Greta Garbo by David Bret

Author:David Bret [David Bret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781849543538
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Published: 2012-03-16T04:00:00+00:00

Captivated, Alexis says that he must have her, but she is already in a clandestine relationship with Shubin: in exchange for sexual favours he gives her secret information about Russian military movements, which she in turn passes on to her German boss, Andriani (Lewis Stone, playing the heartless villain, aided by sardonic grins and a make-up department goatee beard). Alexis follows Mata Hari to her Art Deco apartment. Last spring he saw her in the Bois de Boulogne, he tells her, and he is sure that by next spring the war will be over. Sinking on to a chaise longue, she sighs, ‘I never look ahead. By next spring I shall probably be quite alone.’ Then sends him packing.

In the next scene – in which we see her hair for the first time – she is sniffing orchids sent by Shubin when Alexis barges in, flings flowers at her feet and declares his undying love. Again, he is shown the door: she may be attracted to him, but in her line of work it is unwise to fall in love. She changes tactics, however, when Shubin informs her that Alexis now holds the secret information. He orders her to visit Alexis’ rooms and seduce him, keeping him occupied while a henchman sneaks in to photograph the messages. Everything goes according to plan, but before they make love Alexis shows her his shrine to the Madonna, given him by his mother, whose votive flame he has sworn on the high altar to keep perpetually burning in her memory. Since the henchman will need to wait until the room is in total darkness before he can break in, Mata Hari has to exercise all her power over the profoundly passive Alexis. There is too much light in the room for love making, she says, and after he has extinguished the lamp she indicates the shrine, her once seductive voice now taking on a cruel tone: ‘Put that one out, too!’ He must break his oath or she will leave. The next morning, while he is sleeping, she slips away, though not before re-lighting the flame.

A 68-second sequence from the original print was cut by the censor for the 1939 re-release. The scene is played out in total darkness, save for the glow from the couple’s cigarettes: Alexis wants to look into Mata Hari’s eyes, but when she offers to light the lamp so that he can, he jokes that he would never be able to see them anyway because of her ridiculously long lashes. Another brief scene, also cut (though the stills have survived) features Garbo framed in the archway leading to her bedroom, wearing a diaphanous negligee, under which she is naked.

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