One-time legendary movie star Fedora (Marthe Keller) throws herself in the path of an express train.
The story is taken up by Barry Detweiler (William Holden), an independent film producer who is one of the thousands of mourners shuffling past Fedora’s casket, which is lying in state in her Paris mansion while a Palm Court orchestra plays music from Grieg and Sibelius.
Detweiler – known as “Dutch” – hints that if it had not been for his recent attempt to seek out the reclusive Fedora, she might still be alive today. The rest of the film is told in flashback within flashback to explain why.
Dutch arrived in Corfu a few weeks earlier to try and persuade Fedora to come out of retirement and star in a remake of Anna Karenina to be called The Snows of Yesteryear.
He is initially repulsed and kept at bay by Fedora’s sinister entourage, including Dr Vando (José Ferrer), a secretary, Miss Balfour (Frances Sternhagen), a chauffeur-bodyguard, and Countess Sobryanski (Hildegard Knef), who finally invites him to visit her villa, where Fedora is staying, on a nearby island.
Dutch – who had a brief fling with Fedora back in her Hollywood heyday – is amazed that she remains youthful, even at the age of 67. She is a little spaced out but is enthused about doing the film as long as Michael York (who appears in the film as himself) plays Vronsky.
Later, Fedora visits Dutch clandestinely at his hotel in Corfu but is forcefully removed by Vando and the bodyguard, though not before she tells the producer she is being held prisoner and cannot draw on her considerable fortune.
He later returns to the island but finds the villa empty. When the phone rings, he answers it and tells the caller (Hans Jaray) that he is Doctor Vando. And so he learns that Fedora is being admitted to Vando’s clinic outside Paris. But before he can leave the villa, the bodyguard returns and clubs him with an iron bar.
It is a week before Detweiler regains consciousness in his hotel room and learns from the manager that during the time he was unconscious, Fedora has committed suicide in France.
Flying there, Dutch finds a large-scale funeral in progress and we return to the start of the film. At the funeral, Dr Vando and the Countess tell him the truth about Fedora’s seeming victory over age – “Fedora” wasn’t Fedora at all – she was the Countess’s daughter, and the Countess is actually Fedora.
The pieces of the story are then revealed in further flashbacks, showing how the original Fedora maintained her youth through experimental treatments from Dr Vando until one treatment went wrong and scarred her face; and how her daughter ended up playing the part of Fedora for Henry Fonda when Fedora was awarded a lifetime achievement Oscar.
The new Fedora returned to film but fell in love with Michael York while filming a movie with him and threatened to blow the lid off the whole secret. She got pulled from public life in the middle of filming and resorted to drugs, while her mother hid her away to protect her and the secret.
Barry “Dutch” Detweiler
William Holden
Fedora
Marthe Keller
Countess Sobryanski
Hildegard Knef
Doctor Vando
José Ferrer
Miss Balfour
Frances Sternhagen
Hotel Manager
Mario Adorf
Young Barry
Stephen Collins
President of the Academy
Henry Fonda
Michael York
Himself
Count Sobryanski
Hans Jaray
Kritos
Gottfried John
Newscaster
Arlene Francis
Head Usher
Jacques Maury
Young Antonia
Christine Mueller
Nurse
Ellen Schwiers
First Director
Ferdy Mayne
Second Director
Peter Capell
Assistant Director
Robert Cunningham
Clerk
Christoph Künzler
Gladys
Mary Kelly
Maid
Elma Karlowa
Bartender
Panos Papadopoulos
Photographer
Rex McGee
Director
Billy Wilder
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