Flesh and the Devil (1926)
Directed by: Clarence Brown
Starring: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lars Hanson
Length: 113 min
Genre: Drama / Romance
Based on: The play "The Undying Past" by Hermann Sundermann
Two childhood freinds, Leo (John Gilbert) and Ulrich (Lars Hanson), joined the military together and they head home on leave. Leo meets a woman at a party, Felicitas (Greta Garbo), and falls in love with her, as people back then had a habit of doing. While in her home, her husband (dun-dun DUN) enters. As it turns out, he's a powerful Count. He challenges Leo to a duel and Leo accepts and wins. To cover up the reason for the duel so that everyone involved could keep their honor, they make up a story about it being over words said during a card game.
The army punishes him by sending him to Africa for several years. Felicitas promises to wait for him. After three years in Africa, he is allowed to return. Apon returning, however, Leo finds that Felicitas has married Ulrich! (dun-dun-DUN!). Ulrich had no knowledge of their affair, which they eventually continue behind Ulrich's back. One night, Leo is caught with Felicitas by Ulrich while, after some angry words, Leo was strangling Felicitas. Felicitas tells Ulrich a lie, that Leo came there to kidnap her, and Ulrich then challenges Leo to a duel. Leo, to protect his friend from the truth, admits to Felicitas' lie and accepts the challenge.
When the duel starts, Leo refuses to protect himself and Ulrich demands that he raises his gun, which he half-heartedly does. Felicitas runs to them to get them to stop, but she falls through some ice and drowns. When this happens, it is like a veil had been lifted from their eyes and the two friends are friends once again.
Sound abusrd? It sure does. You see, Felicitas was the tempting flesh that caused men to sin (hence "Flesh and the Devil"). When she died, the desire for the men to sin vanished.
Ok, so the plot may not be as absurd as my brief writeup makes it seem (but there's no way to make it not sound absurd in brief summery form
), it is a romance film, and you know by now how I feel about them. The plot was fine, for the most part, and it just got crazy at the end.
That issues with plot aside, the film was very well done. A lot of the effects, camera angles, etc. were very impressive. From a filmmaking perspective, I really liked this film. It's obvious that Brown, and cinametographer William Daniels, weren't interested in just making another cookie-cutter romance film. They had innovation on their minds. And the acting of both Garbo and Gilbert was superb.
The movie was a massive success that made Greta Garbo one of the highest paid actresses at the time, and it was the beginning of Greta Garbo's relationship with John Gilbert. The passion between them in this movie was real, and they would go on to continue acting together into the 1930s. I'm actually interested in seeing how their relationship evolves in their films.
Entertainment Rating: 7/10
Historical Rating: 9/10