Not too long before Greta Garbo played the most famous female spy of all in Mata Hari, during her silent screen period she was cast in The Mysterious Lady as a Mata Hari type. Garbo plays a Russian spy working under her Russian spymaster Gustav Von Seyffertitz who was one of the great villains of the silent screen.Her mission is to get a copy of the Hapsburg war plans and the one she chooses as her target is staff officer Conrad Nagel. Nagel's like putty in her hands and though she even falls for him, she does her duty by the czar.But when she wants out Von Seyffertitz won't let her out. In the meantime Nagel has escaped and he's determined to clear his name. After that Garbo decides that true love is for her.Though Garbo and Nagel did not become a screen team in the way that Garbo and John Gilbert did, Nagel was more than adequate as a replacement for Gilbert in a role that probably he got first crack at. Garbo is divinely alluring as only Garbo could be.Good film and it worked out for Garbo far better than Flesh And The Devil did.

Writing scores for silent movies requires a considerable talent, but for some pictures the music must practically write itself. This is not to play down the efforts of the many fine score composers, but simply to say that for someone with musical ability, a picture such as The Mysterious Lady is constantly suggestive of melody, tempo and timbre, in a way that translates naturally into a musical setting.This musical effect is, it seems, largely down to the director Fred Niblo. Niblo, an ex-Vaudevillian who married into the Cohan family, came into motion pictures relatively late in life (he first sat in the director's chair at 42), but he soon proved himself to be one of the finest and most poetic craftsmen of the cinema. The Mysterious Lady was made at a time when the talkies were beginning to muscle in, but Niblo proudly blows a trumpet blast for the dying art form. Interestingly, The Mysterious Lady actually contains a lot of examples of images filling in for sound. Sometimes this is for narrative purposes, such as the superimposition of the opera scene when Nagel plays the piano, to inform the audience of what he is playing. Other times it is purely atmospheric, such as the shot of a row of violins in the orchestra, later grimly echoed by a similarly composed shot of the drums at Nagel's degradation.Throughout, the picture sustains a lovely rhythmic flow. The love scene between Garbo and Nagel is delicately suggested through a series of interlocking images, unspoiled by intertitles. Niblo shows complete control over the pace at any one moment, the first few minutes being frenzied and choppy, then slowing to that glorious romantic feel when Garbo is introduced in a very memorable entrance. Only once does Niblo overdo it, when he throws in a superimposition of Nagel daydreaming about assaulting Garbo – the context and Nagel's uncomfortable expression are enough without this heavy-handed display.So if Niblo was a kind of visual composer, who was his muse? Well, let's not extend a metaphor too far, but it certainly appears that Niblo was inspired to make beautiful images to complement the natural beauty of Greta Garbo. And to an admirer of fine dramatic performance Garbo is doubly beautiful because she is such an outstandingly good actress. At a period when too much screen acting was hammy and unsubtle, Garbo was refreshingly understated. To watch a Garbo picture, especially a silent one, is to witness dozens of little moments of performance genius. One example here is when her character hears the news that von Raden has been imprisoned because of her. She shows the tiniest glimmer of a reaction, enough for the audience to pick up on and understand, but not enough for her character to give herself away to those around her. Garbo captivated audiences with her mysterious allure and startling passion – the X-factor that made her a phenomenal star.Like the silent picture, Niblo's days as a director were coming to an end. Whether his decision to retire a few a few years after this was down to the sound revolution or not I am unsure. I have not seen any of the handful of talkies he made, and I simply don't know whether he gave them the same grace and musicality that we see here. What I do know, what every film buff knows, is what Greta did next. Of all Hollywood stars, Garbo's transition from silence to sound was among the most successful. Such was her power, her naturalism and her overwhelming appeal, that in spite of the 1930s demand for more earthy performers, she remained one of our brightest stars.

I don't think any silent screen female star came close to exhibiting the pure sensual sexuality Greta Garbo conveyed. I offer her role in "The Mysterious Lady" as proof of that contention. The plot is simple enough. Tania Federova (the aforementioned G. Garbo) has set up a military officer (Conrad Nagel as Captain Karl von Rader) in Vienna to gather what information she might. They have met – conveniently – at the opera, and when she shares that she has brought no money, he offers her a ride home. He is already smitten, and she agrees to see him the next day. I know it is a movie and that there are time constraints within which the writers must work, but theirs is a whirlwind affair. They are in love within hours. As Von Rader is preparing to leave for Berlin, he is told she is a spy. Their meeting on the train doesn't go well, and she steals the documents he is carrying to boot. What follows is that the Captain must clear his name due to his misfortune and we must see what will become of these two, and I'm not telling what happens. But what I would like to share is how well Garbo comes across.She was only 23 years old at the time of the film's release. But she had already the look of one much older and certainly the style of an experienced woman of the world. And the cinematography perfectly heightens her allure. There is a brief shot early in the movie when she turns out the light as she prepares to retire for the evening. She is leaning against a wall and switches off the light; the light that remains perfectly casts her in a striking pose. There are a number of nearly equal elegant shots throughout, and in my view she wore a clingy gown as well as any Hollywood actress ever did.Three Stars

While "The Mysterious Lady" is only a mildly entertaining romantic thriller, the film's seductively beautiful star, Greta Garbo, illuminates the screen whenever she appears and raises the film several cuts above what it might otherwise have been. The predictable plot is serviceable, if somewhat less than credible, and the handsome one-dimensional leading man and the sinister snarling villain, complete with flamboyant dark mustache, visually cue the audience to the identities of the hero and his nemesis.Only Garbo infuses her character with the depth and ambiguity to keep the audience guessing as to her sympathies and motives. Although her husky accented voice enhanced her aura, the actress was a master of projecting emotion without words. Her shifting facial expressions convey more than words, and even her body language speaks volumes about the character. Garbo moves with a fluidity and grace that enhances her innate seductive sexuality. She captivates the viewer even with the simple act of descending a staircase. When cinematographer William Daniels back lights her profile in closeup, she literally glows on the screen.While "The Mysterious Lady" has high MGM production values, fine cinematography, and lush sets, the film does not rank among the finest of silent cinema. With a lesser actress at its center, the film would likely have been forgotten. However, with Garbo, the film transcends its cardboard plot and provides a serviceable backdrop for the work of one of Hollywood's greatest icons.