Inglourious Basterds, Part XI

11. Mata Hari (1931) is the sensational and lurid true! tale of the notorious Dutch courtesan and spy who made famous that place in France where the naked ladies dance and where she herself was later executed for treason. The appearance of her name on a card in La Louisiane undoubtedly refers to the Greta Garbo picture — her most commercially successful, if not best. I haven't gotten around to Garbo's catalogue yet, but I can reveal that she and Marlene Dietrich were rivals and she and Louise Brooks lovers...ooh! Otherwise I defer to Bette Davis's estimation of the taciturn Swede:

Her instinct, her mastery over the machine, was pure witchcraft. I cannot analyze this woman's acting. I only know that no one else so effectively worked in front of a camera.