The 1931 Greta Garbo vehicle MATA HARI apparently doesn't have a lot to do
with the real Mata Hari. Which is as it should be. No Greta Garbo movie
should deal with anything so squalid or tedious as real life. The real Mata
Hari may or may not have been a spy. In 1917 the French needed a scapegoat
for military reverses, and so she was executed for espionage. The movie Mata
Hari is definitely a German spy, but since she's played by Garbo we can't
help being on herside. She becomes involved with a very handsome and very
silly young Russian officer (played by Ramon Navarro) and this leads
indirectly to her downfall. She has put Love (which must always be spelled
with a capital letter when on talks of Garbo) before her own survival.

Navarro is OK, and Lionel Barrymore is very good as a Russian general
involved with Mata Hari and her spying activities. C. Henry Gordon as the
chief of French anti-espionage activities would normally have been the hero,
but since he's out to get Mata Hari we can't help seeing him as the villain!
Karen Morley, a very under-rated actress, plays another glamorous German
spy, Carlotta (apparently most WW1 German spies were glamorous). This is
very much a Garbo movie. Without Garbo it would not amount to all that much,
but Garbo carries the film effortlessly. It's another wonderful, luminous
performance and she makes Mata Hari most definitely worth seeing.

Al