Though Stamboul Quest is probably not very accurate about the German spy service in World War I, I found it a most enjoyable movie, mostly because of Myrna Loy. I would've said Myrna was miscast as a sly, duplicitous, sexy spy. But remembering her previous (pre-MGM) performances in movies like The Squall and Thirteen Women, she could have indeed played the part to the hilt; it was just that MGM wanted her to be sympathetic and ladylike, even when inappropriate.
Even so, she seems to be having fun and gets to wear some sexy outfits designed by Adrian. One, that she wears in the restaurant where she picks up George Brent and subsequently at his apartment, is so skimpy that wearing it in public in many US cities might've gotten her arrested in that period. In the opening scene where she shows up disguised in the office of Von Sturm (Lionel Atwill), the German spymaster she works for, after a little hugging she immediately takes a bath in a bathroom so conveniently located right there in his office. Her undressing and teasingly tossing her shirt and slip in his face makes it clear there is an easy intimacy between them. (He scrutinizes her clothes closely, ostensibly looking for a message in invisible ink; this was as close as 1934 Hollywood could get to showing a panty fetishist--and Atwill, even when down-playing his customary hinted-at lewdness, gives signs of being obsessed with her.) This could've been a real cutting-edge film if it had focused a good deal more on the dignified middle-aged spymaster's fascination with his much younger, carefree, sleep-around spy, who seems quite a tease--and might be a perk that goes with the job?
She has a conventional but sexy romantic scene with George Brent (who I found a little annoying) and later on, she manifests a subtle eroticism in her scene with the Turkish commander (C. Henry Gordon) whom one would think would be more on his guard against such womanly wiles. When she lowers her dress at one shoulder (so he can write an invisible-ink message on her back) the feeling is very erotic, quite knowingly so on her part, cool and calculating--her finest acting moment in the movie and one where she really gives a feeling of ambiguity, as she obviously doesn't find this stiff, pompous Turkish big shot attractive but knowing she's been sent to seduce him, she certainly gets with it.
The superb cameraman James Wong Howe's talent for mood is unfortunately constrained by the MGM glossy, brightly lit look. However, he lights Myrna's close-ups with care and, for a few delicious seconds (to be exact, at 101.32) he uses baby spots on her eyes. It's such an exquisite effect that I freeze-framed it to savor it at length.
Even so, she seems to be having fun and gets to wear some sexy outfits designed by Adrian. One, that she wears in the restaurant where she picks up George Brent and subsequently at his apartment, is so skimpy that wearing it in public in many US cities might've gotten her arrested in that period. In the opening scene where she shows up disguised in the office of Von Sturm (Lionel Atwill), the German spymaster she works for, after a little hugging she immediately takes a bath in a bathroom so conveniently located right there in his office. Her undressing and teasingly tossing her shirt and slip in his face makes it clear there is an easy intimacy between them. (He scrutinizes her clothes closely, ostensibly looking for a message in invisible ink; this was as close as 1934 Hollywood could get to showing a panty fetishist--and Atwill, even when down-playing his customary hinted-at lewdness, gives signs of being obsessed with her.) This could've been a real cutting-edge film if it had focused a good deal more on the dignified middle-aged spymaster's fascination with his much younger, carefree, sleep-around spy, who seems quite a tease--and might be a perk that goes with the job?
She has a conventional but sexy romantic scene with George Brent (who I found a little annoying) and later on, she manifests a subtle eroticism in her scene with the Turkish commander (C. Henry Gordon) whom one would think would be more on his guard against such womanly wiles. When she lowers her dress at one shoulder (so he can write an invisible-ink message on her back) the feeling is very erotic, quite knowingly so on her part, cool and calculating--her finest acting moment in the movie and one where she really gives a feeling of ambiguity, as she obviously doesn't find this stiff, pompous Turkish big shot attractive but knowing she's been sent to seduce him, she certainly gets with it.
The superb cameraman James Wong Howe's talent for mood is unfortunately constrained by the MGM glossy, brightly lit look. However, he lights Myrna's close-ups with care and, for a few delicious seconds (to be exact, at 101.32) he uses baby spots on her eyes. It's such an exquisite effect that I freeze-framed it to savor it at length.