Mata Hari - Legend and Popular Culture

Legend and Popular Culture

The fact that almost immediately after her death questions arose about the justification of her execution, on top of rumours about the way she acted during her execution, set the story. The idea of an exotic dancer working as a lethal double agent, using her powers of seduction to extract military secrets from her many lovers fired the popular imagination, set the legend and made Mata Hari an enduring archetype of the femme fatale.

Much of her popularity is owed to the film titled Mata Hari (1931) starring Greta Garbo in the leading role. While based on real events in the life of Margaretha Zelle, the plot was largely fictional, appealing to the public appetite for fantasy at the expense of historical fact. Immensely successful as a form of entertainment, the exciting and romantic character in this film inspired subsequent generations of storytellers. Eventually, Mata Hari featured in more films, television series, and in video games, but increasingly, it is only the use of Margaretha Zelle's famous stage name that bears any resemblance to the real person. Kurt Vonnegut's novel Mother Night is dedicated to her. Many books have been written about Mata Hari, some of them serious historical and biographical accounts, but many of them highly speculative. Mata Hari was also the basis for a Broadway musical of the same name, which was a notorious financial flop when it was premiered in 1967. Late Yemenite-Israeli singer Ofra Haza recorded an entire song about Mata Hari, which has an abstract music video that follows the mystical idea of a seductive spy, even being as dramatic as to state "a great love cut her life". Despite Mata Hari being European, the song features strong Middle Eastern flavors, which was one of Haza's key musical styles.

In 2007 Dutch author Tomas Ross published De Tranen van Mata Hari (The Tears of Mata Hari), in which book he describes the secrets concerning her actions during the great war. According to this book Mata Hari was innocent.

During The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles episode "Paris, October 1916", which aired on July 10, 1993, Indy is depicted having a romance with Mata Hari and becoming embroiled in her espionage scandal.

In August 2012, a prequel to the seventh series of Doctor Who depicts the Doctor finding himself with Mata Hari in a hotel room while she takes off her clothes. The Doctor's narration refers to her as an "interesting woman".

Her stockings appear several times in the Syfy series Warehouse 13. They cause incredible seductive properties that quickly lead to obsessive behavior.