Verdict
Summary
What feels like a meticulously rushed production without a shred of historical accuracy or forethought to character development, Cannon’s Mata Hari is exactly what you should expect from everyone involved. It’s charming in how dull it is, but it’s so difficult to find anything to complain about because I dearly miss how movies like this make me feel. It’s complete and utter trash, but it’s the kind of garbage that glitters.
Plot:
A spy has lots of sexual conquests while she does her job during World War I.
Review:
The annals of sexy secret agent Mata Hari are both legendary and historic (to some degree) to the point of almost being mythological, and we get a glimpse of her as an easy lay and a complicated woman of mystery who traipses the globe in search of new conquests and completed missions during World War I throughout Europe. She is played by Dutch sex icon Sylvia Krystal (seen in the Emmanuelle films, which became a staple in her filmography) with very little emoting or nuance: She’s almost like a mannequin in that she’s rolled out on screen when the plot requires her to be there for some fashion eye candy or to be nude for various sex couplings or nude dancing … or even a topless fencing scene at an orgy party, which might be this film’s highlight. We don’t get much of a sense of who Mata Hara is working for or who’s giving her orders (although there is one moment where the movie grinds to a halt to show us which side she’s actually on), because it doesn’t much matter; the only reason we’re here to watch a movie about Mata Hari, made in the mid-1980’s with Sylvia Krystal and produced by Golan / Globus is to get an eye full of all those sex scenes, of which there are plenty. She tussles some sheets and gets toasty and maybe even a tan from all those flings by the fireplace with a German (played by Christopher Cazenove) and even a surly Frenchman (played by Oliver Tobias), but there are other men (and women too) whose wills cannot resist the irresistible and magnetic Mata Hari, who most certainly doesn’t wear a chastity belt (or even know what one is, for that matter). There are rumpuses in the hay, scenes of public sex and humiliation, orgies, and finally a firing squad, which unblinkingly snuffs out the bright sexual flame that Mata Hari was and ever will be.
What feels like a meticulously rushed production without a shred of historical accuracy or forethought to character development, Cannon’s Mata Hari is exactly what you should expect from everyone involved. It’s charming in how dull it is, but it’s so difficult to find anything to complain about because I dearly miss how movies like this make me feel. It’s complete and utter trash, but it’s the kind of garbage that glitters. From director Curtis Harrington.
Kino Lorber’s new special edition Blu-ray of Mata Hari brings the film to high definition for the first time, and it comes with a new audio commentary by two film historians, an image gallery, and the trailer.
