Mata Hari

...from MGM and director George Fitzmaurice. Greta Garbo stars as the title lady, an exotic dancer who enthralls all who see her perform, allowing her to gain access to valuable intelligence which she relays to her aloof handler Andriani (Lewis Stone). Among Mata Hari's conquests are General Shubin (Lionel Barrymore) and young ace pilot Alexis Rosanoff (Ramon Novarro).

When historians roll their eyes at the mention of Hollywood history lessons, this is the kind of film they are thinking about. The truth only remains as far as it makes the leads look attractive and dramatic. Garbo, who naturally bears little resemblance to the real Mata Hari, gets to wear some outrageous costumes and perform a lurid, pre-code dance with a giant statue of the goddess Shiva. Barrymore hams it up, and Navarro makes for an unconvincing Russian. Despite the sloppy script, there's some good set design and camerawork, and the appeal of the leads, particularly Garbo at the height of her stardom, helped make this one of the top ten biggest box office hits of the year, and the biggest for MGM.

In 1917, in Paris, the famous dancer Mata Hari (Greta Garbo) has a double life as a German spy, obtaining secrets from French and Russian officers in bed. The chief of the French Secret Service Dubois (C. Henry Gordon) is unsuccessfully in her tail trying to find proofs to incriminate Mata Hari. The Russian general Serge Shubin (Lionel Barrymore) has a crush on Mata Hari, but when she meets the young Russian pilot lieutenant Alexis Rosanoff (Ramon Novarro), she sleeps with him to photograph secret documents in his possession. But they fall in love for each other, and the jealousy of her lover Shubin provides the evidences to Dubois to arrest her.

This fictional and naive romance based on the life and death "Mata Hari" is an enjoyable melodramatic love story. Of course it is not a historic event, but this pleasant romantic fantasy is supported by an extremely beautiful Great Garbo performing a charismatic role in a great production. In spite of not being a masterpiece, I totally disagree with the unfair reviews in IMDb. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Mata Hari"

"Mata Hari" is a pre-code film that took lots of liberties with the real life story of the World War One spy, but who cares? One watches a film like this to enjoy the old stars in action, including Lionel Barrymore, hamming it up sans wheelchair. Though Garbo has never been one of my favorites I enjoyed her performance here; she smiled quite a bit and never once said she wanted to be alone. Most of the time she just wanted to be with handsome Ramon Novarro, and who could blame her?

Funniest moment to me: Ramon's character is obviously Catholic (as Ramon was in real life) and he has promised his mother to keep a candle lit before this Madonna icon and never let the flame go out, because if it goes out then evil will descend upon him. So Mata (Greta) tells Alexi (Ramon) that his room is too brightly lit; he goes around and turns off all the lights -- except for the candle. So then she asks him to blow out the candle. "If I am everything to you then you will blow it out." He asks her in shock: "But why would you ask me to?" (a perfectly reasonable question she doesn't answer). He ends up rejecting the sacred for the profane, blowing the flame out and the room goes into darkness. The camera pulls away and we are supposed to know instinctively that they are making love all through the night. And of course evil descends on Ramon's character, and he goes blind, but what the heck, this is Hollywood.

Watch it for the stars, not for history. If you want history, read a book.

German spy Mata Hari works in Paris during World War 1 under cover as an exotic dancer, and falls in love with a young Russian officer while she is taking advantage of him.

The script is rubbish, dialogue trite at best, and the treatment doesn't hold together well. Adrian's costumes are ridiculously improbable, but in a sinfully pleasurable MGM kinda way. You simply sit there and gape at Adrian's inventiveness and sense of kitsch. And William Daniels photographs them beautifully.

As he does his favorite subject, Greta Garbo. There is no way anyone could call Mata Hari one of the better Garbo roles, although she looks gorgeous at every turn, even in her slightly awkward Balinese dance in the beginning, all arms and legs. And still Garbo manages to be sexy! Notice the glance she sends Ramon Novarro as she draws the curtain of her bed. This was a short period in the history of Hollywood, when there was no functioning censorship, and it is always titillating to see what cinematographers, directors and stars made of it. And here they exploit it to the full.

Not a great film, not even in the Garbo canon, but still worth a watch, absolutely.

She is not the first to play Mata Hari, the alluring spy of World War I. But Greta Garbo is very memorable as the temptress; the seducer; the beguiling not-so-secret agent. Garbo's exotic dance is quite lethal for the early 1930s. Ramon Novarro plays the young lover willing to give his life for hers. Lionel Barrymore is the older lover that dies by her hand. This classic does not claim to be factual to history, but makes a great melodrama not to be missed. Supporting cast features Lewis Stone, C. Henry Gordon and Karen Morley. Viva la France.