To me, this movie is perfection.

A Brilliant Conflict

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

The story is blameless, Garbo can't be otherwise... I always wonder- she wasn't classically beautiful, and even could be considered a bit less feminine (to be polite) at least structurally, than all the heroines around, but this never ever enters the mind while watching her, only afterwards, when you watch a still, you start wondering. Only another one, where nature was miser in bestowing feminine beauty, and audience didn't bother about it, could be Kat-Hep. Garbo of course is a notch above anybody else. If the movies score 4, you could be sure that Garbo got at least 8, the others scored -4 to bring it down, which you can't say about any other actor, of either gender. I am yet to see a movie, where she irritated the eye.In this movie, I don't know whose fault it was. Conrad Nagel certainly, but what was Fred Niblo doing? He should have stopped Conrad from over-acting when it wasn't needed, and in fact was ridiculous. Only Garbo hogging the screen, tried to balance, but the movie lost major points. In fact I thought of giving it 6, but it would have been punishing two actors : Garbo and Gustav von Seyffertitz who too carried his role well, for fault of one. I could have been a bit tolerant, considering it was a silent movie (where the actors tend to over emote), but when Garbo and Gustav didn't, and could express the feelings so well, Conrad became an eye-sore. Up to half the movie, it didn't matter. But once he had entered the Lion's den, and faced the Lion and Lioness with the pride around (he didn't know the Lioness was tamed), the way he behaved, he gave himself completely away. He had been there to redeem himself, and get information, and not on a suicide mission, at least not before he could get the mole.s name. The general, Boris, if he hadn't suspected, he would have been a fool. Thankfully this wasn't a normal run-off the mill Holly movies, where villains are blind with IQ bordering on 30). Boris guessed, did a back-ground check, and was ready. It's not very often that one finds a villain, who is so, only because he was the third person between the hero and heroine. Otherwise, his acts were not wrong, leave alone being nefarious. He was doing his legitimate duty. Human (not a demon), Intelligent, and quite good looking too, one wouldn't have cribbed, if heroine finally fell for him (she would have, had it been Russian movie). Anyway that wasn't to be. Any movie where Garbo is there need not have a recommendation to watch, only her her sake, so I will forego that recommendation, or even her quite risque clothing for that age, which didn't seem vulgar or even titillating on her, and further recommendations to see of course would be the sets, lavish, but not eye-sore, one could imagine, Boris, at his rank, having that life-style (it was Czar's era, the revolution wasn't on yet) , probably it would be set at somewhere around 1913 or so (the Balkan wars ? Or the Allies Vs Three - Germany+ Austro-Hungarian+Italy, both of which finally exploded in WW1? Bulid-up for WW1, if one looks dispassionately, only the minority of the blame goes to this three countries. The movie too is quite sympathetic to them, and that's quite strange, considering it is a Hollywood movie. Of course Russians had already become enemies (post revolution) but so were Axis.As a footnote: The movie is highly influenced by the opera Tosca, not only the hero and heroine meet during the opera, and they sing/ play piano on its tune, but even the story (except the ending), has a very significant similarity : Tanya (Tosca), Karl (Cavaradossi), Boris (Scarpia), Unnamed Aide (Spoletta),

GRETA GARBO is at her most attractive, photographed with great finesse and style for this "Mata Hari" kind of tale about a seductive woman who leads an entrapped man (CONRAD NAGEL) into a romance for ulterior purposes but soon falls in love with him.The opening scenes are reminiscent of what Max Ophuls did with "Letter from an Unknown Woman" in recreating the romantic ambiance of old Vienna with horse-drawn carriages and gaslight. The lush atmosphere is combined with the stunning Garbo close-ups (full face or in profile) with back lighting that is extraordinarily beautiful.Although the story is nothing to rave about, it does contain one of her most natural performances before the camera and she's certainly at the peak of her own brand of beauty.Regretfully, not much can be said for CONRAD NAGEL as the Austrian officer. He practically disappears when shown in the same shot with Garbo and his overall performance is as bland as can be. Yet, the seduction scene before a blazing fireplace is extremely well staged and all it needed was John Gilbert as a replacement for Nagel.Summing up: Although I'm not a big Garbo fan, this one is worth watching for the graceful Garbo alone.

This is a very good silent film, though I had just watched two other Greta Garbo films that were incredibly similar to this one--as she plays the vamp in all three! I can't blame Ms. Garbo for this, as MGM definitely type-cast her despite her objections. In fact, she was so irritated by this theme that she went on strike to try to force the studio to give her different roles. But, considering that the public loved the films and they were all very successful, MGM wasn't about to mess with a tried-and-true formula. OF the three movies in the set, in THE MYSTERIOUS LADY, Garbo wasn't as evil she was in FLESH AND THE DEVIL or as nice as she was in THE TEMPTRESS. Instead, she played an initially evil spy who over the course of the film has a gradual change of heart. Considering how badly and abruptly the change of heart occurred in FLESH AND THE DEVIL, this one was much more believable and welcome.As I said above, the three films are all very derivative--all with a roughly identical theme. This one also has the added benefit of having almost the exact theme as her later film, MATA HARI. Wow--what a lot of repetition in Garbo's career. No wonder she retired so young! She was probably just sick of the "same old same old"! Now how much you like this film is probably heavily dependent on if you like this sort of theme or if you've seen Garbo films before. I, for one, hate all this repetition, but also realize that on its own this STILL is a very good movie. While not as deliciously evil and twisted as FLESH AND THE DEVIL, the overall film is much more even and satisfying since its happy ending is at least credible. And, the production values and acting are excellent--MGM really pulled out all stops to make this film.

Standard, but beautifully done silent about alluring Russian spy (Garbo) falling for Austrian soldier (Nagel). A marvelous mix of thrill, romance, and deceit helps the film's lesser moments. The MGM/UA Home Video version contains symphonic music score and crowd noises, which enhances the film's style.