Flesh and the Devil
About Flesh and the Devil
Leo von Harden and Ulrich von Eltz come home from the army. Leo falls for Felicitas and does not know she is Count von Rhaden's wife. The count forces a duel and tells everyone it was only a card-table quarrel. Leo kills him and is sent to Africa. He asks Ulrich to watch Felicitas and does not say why. Ulrich gets the term cut to three years. Leo comes back and finds Felicitas married to Ulrich. She keeps after Leo. Pastor Voss condemns him for it. Leo tries to choke her, Ulrich stops him, and the friends agree to duel. Felicitas runs to stop them, falls through the ice, and drowns. Leo and Ulrich drop the duel.
Cast & crew
More about Flesh and the Devil
Clarence Brown directed. Benjamin Glazer adapted Hermann Sudermann's novel The Undying Past. Irving Thalberg produced. William H. Daniels photographed it. MGM released it on December 25, 1926. John Gilbert plays Leo, Greta Garbo plays Felicitas, and Lars Hanson plays Ulrich. The U.S. running time is 109 minutes. A British print is listed at 113.
Themes
Making
Garbo and Gilbert's scenes are the center of the picture. Daniels, who shot most of Garbo's MGM films, is the cameraman.
Reviews
Carl Sandburg, in the Chicago Daily News of February 18, 1927, wrote that if a kiss in films had matched Gilbert and Garbo's, "let him who knows of it speak now," and that Garbo was "hereafter a star to be reckoned with."
Look
William H. Daniels photographed Gilbert and Garbo, including the kiss Sandburg wrote up in February 1927.
Preservation
Selected for the National Film Registry in 2006. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Barbara Kent plays Hertha. George Fawcett plays Pastor Voss. Marc McDermott plays Count von Rhaden. William Orlamond plays Uncle Kutowski.
- The count insists the duel be explained as a quarrel over cards, to hide the affair.
- Wikipedia gives the box-office figure as $1,261,000.
- Carl Sandburg reviewed it in the Chicago Daily News on February 18, 1927.
- The National Film Registry added it in 2006.
Scenes
- Leo kills the count and is packed off to Africa.
- Felicitas goes through the ice while the two friends are on their way to duel.
Influenced by
- Hermann Sudermann's novel The Undying Past
