Sorry, this movie sucks

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is, quite possibly, the silent film to present to those who are resistant to silent films. First, the characters earn our affection from the very beginning -- scenes of the beautiful Garbo crying during an opera, Nagel becoming entranced by her. Within the first five minutes, you are drawn into them. Garbo becomes more beautiful as the years go by -- we see a beauty that is modern; Garbo would be considered beautiful in the 21st century, unlike many stars from the earlier days. (I mean, could Theda Bara cut it in 2009? Mary MIles Minter? Pola Negri?) Conrad Nagel plays the male lead quietly but effectively -- almost all of the acting here is restrained.Beyond the beauty of Garbo, one has to really credit Fred Niblo for directing this film. The film is essentially Hitchcock before Hitchcock. This film has elements of "North By Northwest," "The Man Who Knew Too Much," "The Thirty-nine Steps," and, most surprisingly, "Notorious." You have the "wrong man" theme, the guilty, obsessive love, the elegant, tricky villain, the conflicted heroine, Hicthcockian camera movements, some unexpected plot twists, some scenes of real suspense, and even a darkly humorous bit toward the end regarding a corpse. Very nicely done.

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.

The new DVD is great to have - but... If you're hoping for a "restored" image, you won't find it here. The "commentary" audio-track is slightly interesting to have on while you're watching, but if you know anything at all about Garbo you won't learn much from it. Most unfortunately, the new music soundtrack is inexplicably annoying and usually totally unrelated to the action on the screen; the committee that selected it clearly had no idea what they were doing (to put it politely). Even the "commentators" point out that its very odd that there are no quotes from Tosca during the numerous scenes in the film which reference the famous aria "Vissi d'arte", especially the key scene where Garbo's character unexpectedly hears it being played.