efficient. However, through the course of the film she becomes involved with an American (George Brent)...and her heartlessness is surely tested!

The romance between the stars is fine but I didn't find the political intrigue all that interesting or convincing. Even worse was the ending...which can be interpreted several different ways...some of which are really schmaltzy and silly. Not a great film...not a bad film....just a film.

During World War One a notorious German spy, on a STAMBOUL QUEST for naval secrets, finds herself falling in love with a most persistent young American.

This enjoyable espionage thriller features plenty of romance and a convoluted plot which will not reward viewers who nap. The story is a mite ludicrous and obviously owes much to the real-life exploits of Mata Hari, who is mentioned but never seen (footage of her character was deleted). The climax seems forced and contrived, as if the Studio was hurrying towards the expected happy ending, but it should please most of the audience irregardless.

Myrna Loy plays the beautiful spy who finds her heart overruling her head during a most critical assignment. She engages in no great exhibition of acting skill, but her classically cool demeanor is so sophisticated & glamorous that she is a constant joy to watch. George Brent, over from Warner Bros., has fun as the exuberant medical student who dogs Loy's footsteps until she can't help but succumb to his charms. Together, they make a pair of playful lovers.

Lionel Atwill, an extremely fine actor who's not given the recognition he's due, integrates his usually sinister demeanor with flashes of humor in his role as Germany's spy master. C. Henry Gordon portrays a wily Turkish commander, while the ever versatile Mischa Auer takes on the role of his aide-de-camp.

Movie mavens will recognize Leo G. Carroll as a double agent and Christian Rub as a dentist extracting more than bad teeth, both uncredited.

The Dardanelles, which is spoken of throughout the film, is the strategic strait connecting the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmara, the body of water which separates European from Asiatic Turkey. It should not be confused with the Bosporus, which is further to the East and is the strait which connects the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea. The famous siege of Gallipoli, in 1915-16, was Britain's unsuccessful attempt to wrest control of the Dardanelles from the Turkish Empire. The ancient Greek name for the Dardanelles was the Hellespont.

There is really nothing to recommend this film, despite the quality of the actors (Myrna Loy, Lionel Atwill, Mischa Auer, Douglas Dumbrille) and the director (Sam Wood), photographer (James Wong Howe) and writer (Herman Mankiewicz) as well as the fact that the story is based on the exploits of a legendary German spy. All of which goes to show that even quality ingredients don't necessarily guarantee a fine outcome.

One of the problems is the lack of chemistry between Loy and George Brent, who is not one of my favorite actors from the 30s. Nor does the film have many of the under currents in other mid 30s films that deal with World War 1 but which are trying to caution against World War 2.

This sounds like a good story line: German counter-espionage efforts to foil the leak of Ottoman secrets during the British assault on the Dardanelles (Gallipoli). Myrna Loy is quite attractive and the character actors (Lionel Atwill, C. Aubrey Smith) are in fine form. The plot is absurd, however, portraying everyone except Ms. Loy's character and her beau, played by a ridiculous George Brent, as dimwits and totally unqualified for the positions they occupy. Unbelievable plot devices abound. Brent's character, for example, pops up repeatedly and usually grinning in various locales as though this how Americans navigated war-torn Europe. He's from 'Pittsboig', by the way.

The last straw for me was the ending, which actually seemed to be headed toward an unexpected and highly dramatic twist. You be the judge. Or, more wisely, skip it.

Even for the era during which it was made, this film is an insult to the intelligence of its audience. 5 stars for the supporting cast.

