Flesh And The Devil (1926)

Two lifelong friends (John Gilbert, Lars Hanson) on leave from from military service return to their Austrian home. Gilbert becomes obsessed with a beautiful married woman (Greta Garbo) and kills her husband in a duel. As punishment, the Army sends him to Africa but not before he asks Hanson to look after Garbo. When he returns after three years, he finds them married. Based on the novel THE UNDYING PAST by Hermann Sudermann, this keyed up romantic melodrama is pretty hoary. Gilbert (way too much make-up), in particular, is ill served by the material. You'd never know this was the same guy who headlined Vidor's THE BIG PARADE so effortlessly. But the reason to see this film is Garbo! She's magnetic, there was no one like her. She's beautifully shot by William Daniels and not surprisingly, Garbo insisted he work on most of her films. One can overlook the film's slightly misogynistic attitude because of her. The purity of the friendship between the two men is tainted by this seductress, so naturally she's going to come to a bad end. Directed by Clarence Brown. With Barbara Ken and Eugenie Besserer.