Der Fuchs von Paris (1957)

World War II, 1944, in Paris, occupied by the German Wehrmacht, shortly before the Allied landings in Normandy. At German headquarters, General Quade and Generaloberst von der Heinitz discuss the military situation. Both men expect the Allies to land on the French coast at any moment. Hitler’s order to fight to the last drop of blood, senselessly sacrificing the lives of German soldiers in the process, increasingly stirs the two responsible officers to resist. Into this situation bursts Quade’s nephew, Captain Fürstenwerth. He has just returned from his deployment on the Eastern Front in Russia. Quade quickly takes his nephew into his confidence, after Fürstenwerth too recognizes the hopelessness of a last-ditch battle if the Americans and British land in France. The fourth member of their circle of confidants is Major Wedekind of the Abwehr, who is under General Quade’s command. The hard-line Colonel Toller has arrived from Berlin to oversee the execution of Hitler’s order. Fürstenwerth wants to use his time in Paris to relax a little and put the terrible events on the Eastern Front out of his mind. While taking a walk in the park at the Palace of Versailles in civilian clothes, he saves a small child from drowning. The pretty Frenchwoman Yvonne witnesses the incident, and the two get to know each other. Soaking wet from head to toe, the young man is taken by Yvonne to her family home so he can dry off. Despite their reserve toward the German officer, the family treats Fürstenwerth politely. François, one of Yvonne’s brothers, can barely conceal his deep-seated dislike of the German. Yvonne gives Fürstenwerth the suit of her other brother, who was killed in the war. As the young captain leaves the house, he sees a man he has already encountered once before. It is André, who leads the local resistance group. André discusses the situation with Yvonne, her father, and François, and asks Yvonne to maintain contact with Fürstenwerth, as he may yet prove useful to them. While Yvonne henceforth flirts with Captain Fürstenwerth, he has no idea that he has long since become a pawn in the interests of the French Resistance. Meanwhile, Quade and his confidants have made a decision for which contact with the French resistance would also be quite useful. They intend to get the Allies the OKW’s absurd defense plans in order to force their revision at Führer Headquarters. Quade knows about Fürstenwerth’s connection to Yvonne and decides to use his nephew for his plan. He hands him a folder containing the plans, hoping that the next time an opportunity arises, Fürstenwerth will fall into the hands of the Resistance. And that is exactly what happens. While Yvonne strolls in the park with Fürstenwerth in uniform, François and André copy the plans taken from the folder. The men then pass the documents on to their British contact, CIC Officer Col. Robbins. One evening, when Fürstenwerth and Yvonne, who are beginning to fall in love, arrive at her home, André and François are already waiting there with revolvers drawn. They take Fürstenwerth to a secret hideout, a remote farm where Robbins is already waiting for him. The opposing side puts Fürstenwerth under heavy pressure to obtain more important material. Then something unexpected happens. German military intelligence has been monitoring the Resistance’s secret radio traffic for some time and intends to arrest the resistance fighters in a raid. The farm is surrounded, and a shootout breaks out. With a well-aimed shot, Fürstenwerth knocks out his own side’s searchlight and saves the wounded François. The Briton and the Frenchmen are not particularly grateful; they now threaten to turn Fürstenwerth over to his own people for what he has done unless he continues helping the Resistance. Quade, informed by Fürstenwerth, urges his nephew to hold out for a few more days, assuring him that his plan will work out. He even promises to obtain the situation map that François has demanded from Fürstenwerth. To Fürstenwerth’s great misfortune, however, he has been under surveillance for some time and, at the decisive moment, is arrested in the street by two SD thugs, Biener and Däubele, just as he is about to hand Yvonne the bag containing the situation map in a café. In his prison cell, after endless interrogations, Fürstenwerth bravely waits for his uncle to come to his rescue. But Quade cannot intervene without completely ruining his larger plan. And so General Quade has to sacrifice Captain Fürstenwerth, especially since Major Wedekind brings the grim news that Führer Headquarters intends to change the troop plans only in minor respects. In the early morning hours, Captain Fürstenwerth is shot in the prison yard. Just a few streets away, Yvonne hears the rifle volleys.