A Carne e o Diabo

Yes, the plot is a bit cliche but the performances certainly make up for it! Garbo, only in the early years of her career, gives an incredibly smoldering performance as the unredeemable temptress Felicitas, who snags the hapless Leo (John Gilbert) into a web of sex and lies. Look at that sly smile as she's trying on her widow's weeds -- very effective. John Gilbert, the heir of Valentino's mantle, proves that he surpassed the master lover with a believable portrayal of a man who realizes that he's way over his head but can't help himself. He does indulge in a bit of histrionics, but is very restrained compared to other silent lovers of the era. Only his performances in "The Big Parade" and "Downstairs" better this one. As Felicitas' second husband, Lars Hanson has the looks and talent to hold his own on the screen with his two incredibly dynamic co-stars. He amazed me opposite Lillian Gish in "The Wind" and "The Scarlet Letter" and it's a shame that he made so few movies in Hollywood before returning to Sweden.

Clarence Brown keeps the narrative flowing with a healthy balance of humor, drama, romance and action. MGM's stock company of character actors (William Orlamond, Polly Moran, George Fawcett and Eugenie Besserer) make an appearance and provide excellent supporting players to the three stars.

I found the Carl Davis score to be absolutely perfect for the images up on the screen, and the music when Garbo and Gilbert dance and two necking sessions reflect the raw passion. It's just stunning and I can't come up with enough words to describe it. After Buster Keaton's entire body of work, this movie ranks as my #2 favorite, tied with The Wind.

10/10

Famed silent is for the time period a well made melodrama. The story is of no real consequence and now seems very familiar as it probably was at the time of it's release. The communion scene is provocative, very erotic even today and must have been a sensation in '26. The real interest is of course the cast, Garbo especially. Of all the players she is the acting standout, with the exception of a few scenes her performance feels very naturalistic. The same goes for her appearance, whereas everybody else looks like they belong in the 1920's her unadorned hairdos and streamlined clothes convey a contemporary feeling, a flesh impact. Gilbert, who was then wildly popular, is a relic from a bygone era. He looks like he could be attractive but his ridiculous mustache and the heavy makeup required at the time sabotage his handsomeness. His acting is quite mannered and uneven, he was much better in The Big Parade, but he and Garbo share an undeniable chemistry. The real offender in overacting is Lars Hanson his eye-popping and herky jerky movements are a textbook example of the worst kind of silent screen performance, the impression that keeps a lot of people from giving silents a try. The other major person in this passion play is Barbara Kent as the angelic young thing in contrast to Garbo's rapacious strumpet. Kent passed away at 103 in 2011 one of the last remaining silent screen stars although she turned her back on public life and had been a recluse since the 50's.

Young actress Greta Garbo was tired and homesick for her native Sweden after she had journeyed to America to appear in two MGM movies. While filming her previous movie, 1926's "The Temptress," she was told her sister had died. When she asked studio executives if they could allow her some time to attend the funeral, they refused her request. Then Garbo's director Swedish friend Mauritz Stiller was removed from "The Temptress." With a paltry weekly salary in comparison to other actresses at her level, Garbo was financially struggling and gave serious thought of backing out of her next film. When she revealed her sentiments to a studio executive, she received a strongly-worded letter from MGM threatening to end her career as an actress if she didn't cooperate.

After some considerable thinking and advice from friends, she did report to the movie set for her next film, January 1927's "Flesh and the Devil." She began the filming in a deep funk until the day where she was appearing in a train station scene with lead actor John Gilbert, whom she never met. Once they were introduced and shot that station scene as well as the day's scheduled intimate kissing sequences, Garbo suddenly forgot most of her troubles.

"I don't know how I should have managed if I had not been cast opposite John Gilbert," recalled Garbo three years later. "If he had not come into my life at this time, I should probably have gone home to Sweden at once, my American career over." As one account goes, the veteran actor was bowled over by her vulnerability and took a personal interest in coaching her as filming progressed. It help that the "Flesh and the Devil" was loaded with intimate love scenes between the two of them. During one particularly passionate shot, director Clarence Brown witnessed the pair's budding relationship right before his eyes. He decided that instead of yelling cut to wrap up the scene, he motioned to his lighting and camera crew members to quietly leave the set as the two were still kissing. A few hours later, as Gilbert and Garbo continued their snuggling on the set, studio personnel brought in their dinner. By the conclusion of the movie's shoot, the two had moved in together.

Garbo's radiance shines through on screen as director Brown called for a number of close-ups, taking advantage of the actress's stunning looks. One reviewer described, "she gave a more erotic performance than Hollywood had ever seen."

"Flesh and the Devil," based on the 1894 Hermann Sudermann novel, 'The Undying Past,' was a perfect vehicle for the two new lovers. Garbo plays the wife, Felicitas, of an aging count who catches Leo (Gilbert), a German soldier, making kissy with his wife. Variety called that love-making scene and two others contained in the film hair raising. "There are three loves scenes in this picture that will make anyone fidget in their seat and their hair rise on end," said the trade magazine. The count loses a duel to Leo, who's sent to Africa for a few years as punishment. Meantime, his best friend, Ulrich (Lars Hanson) is asked by Leo to take care of Felicitas. He not only does that-he does more: the two fall in love and get married. When Leo returns and discovers what took place, well things get a little sticky.

The key line in the movie is when a church pastor, during a sermon, says 'When the devil cannot reach us through the spirit, he creates a woman beautiful enough to reach us through the flesh." The portrait of Felicitas fits the pastor's description of her to a tee. "Flesh and the Devil" was a pivotal movie in Garbo's career. Her performance was nearly universally praised, with one critic writing, "Audiences were mesmerized by her beauty and titillated by her love scenes with Gilbert. She was a sensation." Garbo received a tremendous bump in her salary with the box office profits rolling in. Soon, the actress' movies returned 12 per cent of all MGMs annual revenues at the height of her career, a tremendous amount for one actress.

