Flesh and the Devil

The tail end of the silent screen era brought us the great screen team of John Gilbert and Greta Garbo. As we well know Gilbert came up short in talkies and there are a lot of explanations why that happened. But Garbo only started her immortal career and as she said in sound, definitely not alone.

Flesh And The Devil was her biggest screen success to date and it introduced Gilbert and Garbo as a team. Garbo is one sly and hedonistic woman who married to an older and titled man in Wilhelmine Germany. She eyes Gilbert like a prime cut in a butcher shop, especially in his army uniform.

At the same time Gilbert has Lars Hanson as a best friend since childhood and a little sister in Barbara Kent. They're like a German version of Tom, Huck, and Becky Thatcher as kids.

When Garbo's titled husband Marc McDermott catches them en flagrato only a duel will satisfy. But since both are anxious to avoid tainting the lady's name they say the duel is over some card cheating. Gilbert kills the husband, but has to flee the Fatherland for colonial service. He asks Hanson to check in on her now and then, but he never tells him about his real relationship with Garbo.

Greta is not about to wait five years for some fleshly pleasures. She marries Hanson because she has needs, but still has a yen for Gilbert. When he returns matters do come to a head.

The hedonistic woman does not triumph in this one. That satisfies the moralists of the town. But this was the Jazz Age, the Roaring Twenties and the era of the first frank discussions of sex. Sex and those steamy scenes with Gilbert are what sold this picture.

Even without sound over 80 years later Garbo and Gilbert still steam up the small screen if you're watching your DVD or the Turner Classic Movies Channel. Silent films were indeed universal and no one spoke the language of silence better than Greta Garbo and John Gilbert.

I should also mention that Barbara Kent as Gilbert's virginal sister has some good moments as well. Kent functions well as the pure counterpoint to Garbo's hedonism. And she's also the voice of conscience in the movie in her own way.

Flesh And The Devil holds up well. Garbo didn't need words to get her message across, but that was an added treat for the next decade.