CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

adrian-43767 MATA HARI's main interest is the great Greta Garbo and she does deliver a very sound performance, if not exactly a match for CAMILLE or QUEEN Christina. As a woman of exceptional beauty and elegance, I can imagine that most men must have been besotted by her in the 1930s.The story is more about love than history (which it does not bother to follow with any degree of accuracy), and it makes no judgment about espionage, apart from a chief spy saying that death is the only way to leave the "profession".Acting, direction and photography are generally competent, considering what was happening in the cinema in 1931. The only drawback -- from my standpoint -- is Ramon Novarro, who comes across as rather weak (I believe GG did not want him as the male lead, and you can see why).If you are willing to cast your mind back to 1931 and to suspend your disbelief, there is much to enjoy in this picture.

judy t 10 stars for Garbo - whose acting is as true today as in 1931. Barrymore is 10 stars too, even though today his acting appears hammy - but I like the hammy acting of the Barrymore brothers. The plot is irrelevant, and to rate the film on the basis of plot cohesiveness and truthfulness is silly. If one wants the "truth", watch a documentary. Garbo is the reason why this film is held in high regard. And how enjoyable it is to watch Garbo toy with her lovers and outsmart her adversaries, until she makes the fatal mistake of falling in love with her prey. As the object of her affections, Navarro is inadequate, which makes it hard to believe that Garbo/Mata would fall in love with him. The role calls for someone dashing, someone who could look like he was caught up in a grand passion, rather than wallowing in puppy love. Someone who could wring tears from the audience as he lies in a hospital bed, his face bandaged, his eyes blind. Would Gary Cooper be dashing enough? John Gilbert too old (at 31)? Also co-starring and serving with distinction is Adrian, whose many costumes for Garbo, designed to drive the men in Mata's life wild with desire - to say nothing of the envious women in the movie theatres who slink around their kitchens in cotton aprons - contribute greatly to the aura of glamour and sophistication that Garbo/Mata exudes so abundantly.Regardless of the film's straying from the facts - which themselves are disputable - this Garbo Vehicle ranks with the best of the films she made in her 17-year career at MGM.

drjgardner I'm not a big fan of Garbo in general, and her talkies specifically. Her acting was more suited to the silent era, and this film, an early talkie, has a lot of silent film elements as well as silent film stars like Ramon Navarro and Lewis Stone. In fact, for 1931, this was an all star cast. Garbo herself had just been nominated for an Oscar for "Anna Christie" (1930), Stone was nominated for "The Patriot" (1930) and was in the highly popular "Big House" (1930), and the great Lionel Barrymore got his only Oscar for "A Free Soul" (1931). Navarro was still popular, though his best days were behind him.Considering how many great films occurred in 1931 (e.g., "Frankenstein", "Cimarron", "City Lights", "Dracula", "The Champ", "M", "Public Enemy", "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde", "Monkey Business"), this is clearly a 2nd tier film though it was a big commercial success at the time.

bkoganbing 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.