Movie Mix   comments_image Comments  Honeytrap Lies and Women
Spies  Female spies have been the subject of cultural
fascination since Mata Hari, but the realities they face are
quite different from fiction.   • submit to reddit   • submit to
reddit  The stage is dominated by a statue of Shiva. As the
lights go down, a woman emerges from the wings dressed in
oriental costume; veils, a metal breastplate and elaborate
jeweled headdress. She dances for Shiva, writhing around the
statue in a suggestive and impassioned manner. A young soldier
in the audience is entranced, while his older colleague looks on
disapprovingly. This is a pivotal scene in George Fitzmaurice's
1931 film Mata Hari , where we and the hero (Alexis, played by
Ramon Navarro) get our first sight of the titular character and
star, Greta Garbo.  Garbo was not the most obvious choice to
play such an exotic role, but Hollywood in the 1930s seemed to
regard any foreign star as representing a whole range of "other"
nationalities, and so we have Garbo'