{"id":11282,"date":"2011-01-23T14:10:55","date_gmt":"2011-01-23T22:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=11282"},"modified":"2011-01-23T17:06:28","modified_gmt":"2011-01-24T01:06:28","slug":"flesh-and-the-devil-clarence-brown-1926-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=11282","title":{"rendered":"Flesh and the Devil (Clarence Brown, 1926): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed on DVD.<\/p>\n

\"\" A sizzling affair between returning soldier Leo von\u00a0Harden (John Gilbert) and bored Countess Felicitas von Rhaden (Greta Garbo),\u00a0quickly turns to death, despair and regret in Flesh and the Devil<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Leo quickly\u00a0becomes enraptured with the alluring beauty of Felicitas when first he spies her at the train station while he is on leave from military service.\u00a0 Later that evening at a fancy dress\u00a0ball, the two share a smoke and\u00a0the web of seduction begins as Felicitas slowly places her cigarette into Leo’s mouth, gently blows out\u00a0the match, and methodically gazes into his eyes with unmistakable yearning and desire.<\/p>\n

After consecrating their love, who should walk in but her husband Count von Rhaden (Marc McDermott).\u00a0 The stunned Leo accepts Count von Rhaden’s\u00a0challenge to a duel, under the guise of a disagreement over cards.<\/p>\n

Best friend and fellow soldier\u00a0Ulrich von Eltz (Lars Hanson), stands by Leo during the duel and after, when Leo is remanded to service for\u00a0five years in Africa.\u00a0 The wealthy Ulrich is instructed to be helpful to the new widow Felicitas, but is soon\u00a0beguiled after their first encounter and marries her before Leo’s return.<\/p>\n

With a bit of finagling Ulrich manages to get Leo’s five years in the desert\u00a0reduced to three, and Leo can think of nothing other than his return to the sublime Felicitas.<\/p>\n

Upon discovery of their marriage Leo decides to stay away, which is hurtful to Ulrich, but agonizing for Felicitas.\u00a0 She begins to tempt and torment Leo, going so far as to seduce him at the alter during Holy Communion, which eventually leads to yet\u00a0another duel.<\/p>\n

The alluring Garbo and the dreamy John Gilbert smolder together and were actually\u00a0in the midst of a real life love affair.\u00a0 The camera seemed to\u00a0love Garbo, with the untouchable quality in her acting adding a mystique to her persona.<\/p>\n

Very much a\u00a0director’s film, Brown leaves much of the imagination, interpretation, and assumption to the audience and rightly so.\u00a0 The actors do not employ\u00a0the extravagant theatrical movements\u00a0often used in silents,\u00a0but to the contrary\u00a0their actions and reactions, though highly dramatic, are very much\u00a0controlled.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The entire film is beautifully shot with the first dueling scene showing only silhouettes, and when the duelists move out of frame only gun smoke appears, which then\u00a0leaves the audience suspended until the next frame.\u00a0 Clarence Brown was an eminent storyteller in both silents and talkies.\u00a0 He directed\u00a0Joan Crawford in the elusive Letty Lynton<\/em>,\u00a0and helmed many\u00a0other great films such as The Human Comedy<\/em>, The White Cliffs of Dover, <\/em>and National Velvet<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed on DVD. A sizzling affair between returning soldier Leo von\u00a0Harden (John Gilbert) and bored Countess Felicitas von Rhaden (Greta Garbo),\u00a0quickly turns to death, despair and regret in Flesh and the Devil. Leo quickly\u00a0becomes enraptured with the alluring beauty of Felicitas when first he spies her at the train station while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd","category-films","category-silent-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}