There is a brief scene in Stamboul Quest, as Leo G. Carroll's character stops by the entrance to a building in Berlin to look at the metal plaques attached by the entrance, identifying the business occupants. In German, the signs identify a notary, a lawyer and, in German and English, an American Dentist. Carroll paused for only a few seconds, and if not for a screen capture I made, I would not be able to check out the attention to detail that the art director or prop man put into this minor set piece. When I visited Berlin, I saw business plaques just like those in this movie, made in Culver City, which is a long way from Berlin. From the prologue at the start, describing in general terms the difference between espionage and counter-espionage, to Lionel Atwill's fine portrayal of a spymaster, Stamboul Quest is a picture ahead of its time. Transmitting coded messages in a tooth filling is not a procedure you see in many movies. There is also a love story, Myrna Loy's character, Fraulein Doktor, falling in love with the American medical student (George Brent) who gets entangled with the spies by going to the American Dentist when the counterespionage agents raid the office. 25 years later, Leo G. Carroll was the spymaster who takes advantage of Cary Grant being mistaken for George Kaplan, a fictitious agent created to catch real spies. Carroll and company notice the gallows humor in Grant's predicament, just as Atwill also finds humor in George Brent's character mistakenly getting locked up for being a spy. George Brent, on loan to MGM after going on suspension at Warners (Jack Warner must have liked Brent, since Warners was a studio that had a track record ruining actor's careers by refusing to loan them out to other studios on reasonable terms e.g. Wayne Morris blocked from working in The Killers, in the role that made Lancaster a star), is great as the medical student. As he and Myrna Loy check into the hotel in Turkey, Brent tosses into the air the coin that is the tip for the porter. The porter reaches for the coin, Brent says you mustn't reach, catches the coin first and gives it to the porter. Sort of a mean joke, but an action Herman J. Mankiewicz, the screenwriter or maybe the director, Sam Wood, saw in real life and put into the movie to make Brent's character look authentic. The effort MGM's professional staff put into this fine spy movie shows up on the screen

Stamboul Quest at least to me on viewing it seemed that MGM was still looking to see if they could cast Myrna Loy in those exotic female parts before she teamed with William Powell as the ideal wife. This was clearly a part that Greta Garbo should have done, but I'm betting Garbo rejected it.

Loy plays a German spy masquerading as an English socialite and she attracts the attention of visiting medical student George Brent. Loy was OK in the role but Brent is ludicrously miscast. In a year MGM would have had Robert Taylor ready for this kind of naive callow youth part. Look how well Taylor played one in Camille.z

Not one of Myrna Loy's best.

This film tickled me. Myrna Loy plays the real-life Germany spy 'Fraulein Doktor' who is in Constantinople (aka Istanbul, aka Stamboul) during WWI, trying to snoop out who in the Turkish chain of command is selling information to the British. The prelude to sending her there may remind you a bit of 007 meeting M before a mission, minus the sophisticated gadgetry, but including the description of various codes and signals. It's clear early on that this film just made it in before the Hays Code began enforcement in 1934, as Loy takes a bath and dries with a towel that's a little too small, and we learn that part of her duties as a spy involve seducing those she wants information from. There's a great scene where she helps stop a traitor in their ranks who is delivering information via a false tooth that's hollowed out, and that's how the American (George Brent) gets involved in it all.

Brent is charming and has some funny banter with her, but gets a little annoying in how aggressive and possessive he becomes when the two start falling for one another. I confess I would have been happier had she remained stronger and aloof. However, with that said, I loved how intricate the plot was, and the twists and turns along the way. With deception the order of the day, it's fun to watch all involved manipulate their way through situations, and as 'out there' as the premise is, the film has an authenticity to it, and feels ahead of its time.

There are several cute scenes with Loy, who shows at least a little bit of an edge as well as a playful and loving side. Is she completely believable as a spy? Probably not, but she is fully engaging and a delight to watch. Lionel Atwill and C. Henry Gordon are also strong in the roles as the German chief of spies and Turkish high commander, respectively. The film's pace is right and Director Sam Wood includes some nice touches with his cuts, streets scenes, and even a brief exotic dancer. Herman J. Mankiewicz's screenplay is smart, and holds together.

I may have given the film an even higher rating, as after its strong start and 'ok' middle, it had a number of fine moments down the stretch, but I have to say, I hated the ending, which was a shame. Overall though, it's hard to fathom the negative reviews and low average rating – this one is quite enjoyable.

