The Mysterious Lady

An Austrian officer falls in love with a woman he meets at the opera. She is an agent working for Russian intelligence and she is there to take secret plans from him. When the plans disappear the blame falls on the officer and he loses everything. She, meanwhile, has begun to love him for real. Both are now people their own sides do not trust. Greta Garbo takes the lead in this late silent MGM production, directed by Fred Niblo. Garbo was in her first years of stardom in Hollywood and the film is built on her face. There are few dialogue cards; the weight of the telling is in looks and close-ups. The espionage part unravels too easily now, but what the film is actually interested in is not the plot; it is a woman going on with her assignment and falling on the wrong side of it at the same time. Conrad Nagel plays the officer.