Flesh and the Devil (1926)

Flesh and the Devil is a 1926 MGM silent melodrama starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. The success of The Big Parade a year earlier had made Gilbert just about the hottest star in Hollywood and he got top billing. Garbo at this time was a rising star. Her star status would rise considerably with the release of Flesh and the Devil.

Leo von Harden (John Gilbert) and Ulrich von Eltz (Lars Hanson) are soldiers in Germany. It is presumably the late 19th century since German South West Africa plays an important part in the story and that colony was established in 1884. Leo and Ulrich were childhood friends, along with Ulrich’s kid sister Hertha. They used to play on a little island in a lake, an island they christened the Isle of Friendship. Leo and Ulrich, as the von in their names suggest, are wealthy members of the nobility.

Then Leo meets Felicitas (Garbo). The sexual chemistry between them is immediate and as explosive as nitro-glycerine. They have a wild night of passion in Felicitas’s house which is spoilt somewhat by her husband’s arrival home the following morning and his discovery of the two of them in bed together. Felicitas had apparently forgotten to tell Leo she was married.

As you might expect some unpleasantness ensues. The final result is that Leo is shipped off to German South West Africa.

Leo and Felicitas are still madly in love, or at least so Leo assumes. When he returns from his exile he is rather surprised to find that Felicitas has acquired a new husband, and that husband is none other than Ulrich. Ulrich, who is a fine fellow but a bit of an innocent, knows nothing of the brief tempestuous affair between Felicitas and Leo.

Leo decides to do the decent thing and not resume the affair, but Felicitas has other ideas. And she has no intention of taking no for an answer.

The plot has a nice cyclical quality to it but I can’t say more without revealing spoilers.

This is a lurid potboiler and it’s dripping with sex. It’s an amazingly erotic movie. Garbo demonstrates that there is no need to take you clothes off to send the sexual temperature rocketing off the scale. The love scenes were hotter than anything seen in a Hollywood movie prior to this date, and they’re still sizzlingly hot today.

That of course includes the famous cigarette scene. This is the most blatant and effective use ever of cigarette smoking as a sexual metaphor.

There are in fact two cigarette scenes. The second is not as erotic but it’s just as crucial.

At one point Leo’s pastor opines that when the Devil can’t tempt us spiritually he does so through the flesh, by creating a woman beautiful enough to tempt any man. That’s pretty much the theme of the movie.

This is Garbo in bad girl mode. There had of course been plenty of bad girls and temptresses in movies before this. There had been vamps such as Theda Bara and Pola Negri. Garbo however was something new and different. She’s both more subtle than the traditional vamp, and paradoxically more blatant. And much more dangerous. Garbo is dangerous in this movie because she is not motivated by a desire to use or manipulate a man. She is driven by genuine sexual hunger, and genuine emotional hunger. Even if her desires threaten her with self-destruction that’s not going to stop her.

The fact that Garbo and John Gilbert began their real-life love affair during the filming of this movie undoubtedly made the onscreen sexual chemistry even more potent.

Garbo is enigmatic and magnetic. If you’ve ever wondered why John Gilbert was for a time the highest paid actor in Hollywood this movie provides the answer. They’re an electrifying couple.

Felicitas and Leo are both flawed characters. They both defy not only the sexual mores of the time, they defy all the rules. They are both selfish, but both are out of control. They cannot help themselves.

Flesh and the Devil is gloriously lurid and melodramatic and sexy and romantic. It was, not surprisingly, a huge hit. And, also not surprisingly, it gave Garbo the clout to negotiate a much more favourable contract with MGM. It’s a great movie and it’s very highly recommended.

This movie is included in the Garbo Silents two-disc set which was included in the excellent Warner Garbo Signature Collection boxed set. Flesh and the Devil has some slight print damage but mostly the transfer is fine.