Flesh and the Devil

Released Dec 25, 1926

1h 53m

Drama

Romance

List

94%

Tomatometer

16 Reviews

84%

Audience Score

1,000+ Ratings

In this silent drama, lifelong school chums Leo (John Gilbert) and Ulrich (Lars Hanson) are soldiers in the German army. Leo falls in love with Countess Felicitas (Greta Garbo) and courts her, which enrages her husband (Marc McDermott). When Leo fights a duel with and kills the Count, he is deployed to Africa for five years as punishment. Leo returns to find that Ulrich has fallen for Felicitas, but she resumes her amorous pursuit of Leo, thus pushing the limits of their friendship.

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David Parkinson

Empire Magazine

Garbo is mesmerising in this wild and heated romance that has to be considered in context to cope with the excesive aesthetic and thematic melodrama.

Rated: 4/5

Oct 17, 2007

Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

A corking story, exceptionally acted and cleverly directed. A lot of glory to be distributed among all concerned.

Oct 17, 2007

Full Review

Mordaunt Hall

New York Times

Miss Garbo is undeniably alluring as Felicitas. Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Hansen give sound performances in their respective roles.

Rated: 4/5

Mar 25, 2006

Full Review

George Elkind

Metro Times (Detroit, MI)

With Flesh and the Devil benefiting from an easy meshing of its cast’s palpable subjective feelings with its own form, the film’s depiction of its characters’ romantic desires refuses to allow for the kind of containment the story attempts.

Nov 4, 2022

Full Review

Carl Sandburg

Chicago Daily News

Miss Garbo is hereafter a star to be reckoned with, so perfectly does she create a character for the heroine, lovely, pitiful, thrilling Felicitas, who drifts downward without ever realizing that the world holds such things as morals.

Dec 14, 2021

Full Review

Mercury Staff

The Mercury (Australia)

Greta Garbo is at her best.

Jul 9, 2020

Full Review

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ashley h

Flesh and the Devil is an excellent film. It is childhood friends who are torn apart when one of them marries the woman the other once fiercely loved. John Gilbert and Greta Garbo give fantastic performances. The screenplay is well written. Clarence Brown did a great job directing this movie. I enjoyed watching this motion picture because of the drama and romance. Flesh and the Devil is a must see.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The best romance movie ever made!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

Full Review

andrey k

A depressing melodrama shot in a corresponding manner. The depressing element of this movie sometimes takes morbid proportions but it does the film good. Greta Garbo is irresistible as ever. The film itself is good too, it has that inexplicable familiar charm of the bygone era of cinema.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Wait, haven't I already seen this movie? Indeed, Flesh and the Devil is remarkably similar, in plot and tone, to The Temptress, which also starred Greta Garbo and was released just earlier in the same year. Garbo again stars as a femme fatale who drives the men around her to commit such atrocities as murder, destroying friendships and lives in the process. The biggest difference between the two films is that Flesh and the Devil does it much more effectively. Before even introducing Garbo's character, Felicitas von Rhaden, the film fully develops and explores the friendship between Leo von Harden (John Gilbert) and Ulrich von Eltz (Lars Hanson), thus providing a much more concrete emotional stake in the film and making it all the more poignant when that friendship is inevitably torn apart. Flesh and the Devil, while by no means groundbreaking, is a solid tale of romance and friendship.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

Full Review

david l

With remarkable cinematography, terrific acting and wondrous and at times simply incredible art direction, Flesh and the Devil certainly looks great in terms of technical aspects, but it is too melodramatic and flawed in terms of storytelling. It has terrific and warm first act and the theme of male friendship is rather well done and endearing to watch, but it gets too melodramatic near the end and the finale is quite weird with the filmmakers's decision to kill off Garbo's character being rather odd, poorly executed and emotionally unsatisfying with problematic message. It is beautiful to look at and it has its touching moments, but this movie is nevertheless a very flawed one and a picture that never reaches its potential which was big.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Beautiful cinematography. The ending was incredibly satisfactory -- no effort for an unrealistic Hollywood finish. A very enjoyable silent drama.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

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Clarence Brown

Director

Greta Garbo

Felicitas

John Gilbert

Leo von Harden

Lars Hanson

Ulrich von Eltz

Barbara Kent

Hertha von Eltz

William Orlamond

Uncle Kutowski

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Synopsis

In this silent drama, lifelong school chums Leo (John Gilbert) and Ulrich (Lars Hanson) are soldiers in the German army. Leo falls in love with Countess Felicitas (Greta Garbo) and courts her, which enrages her husband (Marc McDermott). When Leo fights a duel with and kills the Count, he is deployed to Africa for five years as punishment. Leo returns to find that Ulrich has fallen for Felicitas, but she resumes her amorous pursuit of Leo, thus pushing the limits of their friendship.

Director: Clarence Brown
Screenwriter: Benjamin Glazer, Frederica Sagor Maas, Hermann Sudermann
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Production Co: Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Genre: Drama, Romance
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 25, 1926, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 21, 2016
Runtime: 1h 53m

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