Maybe the fault lies mostly with me: I was expecting, based on the promotional material that I could find about "Mata Hari, Agent H21", a more salacious and spicy re-telling of the tale of the notorious female spy, but this film is quite tame, even by its own era's standards: we never even get to see a full Mata Hari dance, although the opening sequence teases us with one. Jeanne Moreau is arguably miscast (nationality-wise) but nonetheless convincing in the title role; however, she is portrayed here pretty one-sidedly as a pure heart caught in bad circumstances. The film is also rather lacking in action and suspense; on the other hand, the finale, with a small incident from earlier in the movie coming into play in an unexpected way, is fairly strong. ** out of 4.
Review of Mata Hari, agent H21