The fine cast makes this melodrama work, and turns a rather routine plot idea into a good and sometimes memorable movie. John Gilbert and Lars Hanson are a good combination as the male leads, and Greta Garbo is convincing as always, as the woman at the center of everything. Clarence Brown's direction also contains some good touches.

Gilbert and Hanson work well as the two lifelong friends who fall in love with the same woman. Gilbert's more passionate, hot-blooded character forms a believable and interesting contrast to Hanson's innocently earnest portrayal of his loyal, unsuspecting friend. Garbo's character is treated roughly at times by the story and by some of the other characters, but she more than rises to the occasion, and as she often does, she makes what could have been a stereotyped love interest into a complex and sometimes tormented character.

Barbara Kent also does well in a smaller role, and her character (the younger sister of Hanson's character) is used effectively at some important moments that help develop the main characters. Brown adds a lighter tone to a couple of sequences when suitable, and he provides a good pace. Given the fairly simple story, it might run a bit long, but otherwise it is well-crafted and effective.

"Garbo multiplied the cinema's power of suggestion to infinity,

and the gaze so deep that every spectator there found what he sought

she spoke a different language to every man" Ado Kyrou, 1957

FLESH AND THE DEVIL (1926), the first film that the director Clarence Brown made with "an immigrant actress" who Greta Garbo had been before its premiere occurred to be one of the very best films for its time. People flocked to see it, Garbo became so eminent that she could almost dictate the terms in film industry, her relationship with John Gilbert turned out to be no baseless gossip. However, since then, 80 years have passed, not many people know how important the premiere of the film was, how historic it turned out to be in Garbo's career. Yet, it seems never to be fading since there are STILL many people who watch this film in its recent DVD release. Let us look at some aspects that make it a real classic, not only for its time, but for the general history of cinema.

THE CINEMATOGRAPHY by William H. Daniels is magnificent. Probably, anyone who has seen the film will never forget its most famous lighting effect when Gilbert lightens Garbo's cigarette in the shadowy garden. Another stunning moment is the scene of Leo Von Harden and Count Von Rhaden's duel. It is played in silhouette against the vast sky and, as a result, we can see not so much people but rather their shadows. An excellent moment that remains in memory is the waltz of Felicitas and Leo on the ball at Stoltenhof. The scene is filmed so memorably that it is hard to be skipped. Yet, the image of the "Isle of Friendship" where two best friends swore eternal loyalty as children and then went to fight in a duel is presented in an unforgettable way. Such pictures never fade in memory.

THE CAST are very talented, real elite of the time.

GRETA GARBO and JOHN GILBERT: Gilbert, who was Hollywood's leading man after the death of Rudolph Valentino, does a great job here as Leo Von Harden. His love to Felicitas (and to Garbo in real life) is so natural that everybody will get an impression that it is real what they can find on the screen. The love scenes between the two are particularly natural, hardly to be found elsewhere in films! If there is chemistry between the stars in a film, it is, without any doubt, in FLESH AND THE DEVIL. Greta Garbo performs so well that no wonder people saw her (many for the first time) and very soon started to admire her as an actress. She is excellent in the role and her acting still does not appear to be dated whatsoever! The whole of Garbo's sequence is marvelous but if I were to choose which scenes are particularly memorable, I would pay attention to two brilliant moments: first, the one at the train station when Leo and Felicitas meet for the first time and Leo picks the flowers that fell onto the ground and gives them to her, and, second, the moment when Leo and Ulrich, two lifelong friends, go to fight in a duel. Viewer's attention is directed towards Hertha, Ulrich's virtuous sister. She does her best to persuade Felicitas to take steps to stop this madness that a duel between two best friends appeared to be. How beautifully Garbo shows a change of heart... I admit that I have never seen such a performance before! Therefore, the words by Kyrou about Garbo, entailed at the beginning of my review, appear to accurately fit here.

OTHER CAST: Besides Garbo and Gilbert, there is a great Swedish actor, Lars Hanson, with whom Garbo played in one film before FLESH AND THE DEVIL (this was Mauritz Stiller's THE SAGA OF GOSTA BERLING). He is memorable as Ulrich, particularly in the final sequence when friendship occurs to be, indeed, sacred. The fabulous acting of the three (Garbo, Gilbert and Hanson) is expressed in a brilliant scene of the three meeting after Leo's return from Africa and drinking a toast. Other cast give very good performances, too, including Barbara Kent as Hertha and Marc Mc Dermott as Count Von Rhaden.

OTHER MEMORABLE MOMENTS include a number of humorous scenes that are, in no way, dated. It is important to state that many silent films may seem "silly" because today's viewers laugh at the scenes that were not supposed to be funny. It is caused by the challenge in people's sense of humor. However, it does not appear to be in FLESH AND THE DEVIL. Humor is retained and still serves its purpose. Consider the pastor seeing twins and believing to be drunk (he sees one girl in double). Or the final shot ... "You won't bid me goodbye?"

FLESH AND THE DEVIL is a film that I would recommend to anyone to see. It is a real classic and, in this regard, it may be considered similar to other classics of the time, like SUNRISE (1927), BEN HUR (1925) and THE LAST LAUGH (1924). But there are three more aspects about it that make the movie a must see - William H. Daniels' cinematography, Clarence Brown's direction and Greta Garbo's magnificent silent performance together with her alluring beauty. See it so that the film can last forever in your most beautiful memories. 9/10!