I've just bought a boxed set of six Garbo talkies and this is the first one I watched - as a Billy Wilder buff I already own Ninotchka, and I've seen both Camille and Queen Christina on television years ago - and the thing that jumps out after 84 years is Garbo's charisma and beauty so that the other actors are irrelevant as is the plot. Because this is MGM those other actors include Lionel Barrymore and Lewis Stone, neither exactly chopped liver though Ramon Navarro who gets to play Garbo's love interest and billing to reflect this was long past his sell-by date. The melodramatic elements even in a story about a real person albeit one somewhat fictionalized are unavoidable yet Garbo is able to rise above it even when being 'noble' and suffering exquisitely. It's not necessarily something I'd watch again in a hurry but I'm definitely glad I saw it.

MATA HARI (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1931), directed by George Fitzmaurice, is more of a showcase for Greta Garbo in the title role rather than a biographical study on the legendary female spy of World War I. Having already played a lady spy in the silent melodrama, THE MYSTERIOUS LADY (MGM, 1928), this particular stature and situations that occurred are nothing new here. By contrast, from fictional to actual character portrayed, this is a somewhat improved story overall, scripted by Benjamin Glazer and Leo Birinski, and highlighted by interesting casting of Mexican actor, Ramon Rovarro, in support.Opening title: "In 1917, war-ridden France dealt summarily with traitors and spies." Traitors and spies are demonstrated in the opening scene as DuBois (C. Henry Gordon), chief of the spy bureau, gives orders at the firing squad the execution of three traitors, the third being a condemned man (Mischa Auer) refusing to reveal any information about a notorious woman, Mata Hari, who happens to be a great threat to France. Mata Hari, a spy working under secret orders for Adriani (Lewis Stone), is known for hypnotizing and seducing military officials for secretive information, and DuBois's mission is to gather enough evidence to have her arrested and executed. DuBois suspects General Serge Shubin (Lionel Barrymore) to be involved with Mata Hari, but, too, is unsuccessful in gathering evidence against him as well. After getting together with his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Romanoff (Ramon Novarro) of the Russian Interior Air Corps, Serge invites him to come to the café and watch an exotic dancer perform. The dancer is Mata Hari (Greta Garbo). Although Serge is romantically involved with Mata Hari, Alexis becomes interested and soon involved with her, causing friction on their friendship after Alexis finds Mata Hari alone in Serge's apartment. Her seductive ways has Alexis falling under her spell again, enough lose the important documents entrusted to him meant for the Prime Minister over to Mata Hari. After Alexis becomes blinded in an airplane accident, Mata Hari, realizing her love for Alexis, puts herself in great danger for betraying Adriani, committing murder and having DuBois hot on her trail.The screen version, reportedly loosely based on Mata Hari herself, is no doubt tailor made for Garbo's talents as well as MGM's answer to Marlene Dietrich's fictional World War seductive female spy of X-27 in DISHONORED (Paramount, 1931). Faster paced than her previous early sound efforts (1930-31), Garbo appears much more relaxed in the role and very much accustomed to the new medium of "talking pictures" by this point. MGM reliables of Lionel Barrymore and Lewis Stone (both of whom became standard players in many Garbo films over the years) add to the amiable support, along with the Mexican-born Novarro playing a Russian pilot. Somehow Novarro does better than expected, without making any attempt speaking with a Russian accent. Being the only pairing of Garbo and Novarro, MATA HARI turns out to be the only Novarro film produced during his MGM sound years (1929-1934) to have any distinction. His mustache, dark hair and fleecing eyes in one scene come as a reminder of another popular MGM leading man, John Gilbert, who might have tackled the role of Alexis had it not been for his lack of successful box office appeal he once earned in the mid twenties. Others in fine support are Karen Morley playing Carlotta, the dark-haired spy working under orders of Adriani; Alec B. Francis as Major Caron; Blanche Frederici and Helen Jerome-Eddy briefly appearing as Nuns; Frank Reicher as the Cook/Spy; and Edmund Breese (The Warden).Notable scenes worth mentioning include Mata Hari getting Alexis to make passionate love to her. Before he does, she alluringly talks him into proving his love for her by turning out the continuous burning candle of the Holy Lamp of Madonna (a patron saint to guard him from evil); and the stalking of Mata Hari by Jacque, a club-footed giant (face unseen). Of the many major MGM feature film releases of 1931, this and THE CHAMP starring Wallace Beery were once notable exceptions as those to have continued revivals on broadcast television in the New York City area through the mid to late 1980s before making its way to cable television, notably Turner Network Television (1988-92) and Turner Classic Movies (1994-present). Distributed on video cassette and later to DVD, MATA HARI continues to become one of the most notable and worthwhile Greta Garbo films, along with "Queen Christina"(1933), "Anna Karenina"(1935), "Camille" (1936) and "Ninotchka" (1939) all of which she was born to play. As much as the Novarro films from this period are virtually forgotten to today's generation, his legend rests simply on his silent screen performances of both BEN-HUR (1925) and THE STUDENT PRINCE (1927), along with the one notable movie where he was "just wild about Hari." (***1/2)

