Flesh and the Devil (1926) on Netflix
Leo and Ulrich, boyhood friends, return from military training. Leo meets Felicitas at a railway station and is captivated, though she is married to Count von Rhaden. A scandal follows.
- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.6/104,979 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
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Plot summary
Leo and Ulrich are boyhood friends who grow up serving as soldiers in Germany. When their training ends, Leo meets Felicitas at a railway station and becomes infatuated with her, unaware that she is married to Count von Rhaden. Felicitas neglects to mention the marriage. The count calls for a duel and insists it be carried out under a false pretense, that the quarrel arose from angry words at a card game, so that his reputation is protected. The military sends Leo to Africa as punishment. Before he goes, Leo asks Ulrich to keep watch over Felicitas, without telling him about his feelings for her.
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Flesh and the Devil (1926)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The on-screen chemistry between Greta Garbo and John Gilbert was real: the two stars began an affair while making Flesh and the Devil and had already moved in together before production was completed.
- Greta Garbo initially refused to make the film: she was tired after The Temptress, grieving her sister's death from cancer, and angry that her MGM contract barred a trip back to Sweden. A stern MGM letter warning of dire consequences got her to work, beginning a standoff that ended with her one of Hollywood's highest-paid actresses.
- Hollywood legend has it that John Gilbert proposed to Greta Garbo during production and she accepted, with a high-profile wedding arranged before she backed out; Paris disputes that it could have happened mid-shoot.
- Garbo was so impressed with Clarence Brown's direction and William Daniels's cinematography that she kept working with both; Brown directed her in seven films and Daniels shot all but four of her 25 MGM films.
