Mata Hari ***½ (1931, Greta Garbo, Ramon Novarro, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, C Henry Gordon, Karen Morley) – Classic Movie Review 2,922

Greta Garbo is alluring as the Dutch-born German spy in her biggest hit film Mata Hari (1931). She says: ‘Women like me are trained to forget. We mustn’t admit a heart. I never look ahead. By next spring I shall probably be… quite alone.’

Director George Fitzmaurice’s 1931 romantic drama movie Mata Hari stars the great Greta Garbo, who looks lovely and alluring as the enticing Dutch-born German spy Mata Hari, partnered in romance (for the only time on screen) by Ramon Novarro as a Russian count, Lieutenant Alexis Rosanoff, a young, up-and-coming officer. Mata Hari is an exotic dancer accused of spying for Germany during World War One.

She spends a night with Rosanoff to get her hand on secret documents in his possession. Lionel Barrymore is on typical rousing form as Mata Hari’s still burning old flame, the Russian General Shubin, whom she has seduced. But Shubin says he will reveal her identity when he discovers that she loves Novarro’s Rosanoff. The secret police are on to Mata Hari.

Alas, MGM’s movie is creaky and not particularly distinguished, thanks to a rather feeble screenplay by Benjamin Glazer, Leo Birinski, Doris Anderson and Gilbert Emery, which is low on story and wit, with romance drenching out any spy story.

But, still, it is strikingly photographed in black and white by Garbo’s personal lensman, cinematographer William H Daniels, the acting holds firm and steady, and the gorgeous Garbo’s iconic charisma makes it a must-see. Her dance in spangles, exotically attired by couturier Adrian, is one for the movie annals, though she is by no means a natural dancer, as she again shows in the 1932 film Grand Hotel.

Garbo says: ‘Women like me are trained to forget – we mustn’t admit a heart.’ And again, to her new lover: ‘I never look ahead. By next spring I shall probably be… quite alone.’

Garbo’s most famous quote of course was ‘I want to be alone’ derived from Grand Hotel in which she says: ‘I want to be alone. I just want to be alone.’

Mata Hari also stars Lewis Stone as Andriani, C Henry Gordon as Dubois, and Karen Morley as Carlotta.

Also in the cast are Alec B Francis, Blanche Friderici [Blanche Frederici], Edmund Breese, Helen Jerome Eddy, Frank Reicher, Roy Barcroft, Mischa Auer, Sarah Padden, Michael Visaroff, Cecil Cunningham, Harry Cording and Frederick Burton.

It proved Garbo’s highest-grossing film, after the multi-star movie Grand Hotel. It cost $558,000, grossed $2,227,000 and made MGM a profit of $879,000, the studio’s biggest hit of the year.

Ah the destructive power of censorship! Mata Hari was censored like many pre-Code Hollywood films on reissue after the strict enforcement of the Hays Code began in mid-1934. For example, Mata’s erotic dance to the statue of Shiva was much cut. Only a censored version of the film is currently available. The running time was 92 minutes but the censored version released on DVD in 2005 has a running time of 89 minutes. A print of the original uncut version, subtitled in French and Dutch, is said to survive at the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique in Brussels, where it was apparently publicly shown in 2005.

The story is retold in the movies as Mata Hari, Agent H21 with Jeanne Moreau in 1964 and Mata Hari with Sylvia Kristel in 1985.

The cast are Greta Garbo as Mata Hari, Ramon Novarro as Lieutenant Alexis Rosanoff, Lionel Barrymore as General Serge Shubin, Lewis Stone as Andriani, C Henry Gordon as Dubois, Karen Morley as Carlotta, Alec B Francis as Major Caron, Blanche Friderici [Blanche Frederici] as Sister Angelica, Edmund Breese as Warden, Helen Jerome Eddy as Sister Genevieve, Frank Reicher as The Cook-Spy, Roy Barcroft, Mischa Auer, Sarah Padden, Michael Visaroff, Cecil Cunningham, Harry Cording and Frederick Burton.

Mata Hari is directed by George Fitzmaurice, runs 92 minutes or 89 minutes (censored version), is made and released by MGM, is written by Benjamin Glazer, Leo Birinsky, Doris Anderson and Gilbert Emery, is shot by William Daniels, is produced by George Fitzmaurice and Irving Thalberg, and is scored by William Axt.

Release date: December 26, 1931.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,922

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