[MOVIE SUMMARY] "Flesh and the Devil" (1926)

~                             1926
FLESH AND THE DEVIL

Cast
Leo von Harden ............... John Gilbert
Ulrich von Eltz ............... Lars Hanson
Hertha von Eltz .............. Barbara Kent
Pastor Voss ................ George Fawcett
Leo's mother ............. Eugenie Besserer
Count von Rhaden ........... Marc McDermott
Felicitas ..................... Greta Garbo

Comments
Take the movie summary for Greta Garbo's first screen vamp
("The Temptress") and change only the names, faces, and places,
and you pretty much have the outline for "Flesh and the Devil,"
even the inclusion of an alternate ending for the audience with
weak sentiments. When speaking of her movie roles so far, Garbo
has been quoted as saying, "Always the vamp...always the woman
with no heart." For this reason, Garbo went on a strike against
MGM until she could be offered meatier roles. However, like her
role in "The Temptress," Garbo is not portrayed in "Flesh and the
Devil" as a heartless schemer and ruiner of men ala Theda Bara's
vamp but seems to have raised the screen vamp a notch higher.
Yes, she is still portrayed as a beautiful woman and a seducer of
men, but she also comes across as a victim of her beauty and the
men who lust after her. Garbo's vamp is as a woman in search of
two things: 1) security, and 2) happiness with a man she loves.
I've heard Garbo described as "tragedienne," an actress who plays
tragic roles, mostly dying in the end. I can't say whether or not
"tragedienne" is an appropriate title for Garbo the actress,
because I haven't seen her subsequent movies, but it does seem to
fit the type of vamp she portrayed. After watching both "The
Temptress" and "Flesh and the Devil," it's clearer to me as to
why Garbo rebelled at playing them, which was probably a good
move on Garbo's part because, in a mere five years, Universal
Studio's "Dracula" would forever change the public's perception
of the "vampire" in the cinema. Not to mention the Hay's Code of
1930, which was already affecting the types of subjects, scenes,
and women who could be portrayed in American movies.

Summary
"When the Devil cannot reach us through the spirit,
He creates a beautiful woman to reach us through the flesh."
- Hermann Sudermann (from _The Undying Past_,
the novel from which this movie was adapted)

When they were young children in Germany, Leo von Harden and
Ulrich von Eltz rowed out to the Isle of Friendship where, in the
presence of Ulrich's younger sister Hertha, they cut their wrists
and vowed to be blood brothers forever. And so they have remained
through school and military service, the one always looking out
for the other. Even Pastor Voss admits that, although he
christened them separately, he's never since seen them apart. All
that is about to change.

Leo and Ulrich are on military furlough and have returned
home together where they are greeted at the train station by
Leo's mother and Hertha, who is now almost 16 years old. As they
are about to gather up their bags and depart from the station,
Leo sees a beautiful woman debark from the train and walk to a
waiting carriage. When she drops her bouquet of flowers, Leo
hurries over to pick it up. Their eyes meet, and it is love at
first sight.

They meet again that very evening at the ball at Stoltenhof,
which marks the opening of the social season. One look at her
seated across the ballroom, and Leo leaves Hertha, who saved her
first dance for him, standing alone on the dance floor. One dance
later, and the lovers retire to the garden terrace. A shared
cigarette later, and they are liplocked. Throughout Leo's
furlough, they are inseparable. The day before Leo is to return
to the military base to serve out his last five months of duty,
his world collapses. While languishing in his lover's arms, her
husband comes home. The love of Leo's life is Countess Felicitas
von Rhaden, and the Count is not amused.

Rhaden challenges Leo to a duel, first warning him that no
scandal can come to the Rhaden name, so they stage the duel under
the pretext of a dispute during a card game. Ulrich attempts to
talk Leo out of the duel, but Leo is adamant. He and Rhaden begin
their pacing, two shots are fired, and Rhaden is killed.
Following Rhaden's death, the military court "advises" Leo to
sign up for a five-year stint in Africa, which means being
separated from Felicitas. Felicitas promises to wait but is
worried about being alone for so long. Who better to console the
grieving widow and see to her needs in Leo's absence than Leo's
blood brother Ulrich. A last kiss stolen in a park where Leo
thinks no one will see him and Felicitas together, and Leo is off
for Africa. Unfortunately, someone does see them -- Pastor Voss.

