NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (August 2022): Kino have transferred Curtis Harrington's Mata Hari to Blu-ray. It has that thick, noisy, look of the 80's film stock. It's not poor on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate - looking authentic if highly visible textures in the darker backgrounds. It looks quite pleasing - only one specific capture of damage (see below.) So, 1080P: and looking quite decent on my system. Kudos to Harrington's visual input.

NOTE: We have added 60 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel track (24-bit) in the original English language. Mata Hari has only a few aggressive moments (latter gunfire) that come through with modest depth. The score is by Wilfred Josephs (Cash on Demand, Fanatic, The Deadly Bees, The Uncanny, notable for TV series music in I Claudius and The Prisoner) and it augments the wonderful 'look' of Mata Hari. Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Kino Blu-ray offers a new commentary by Film Historians David Del Valle and Nathaniel Bell (has the Face book page for Curtis Harrington.) I love listening to David - who doesn't hold back here - discussing the director's limited options having to deal with a poor cinematographer and weak screenwriter. They relate how Harrington had high standards in terms of sets. They talk about Harrington's book "Nice Guys Don't Work in Hollywood: The Adventures of an Aesthete in the Movie Business". They talk about the real Mata Hari - Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod - also Dutch - like Sylvia Kristel who was kind of born to play this part. They admit that this probably had 10-15-minutes missing from the 'International release' cutting out more explicit material (that may never be available.) David was friends with Harrington at the end of his life and relates many interesting details about Mata Hari - and much more. Nathaniel talks about Harrington as a film critic and his high aspirations of cinema - essentially feeling he was a generation too late. They talk about Harrington's Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? - considering it his best film. Of course they mention about Sylvia Kristel as a painter - a lady of taste and culture, the actress Gaye Brown and her small role in A Clockwork Orange, Golan-Globus, and much more.  It's fabulolus. Kino also include an image gallery and a theatrical trailer.   

Curtis Harrington's Mata Hari is considered an 'erotic biographical film' about the infamous World War I spy - and has the strong appeal of Sylvia Kristel - the queen of soft-core, mainstream, sexy films (she was in five of the seven Emmanuelle films.) Kristel was cast in Roman Polanski's 1976 film The Tenant but she was replaced by Isabelle Adjani, after one day of shooting. The costumes in Mata Hari are outrageously rich and visually it looks like a very impressive production. It's actually not as poor as come critics make out complaining about Kristel acting. I don't think that is her strongest attribute in the film. Anyway, yes - lots of sex and frontal nudity - and a well realized production although director Harrington was unhappy with the final product as it was far off his artistic vision. The Kino Blu-ray has a very strong a/v for the format and a new, very entertaining, commentary. For Sylvia Kristel and Curtis Harrington this is kind of a must-own.

Gary Tooze