Any resemblance to the little Dutch girl with a most interesting life for the prurient who became Mata Hari and this film starring Greta Garbo is strictly coincidental. About the only two things I can think of is that she was a spy and she did die by firing squad.Mata Hari had a fascinating life and was 41 when she met her demise and Garbo was 27 when she made this film. Her espionage activities only covered a small part of her life, her whole story ought to have been told. What this film lacks in facts it certainly makes up for in a kind of campy allure. Garbo is certainly at her sexiest as the woman who drives men of all ages mad with desire, so much so they wind up betraying their country. That's what she does to Lionel Barrymore who plays a Russian general who does same. She turns him into an old fool.But she herself gets good and foolish when she meets up with young Russian aviator Ramon Novarro. When she herself falls in love, it proves to be her undoing. There are a couple of really good performances here by a pair of ruthless adversaries. Lewis Stone is her spymaster and not a man to trifle with. See how he deals with another of his reluctant employees played by Karen Morley. He's far from the wise and good Judge Hardy in this role. His opposite number is C. Henry Gordon who knows full well that Garbo is a spy and is just waiting to nail her and I don't mean in the biblical sense.Mata Hari is a camp delight today, it certainly hasn't aged well. But that's not to say you won't enjoy Greta Garbo in this part.

In the early scenes Mata Hari (Greta Garbo) dances a slinky oriental dance; it's not clear what sort of culture she is meant to represent—there are silver pagodas on her head, and a many-armed god in the background, as well as other orientalist culture indicators sprinkled throughout. It's enough that she's exotic, without needing to pin her nationality down. Her costumes are gorgeous and also vaguely oriental, but with much silver lamé. She wears hats. It's Paris during WW I, and there are spies all over the place, and she's the most independent and fearless of them all, cool and heartless, using men easily, as she does General Shubin (Lionel Barrymore), until she meets the handsome young Russian aviator Rosanoff (Ramon Navarro), who has excellent posture, melty eyes, and a Spanish accent. Navarro is all pleasing surfaces. In the course of being irresistible, she steals secrets from him and accidentally falls in love. This causes problems, she has to kill Shubin to protect Rosanoff, and she has to part with the aviator. His plane crashes, but she finds him when he is blinded in hospital and tells him sweet lies, and she protects him in court and faces the firing squad. The movie is purely a Garbo vehicle, and she is fine, breezing through the clichés and the bad writing, and acting cool and then passionate. She is, of course, compellingly lovely. When she is not dancing, she moves sinuously, mostly. She has an odd carriage when walking slowly through a room, leading with her head bent forward, her neck arched, her shoulders one or two inches from a shrug. Otherwise she reclines langorously and gazes at other characters with a smile impossible to read.