Frozen Alive (also known as Der Fall X 701) is a 1964 British-German international co-production science-fiction film directed by Bernard Knowles and produced by Artur Brauner and Ronald Rieti.

[citation needed]The plot concerns scientists Dr. Frank Overton and Dr. Helen Wieland, who are experimenting in Berlin with "deep-freezing" chimpanzees (the word cryogenics is only used once in the film) and thawing them unhurt.

Overton decides to use himself as a human test subject, but he is wrongly accused of murdering his philandering wife, and the police believe that he is attempting to avoid arrest.

Two scientists from the World Health Organisation's Low Temperature Unit in Berlin – the American Dr. Frank Overton and Dr. Helen Wieland, a West German, have successfully frozen chimpanzees, stored them at -80 °C for three months, and thawed them with no ill effects.

The director of the Low Temperature Unit, Sir Keith, has forbidden Frank and Helen from human experimentation.

Frozen Alive was made by the production companies Alfa-Film and Creole Filmproduktion GmbH in the Federal Republic of Germany.

[6] The A-cert meant that children under age 14 could view the film in theatre only if accompanied by an adult; those 14 and over could attend unaccompanied.

[8] The American exhibitors' manual for the film promotes it as a "thriller packed with romance" and a "powerful drama" which "probes the question of whether humans can be placed in deep-freeze for a considerable length of time, and then be brought back to life."

Posters and lobby cards for Frozen Alive prominently feature the blurb, "Timely As Today's Headlines!

"[10] Frozen Alive has been distributed in the US for home viewing on DVD on numerous occasions as a stand-alone single film, half of a double feature, and in collections of up to 250 movies.

[11][12] The movie was shown on the then-independent WPIX-TV Channel 11 in New York City on 24 July 1976 at 8.00 pm Eastern Time.

[13] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A soporific thriller which achieves some semblance of animation only in the climax in the laboratory.

"[14] Film historian Bryan Senn mentions the movie only on a list of "notable mismatched double features," in this case "The juvenile but colorful monster flick Destination Inner Space" and the "sober (but dull) science melodrama Frozen Alive.

[17] Sci-Fi Encyclopedia highlights the "dead wife," noting that "this film revolves primarily around the apparent mystery of Joan's death."

The review also says that the movie is "partially crippled by its conspicuously low budget," but that nonetheless "everyone involved turns in a decent performance.