Myrna Loy in a counter-espionage tale! Despite the fact I was a little confused just who was on whose side, I really liked this film a lot. Myrna Loy and George Brent make a very good couple. The supporting actors are excellent, including Leo G. Carroll in his first movie role, and help draw you into this tale of deception and betrayal. Yet the intimate and romantic scenes between Myrna and George were especially memorable and gives this spy film more depth and reality than you would normally expect. I loved the beginning and final scenes at the monastery. All in all, I think Myrna Loy fans will be very pleased, despite any flaws this film may have.

Based on actual events, according to the trivia. Stars myrna loy (mrs. Charles!), george brent, and lionel atwill. In world war one, the germans want to find out who is passing information to the british on their plans in turkey. So agent fraulein doktor is dispatched to meet with the suspects. A barely pre-code film, as you can see in some scenes. And actually made in the happy-go-lucky years between the two wars. It's a very americanized version of a war-time film, theoretically off in some exotic land. Fraulein and her superior yell out the details of the encoded secret message at the top of their lungs, right near the start. So much for secrecy. The story itself is basically sound, and we see the flawed fraulein falling in love, even though she has promised not to. This is going to complicate things. Some funny bits here and there. Hilarious joke when the general introduces himself to beall. We can easily ignore some of the smaller plot-holes. The sound and picture quality are very good... it appears to have been restored. I always enjoy myrna loy films! I liked this one so much more than i expected to. Directed by sam wood. Nominated three times! He worked with the biggies. Even made two marx brothers films.

Though Stamboul Quest is probably not very accurate about the German spy service in World War I, I found it a most enjoyable movie, mostly because of Myrna Loy. I would've said Myrna was miscast as a sly, duplicitous, sexy spy. But remembering her previous (pre-MGM) performances in movies like The Squall and Thirteen Women, she could have indeed played the part to the hilt; it was just that MGM wanted her to be sympathetic and ladylike, even when inappropriate.

Even so, she seems to be having fun and gets to wear some sexy outfits designed by Adrian. One, that she wears in the restaurant where she picks up George Brent and subsequently at his apartment, is so skimpy that wearing it in public in many US cities might've gotten her arrested in that period. In the opening scene where she shows up disguised in the office of Von Sturm (Lionel Atwill), the German spymaster she works for, after a little hugging she immediately takes a bath in a bathroom so conveniently located right there in his office. Her undressing and teasingly tossing her shirt and slip in his face makes it clear there is an easy intimacy between them. (He scrutinizes her clothes closely, ostensibly looking for a message in invisible ink; this was as close as 1934 Hollywood could get to showing a panty fetishist--and Atwill, even when down-playing his customary hinted-at lewdness, gives signs of being obsessed with her.) This could've been a real cutting-edge film if it had focused a good deal more on the dignified middle-aged spymaster's fascination with his much younger, carefree, sleep-around spy, who seems quite a tease--and might be a perk that goes with the job?

She has a conventional but sexy romantic scene with George Brent (who I found a little annoying) and later on, she manifests a subtle eroticism in her scene with the Turkish commander (C. Henry Gordon) whom one would think would be more on his guard against such womanly wiles. When she lowers her dress at one shoulder (so he can write an invisible-ink message on her back) the feeling is very erotic, quite knowingly so on her part, cool and calculating--her finest acting moment in the movie and one where she really gives a feeling of ambiguity, as she obviously doesn't find this stiff, pompous Turkish big shot attractive but knowing she's been sent to seduce him, she certainly gets with it.

The superb cameraman James Wong Howe's talent for mood is unfortunately constrained by the MGM glossy, brightly lit look. However, he lights Myrna's close-ups with care and, for a few delicious seconds (to be exact, at 101.32) he uses baby spots on her eyes. It's such an exquisite effect that I freeze-framed it to savor it at length.