Flesh and the Devil (1926)
Flesh and the Devil (1926)
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 5400 kbps | 6.1Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps soundtrack | Subtitles: English intertitles, French and Spanish subtitles
01:52:00 | USA | Drama, Romance
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 5400 kbps | 6.1Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps soundtrack | Subtitles: English intertitles, French and Spanish subtitles
01:52:00 | USA | Drama, Romance
Childhood friends are torn apart when one of them marries the woman the other once fiercely loved.
Director: Clarence Brown
Cast: John Gilbert, Greta Garbo, Lars Hanson, Barbara Kent, William Orlamond, George Fawcett, Eugenie Besserer, Marc McDermott, Marcelle Corday, Margie Angus, Mary Angus, Max Barwyn, Frankie Darro, Philippe De Lacy, Virginia Marshall, Polly Moran, Maurice Murphy, Russ Powell, Carl 'Major' Roup, Rolfe Sedan, Bert Sprotte, Ellinor Vanderveer, Glen Walters
Flesh and the Devil (1926)
Leo von Sellenthin and Ulrich von Kletzingk, two boys who have grown up together, swear eternal friendship through a blood bond. They attend military school together, and at home on annual holiday, Leo meets the entrancing Felicitas at a ball. When her husband discovers Leo with her in her boudoir, a duel is called and the husband is killed; forced into foreign service, Leo asks his friend Ulrich to console the widow. Three years later Leo is pardoned by the emperor and returns to find that Felicitas has married Ulrich. Vainly he seeks to escape her attempts to revive their former affair. Ultimately, the two men resort to a duel, each unable to fire the fatal shot. Hurrying to the scene of the duel, Felicitas falls through an ice floe to her death, removing the spell cast upon their lives and reuniting the friends
Flesh and the Devil (1926)
IMDb
FLESH AND THE DEVIL is an example of the artistic heights silent film could achieve. The emphasis is less on narrative, especially as revealed by speech, than a series of images which suggest a story and the feelings of the various players (just compare FLESH AND THE DEVIL (1927) to ANNA Christie (1930) to see the effect talkies would have on the art of visual and suggestive storytelling).
Clarence Brown has done a tremendous job directing the film. It must be said he was one of the more talented directors in old Hollywood, but this film suggests he was better than he has ever been given credit for. Scenes flow smoothly with little explanation, only subtle suggestion. In a scene when Felicitas' (Garbo) husband has been involved in a duel, instead of showing which man was shot and killed, the scene changes to the next day, where Garbo is dressed in black to suggest mourning for her dead husband. There was no need to show the man dying or explain which was shot; Garbo in black accomplishes this masterfully.
In the last duel sequence, filmed brilliantly with lightly falling snow flakes (which Clarence Brown would later use so memorably in a pivotal scene in SADIE MCKEE), Garbo is running to save the lives and friendship of two men fighting for her. In a magical scene, she runs across an iced lake in the snow and suddenly the ice splits, she falls in, and drowns. It is accomplished in just a few seconds, and then a veil is lifted on the two dueling friends. They drop their weapons and embrace. The devil woman, the femme fatale who came between them, is dead.
It is a fabulous movie.
~ boytoyhottycmu19
Flesh and the Devil (1926)
Flesh and the Devil (1926)
