{"id":23763,"date":"2012-02-06T11:57:01","date_gmt":"2012-02-06T18:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=23763"},"modified":"2020-12-27T18:21:37","modified_gmt":"2020-12-28T01:21:37","slug":"flesh-and-the-devil-1926","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=23763","title":{"rendered":"Flesh and the Devil (1926)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;My boy, when the devil cannot reach us through the spirit, he creates a woman beautiful enough to reach us through the flesh.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-the-Devil-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-the-Devil-Poster-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-23764\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-the-Devil-Poster-195x300.jpg 195w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-the-Devil-Poster-83x128.jpg 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-the-Devil-Poster.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA soldier (John Gilbert) on leave from military training falls in love with a beautiful woman (Greta Garbo) who fails to tell him she&#8217;s already married; after killing her husband (Marc McDermott) in a duel, Gilbert leaves for overseas service, asking his lifelong friend (Lars Hanson) to look out for Garbo &#8212; with unexpectedly heartbreaking effects.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Clarence Brown Films<\/li>\n<li>Friendship<\/li>\n<li>Greta Garbo Films<\/li>\n<li>John Gilbert Films<\/li>\n<li>Love Triangle<\/li>\n<li>Silent Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nDirected by Clarence Brown, this historical onscreen pairing of Greta Garbo and John Gilbert (their first) is notable as the film which brought Garbo to stardom. Garbo plays a seductive temptress who wreaks havoc on the lifelong friendship between Gilbert and Hanson; unfortunately, other than one potent scene hinting at more complexity with her mysterious character (as she looks at herself vainly in the mirror while trying on widows&#8217; veils), we don&#8217;t learn enough about her to really understand her motivations. The primary draw of this disappointingly scripted film is William Daniels&#8217; luminous cinematography, which is consistently a treat to behold, and certainly contributed to Garbo&#8217;s imminent cinematic mystique. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> It&#8217;s difficult to ignore the homoerotic tensions between Gilbert and Hanson, who are often pictured as remarkably physically intimate. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Homoerotic.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Homoerotic.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-23770\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Homoerotic.png 320w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Homoerotic-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Homoerotic-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Their blood-brothers friendship ultimately drives the entire narrative, and is the most intriguing (if underdeveloped) aspect of the script. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Genuine chemistry between Garbo and Gilbert<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Chemistry.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Chemistry.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-23765\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Chemistry.png 320w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Chemistry-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Chemistry-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>The creatively filmed duel<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Duel.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Duel.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-23768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Duel.png 320w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Duel-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Duel-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Fine, atmospheric cinematography by William Daniels<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Cinematography.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-23766\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Cinematography.png 320w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Cinematography-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Cinematography-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Cinematography2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Cinematography2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-23767\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Cinematography2.png 320w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Cinematography2-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Flesh-and-Devil-Cinematography2-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though it&#8217;s worth a look simply for its historical relevance as the first of Garbo&#8217;s four pairings with Gilbert, and as the film which brought Garbo to stardom. Listed as a film with Historical Importance in the back of Peary&#8217;s book. Added to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.loc.gov\/film\/titles.html\">National Film Registry<\/a> in 2006. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0016884\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/movies.nytimes.com\/movie\/review?res=9504E3D71E30E132A25753C1A9679C946695D6CF\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=1622&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/153\/flesh-and-the-devil#articles-reviews?articleId=12663\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;My boy, when the devil cannot reach us through the spirit, he creates a woman beautiful enough to reach us through the flesh.&#8221; Synopsis: A soldier (John Gilbert) on leave from military training falls in love with a beautiful woman (Greta Garbo) who fails to tell him she&#8217;s already married; after killing her husband (Marc McDermott) in a duel, Gilbert leaves for overseas service, asking his lifelong friend (Lars Hanson) to look out for Garbo &#8212; with unexpectedly heartbreaking effects&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=23763\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23763"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60077,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23763\/revisions\/60077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}