The Mysterious Lady

About the production

The film was shot entirely on MGM's backlot with elaborate sets designed to recreate Vienna. Costume designer Adrian created over 30 costumes for Greta Garbo alone, including the famous black evening gown with feather trim. Production faced delays due to Garbo's notorious perfectionism and frequent retakes. The film was one of MGM's most expensive productions of 1928, with extensive use of miniatures and matte paintings for the European settings.

Themes

Themes & topics

Historical background

Made in its country of production around 1928, The Mysterious Lady belongs to the late silent period. Its story of a beautiful russian spy seduces an austrian military officer in order to obtain secret plans spoke to audiences of the day through familiar genres and topical settings.

Why this film matters

Archivists and historians still cite The Mysterious Lady when tracing how the late silent period filmmakers staged beautiful and russian on screen.

Making of

Director Fred Niblo faced significant challenges working with the notoriously difficult Greta Garbo, who often arrived late to set and demanded multiple takes. The production employed over 500 extras for the grand ballroom sequence, which took three days to film. Costume designer Adrian worked closely with Garbo to create her signature mysterious look, pioneering the use of shadow and lighting to enhance her enigmatic screen presence. The film's elaborate Vienna sets were so detailed that they were reused in several other MGM productions. The romantic scenes between Garbo and Nagel were considered daring for their time, requiring careful negotiation with the Hays Office to avoid censorship issues.

What critics said

Reviews from 1928 weighed The Mysterious Lady on pacing, performance, and novelty. Later criticism reads its emphasis on beautiful, russian, seduces through modern standards of craft and representation.

Did you know?

• This was the first of three films Greta Garbo made with director Fred Niblo, followed by 'The Divine Woman' and 'The Kiss'
• The film's original working title was 'The Spy' before being changed to 'The Mysterious Lady'
• Greta Garbo's salary for was $3,000 per week, making her one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood
• The film's success prompted MGM to immediately plan another Garbo vehicle, 'Wild Orchids'
• Conrad Nagel was reportedly so intimidated by Garbo's fame that he had difficulty with their romantic scenes
• The film featured among the costliest sets ever built at MGM at that time - a recreation of the Vienna Opera House
• Greta Garbo's famous line 'I want to be alone' was NOT in , though many mistakenly attribute it to this period of her career
• The film's cinematographer William H. Daniels would become Garbo's preferred cameraman, shooting 13 of her films
• The movie was released just weeks before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, making it one of the last big successes of the silent era
• A young Joan Crawford worked as an extra in the ballroom scenes

Awards & recognition

• Photoplay Medal of Honor for Best Picture of 1928

Visual style

William H. Daniels employed innovative lighting techniques to create the film's mysterious atmosphere, using dramatic shadows and soft focus to enhance Garbo's enigmatic quality. The cinematography featured extensive use of backlighting and silhouettes, particularly in the espionage sequences. Daniels pioneered the use of gauze filters over the camera lens to create a dreamlike quality in romantic scenes. The film's visual style emphasized contrast between light and shadow, reflecting the moral ambiguity of the characters. The elaborate ballroom sequence utilized multiple cameras and complex lighting setups to capture the grandeur of the setting while maintaining intimate focus on the main characters.

Innovations

The film featured groundbreaking use of matte paintings and miniatures to create the illusion of Vienna on MGM's backlot. The production employed innovative techniques for creating realistic rain effects during outdoor scenes. The film's editing style was particularly sophisticated for its time, using cross-cutting to build tension between parallel action sequences. The costume department developed new methods for creating period-accurate military uniforms that looked authentic on camera. The film's special effects team created convincing document forgery sequences using in-camera techniques rather than post-production manipulation.

Music

As a silent film, it featured a compiled musical score performed live in theaters, often conducted by prominent musicians of the era. The original cue sheets indicated the use of classical pieces by composers like Johann Strauss II for the Vienna scenes, alongside dramatic original compositions for suspense sequences. The music was carefully synchronized to enhance emotional moments, with romantic themes for the love scenes and tense, staccato rhythms for the espionage sequences. Modern restorations have featured newly composed scores by silent film specialists, attempting to recreate the original musical experience.

Famous quotes

Tania: 'I have learned that love is the only thing worth fighting for.'

Karl: 'In war, we are all traitors to someone.'

Tania: 'My country taught me to lie, but my heart taught me to love.'

Memorable scenes

• The grand ballroom sequence where Tania and Karl first meet, featuring hundreds of extras in period costume and elaborate choreography
• The tense bedroom scene where Tania steals the military documents while Karl sleeps, using shadows and close-ups to build suspense
• The emotional prison visit where Tania confesses her love and betrayal to Karl
• The dramatic rescue sequence at the film's climax, combining action and romance as Tania helps Karl escape

What audiences thought

The film was a major commercial success, grossing over $1.2 million domestically and performing exceptionally well in international markets. Audiences were particularly drawn to Garbo's performance and the film's blend of romance and suspense. The movie's popularity led to increased demand for Garbo films and helped establish Conrad Nagel as a leading romantic actor. Contemporary audience letters to fan magazines praised the film's emotional depth and visual beauty. The film's success at the box office demonstrated that sophisticated, adult-themed entertainment could attract mainstream audiences during the late silent period.

Film connections

Influenced by

• German Expressionist cinema
• The spy novels of E. Phillips Oppenheim
• Mata Hari's real-life story
• European romantic melodramas of the 1920s

This film influenced

• Mata Hari (1931)
• Shanghai Express (1932)
• The Scarlet Empress (1934)
• Notorious (1946)
• Casablanca (1942)

Film restoration

The film is preserved in the MGM film library and has been restored by Warner Bros. for home media release. A complete 35mm print exists in the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The film was included in the 2005 Garbo DVD collection and received a digital restoration in 2019 for the TCM Classic Film Festival.

Where to watch

• Warner Archive DVD/Blu-ray
• Turner Classic Movies (TCM) - periodic airings
• The Criterion Channel (availability varies)
• Classic film streaming services like FilmStruck (when available)
• Public domain versions may be found on YouTube (quality varies)