dreamsong says > please petition Warners to release the full complete version of this movie, we are missing essential beautiful love scenes between Garbo and Navarro and the longer version of her dance at the beginning of the film.
I would love to see the original, uncut version of the movie. It would be interesting to see it as the director intended for it to be seen; his vision. That said, I think the movie works perfectly fine just as it is. The story still makes sense even if it didn't unfold seamlessly.
What happened between Mata Hari and Rosanoff may have been behind closed doors and off camera but we got it. We didn't need a love scene to understand that she used sex to keep him busy while her accomplice came in, 'borrowed' the documents, photographed and returned them.
I have nothing against love scenes per se but in this case I don't see how a love scene would have added anything extra. It wouldn't have made the point more clear or helped to move the story along. We didn't need it.
An extended dance sequence, on the other hand, or more dance scenes would have been another matter entirely. We knew Mata Hari was supposed to be a dancer but we hardly saw any evidence of that in the movie. The dance scene that was shown in the movie was very brief and it appeared to be a one-time thing she did at a party.
Throughout the rest of the movie we saw her at work as a spy. Everyone she encountered was either a fellow spy, someone from whom she was getting secret information, or an investigator trying to expose and catch her. In other words, everyone, with the exception of Rosanoff, either knew or suspected she was a spy.
That's not at all what I would have expected. In life, even though she was tried and executed, there was some question as to her guilt. She supposedly used her sexuality and sensuality to extract information from her targets; they may have known who and what she was but they couldn't resist her. There was evidence of that in the movie but, when it came to Rosanoff, nothing she did made sense. He couldn't resist her but, unlike the others, he didn't turn information over to her for that reason. Maybe that's what blowing out the candle was to signify but I got the impression he would have resisted when it came to endangering lives.
My point is if the movie lacked something it was not an unnecessary love scene. There were other things that could have gone into it that would probably have helped the story but were omitted. Those things would likely have survived the censors and would not have been edited out. We'd still see them in the versions we have of the movie today. The fact the movie was, as you say, 'butchered' and the reason most of us have not seen, and may never see, the original full length version cannot be blamed on anyone other than the director himself.
I realize the movie was made prior to the code or enforcement of any decency standards but even then I think filmmakers had a good sense of what was taboo. They lived in the society in which these movies were being released so they knew what was acceptable and unacceptable. They knew when they were pushing the limits but chose to do so anyway.
Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]
reply
share