Flesh and the Devil (1926)




Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Marc McDermott - Flesh and the Devil

Greta Garbo, John Gilbert - Flesh and the Devil




Leo von Sellenthin (John Gilbert) and Ulrich von Kletzingk (Lars Hanson) are long-time friends and own estates near each other in Austria. Leo has been having an affair with Felicitas (Greta Garbo), the wife of Count von Rhaden (Marc MacDermott). When the Count discovers the affair, Leo kills him in a duel and is forced to flee to America. Ulrich, unaware of Felicitas's affair with Leo, marries her. A few years later, Leo returns to Austria when he learns he will not be punished for the duel. Felicitas seduces him again, but when Ulrich finds out, she claims that Leo tempted her. Ulrich and Leo have a duel. Felicitas, not wanting Leo to be killed, tries to stop the duel by rushing across an icy river, but she falls through the ice and drowns. Leo wounds Ulrich in the duel, but then cares for him and nurses him back to health, and the two men become friends again.


Vintage magazines

Photoplay , February 1936

Books with substantial mentioning of Flesh and the Devil

David Thomson
Have you seen?, A personal introduction to 1,000 films
New York, 2008

Robert K. Klepper
Silent Films, 1877-1996, A Critical Guide to 646 Movies
Jefferson, North Carolina and London, 1999

Richard Dyer MacCann
The Stars Appear
Metuchen, NJ & London, 1992

Stanley Hochman (editor)
From Quasimodo to Scarlett O'Hara, A National Board of Review Anthology 1920 - 1940
New York, 1982

James Robert Parish
Hollywood's Great Love Teams
New Rochelle, N.Y., 1974

Michael Conway, Dion McGregor and Mark Ricci
The Films of Greta Garbo
Secaucus, New Jersey, 1973

Books with an entry on Flesh and the Devil

Robert B. Connelly
The Motion Picture Guide, Silent Film 1910-1936
Chicago, 1986