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Wonderful character development!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Spoilers. Observations. Opinions. Sizzle. Hot. Gilbert and Garbo are one well matched duo. The title looked enticing, and certainly not forecasting a boring film. Is this pre-World War I? The germanic soldiers and aristocratic names suggest that it is. Does a noble young man have to give military service?Enter that fox Garbo. She appears dressed in 1920s era cloche hat and shortened length fashions when she enters, depicting the period after that war. I will overlook this fashion design inconsistency. Flesh and the ... ... She falls into lust with Gilbert, he of the unknowing and naive personality. He even ignores a teenage female admirer, and proceeds to fall into lust with that siren. Along comes the siren's elderly husband, who looks like he is incapable of having any physical relationship with his wife. He figures that Gilbert can, but all Gilbert thinks about is that he is hopelessly in love. He's lucky that the husband doesn't shoot him right then and there on the spot. A duel ensues. Hubby gets whacked. Gilbert goes to Africa for penance. Meanwhile, Gilbert's best bud is back home looking after the unfortunate widow, but marries her. Unknowing, naive Gilbert comes back and discovers this piece of bad news. Did the siren cheat on her original husband before Gilbert came along? Maybe. I am a degreed historian, actress, singer, dancer, fashion designer, stage makeup artist, film critic and movie reviewer.

Every so often, I treat myself to a silent film, and what impressed me so much about this one is how well it stands up over time. I also rediscovered a younger Garbo, in the prime of her life and sexual powers. AND THOSE EYES!! They were absolutely mesmerizing, just the thing to lure to young men into more, shall we say, heightened responses. Without the aid of sound, they were like two simmering volcanoes, just the thing for this combination love story and moral exploration on the enduring bonds of friendship. It certainly helped that both she and John Gilbert were having a similarly torrid love affair the at time. This was a fantastic production, and as one reviewer noted, it would make a fabulous remake in the right hands. On a strictly technical note, I just learned from a film historian friend, Dr. Richard Brown of NYU, that the reason old silent films all that that "herky-jerky" look to them is because "back in the day" these movies were operated at much slower, hand-cranked camera speeds, but when saved on modern celluloid, they have a "speeded up" effect due to the numbers of frames per second. The older the film, the worse the effect. Interesting factoid.

I still remember one scene from my college days of Gilbert coming back and discovering his best friend (homosexual lover?) has married Garbo. Gilbert's face is first transformed by joy, passion, then surprise, shock, contempt, concern for his unstable and naive friend, and finally cold irony --- all in the space of less than two minutes and this is not over acting !!!! But rather the best film acting. Twenty years later I watched this film again and am impressed anew how good Gilbert is.Garbo's mystique aside, Gilbert delivers a great acting performance here. Didn't anyone notice this scene? Tell me one modern actor who could have done this scene? Gilbert's work is I think underrated because of Garbo's later reputation and his tragic destruction courtesy of Mayer. But his acting in films from early Fox to later MGM films all show he took acting seriously, took his characters seriously, hated his 'great lover' title, and wanted to be a good actor. And I think he was a good actor too. He usually underacted. He was not a 'ham'. People should watch him work here instead of just looking at Garbo or writing him off as a 'pretty face'.In Dark Star (bio by his daughter) we are told Noel Coward made a homosexual pass at Gilbert and Gilbert just laughed and give him a whiskey. I can't believe Gilbert was stupid, being a writer himself, not to read between the lines and understand the implied homosexual undercurrent. The other male actor was clearly playing Urich as homosexual. So I think we can assume the 3 leads understood the implied theme and had fun with it. This is Pre Code before Pre Code.

Flesh and the Devil is a classic. It shows how an actress could use her face and eyes to seduce and not have to speak one word. Greta Garbo in the scene where John Gilbert and she leave the party and step outside-is truly erotic-it is so sad that now days we show everything-there is and never will be another Garbo. She was stunning! And what she does in that one scene puts all other actresses to shame! Sorry but Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct does not compare to the classiness-of not showing any skin. And I personally like Sharon Stone as a person and she is very charismatic but in thinking of a comparison of a seductress-I say Garbo wins out over them all-see this film and let me know if you agree! Also John Gilbert has been so overlooked, a very handsome and charismatic star in his own right. So sad that he passed so young.