Three years pass. Leo gets a letter from Ulrich saying that
he has been pardoned through the intervention of His Majesty and
that Leo is free to return home. All the long way back from
Africa to Germany, Leo can think only of seeing his beloved
Felicitas again. He is met at the train station by Ulrich,
Felicitas, and another surprise. Felicitas has become Ulrich's
wife. Leo is devastated. Not even the happy reunion with his
mother and with little Hertha, who is now 18 years old and living
with Leo's mother since ULrich's marriage, can take Felicitas off
his mind.

Although he refuses to promise Pastor Voss to never again
see Felicitas, Leo stays away from her and avoids Ulrich, too,
much to Ulrich's dismay. Ulrich believes it is because of the
guilt Leo feels for killing von Rhaden. Eventually, after
Felicitas and Leo have a heart-to-heart on the Isle of Friendship
and Felicitas tells him how he is breaking Ulrich's heart, Leo
resumes his friendship with Ulrich. Of course, this includes
being around Felicitas, and Pastor Voss finds the three of them
paling around together to be sinful. After Voss delivers a firey
sermon about David's seduction of Uriah's wife to the entire
church but obviously directed at Leo and Felicitas, Leo begins to
avoid Ulrich and Felicitas again.

One day, with Ulrich off in Munich, Felicitas pays Leo a
visit at his home. She begs to talk with him, but he refuses to
do so where his mother or Hertha might overhear, so they begin
walking into town. It is winter, and the snow is freezing
Felicitas' feet, which are clad only in high heels. Felicitas
forces him to stop at a gardening cottage where a fire is blazing
so that she can dry out her shoes. There is no one else in the
cottage and, before long, they're in each others' arms,
professing their love. Felicitas convinces Leo that the only
thing left for them to do is to run away together, so they make
plans to leave that very evening.

Felicitas goes home to pack, but she is surprised when
Ulrich comes home early from Munich. Not only that, but he brings
her a present -- an elaborate diamond bracelet. She puts the
bracelet on, takes the bracelet off, puts it on again, takes it
off again, and finally puts it back on. She orders the maid to
return her clothes to her closet and, when Leo arrives to pick
her up, Felicitas tells him that she's not brave enough to leave
everything that Ulrich has given her and that she's not going to
run away with him after all. She intends to stay with Ulrich but
wants to continue having Leo as her lover.

Leo is both mortified and furious. In his anger, he grabs
her by the throat and begins choking her. Suddenly, Ulrich enters
the room. His eyes blazing, Ulrich asks what Leo is doing there.
Felicitas throws herself at Ulrich's feet and tells him that Leo
broke in and, when she refused to go away with him, tried to kill
her. Surprisingly, Leo upholds her story and tells Ulrich to
shoot him where he stands. Although looking as though he'd love
to do just that, Ulrich refuses and defers the duel until the
next morning when they can meet on the Isle of Friendship.

It being the dead of winter, it is not difficult the next
morning for Leo and Ulrich to cross the frozen lake to the Isle.
Warm and snug in her bed, Felicitas sit stone-faced as Hertha,
who has been aware of their affair since it began, begs and
pleads with her to stop the duel. When Hertha realizes that
Felicitas has no intention of doing so, she falls on her knees
and begins to pray for divine intervention. Felicitas goes
ballistic, but Hertha keeps praying. Suddenly, Felicitas' face
softens, she embraces Hertha, then throws on her coat and heads
for the isle.

On the Isle of Friendship, Leo and Ulrich have selected
their guns. Pacing through the knee-deep snow, they turn on each
other. Ulrich aims, but Leo refuses even to lift his gun arm
until Ulrich reminds him that he intends to shoot to kill. Leo
then raises his gun but points it haphazardly. Ulrich continues
to aim but cannot shoot. Suddenly, it all becomes clear to
Ulrich...the duel with Rhaden...Felicitas...and Leo. Ulrich drops
his gun and embraces his blood brother.

Meanwhile, unknown to either Leo or Ulrich, Felicitas has
been hurrying across the ice to the isle when, suddenly, she
steps in a patch of thin ice and falls into the frigid water. She
goes down, a few bubbles come up, and then nothing is left but
her scarf floating on the surface.

Alternate Ending:
It is summer. Leo and Ulrich have remained friends since
Felicitas' death and are in the garden helping Leo's mother wind
yarn when Hertha prances by with her suitcases and boards a
carriage. She announces that she is moving to Munich and never
coming back. As the carriage starts down the road, Leo races
after it, pulls Hertha from her seat, and begs her to stay.
Hertha smiles demurely.
[ Auf dieses Posting antworten ]