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Plot Summary
Leo and Ulrich are life long friends. Home, on leave from their military training, Leo sees the beautiful Felicitas at the railroad station. Awed by her beauty, they meet again at the ball and quietly leave together. In her room, her husband, about whom she has neglected to inform Leo, comes in and challenges Leo to a duel. The duel is done, the Count is killed, and Felicitas is a widow. Leo, however, is 'requested' to serve 5 years in Africa and he tells Ulrich to watch over Felicitas while he is gone. After 3 years, Ulrich is able to get a pardon for Leo, and all that Leo thinks about on the way home is Felicitas. When he arrives, he learns that Felicitas has married Ulrich. Felicitas likes that Ulrich is rich and she never told Ulrich the truth about Leo and her. Leo is crushed and does not visit them which saddens Ulrich as he does not know the reason why. Leo tries to stay away from her, but Felicitas uses every opportunity to tempt him to return to her as her lover.
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Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
92%- Reviews Counted: 13
- Fresh: 12
- Rotten: 1
- Average Rating: 7.2/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: Miss Garbo is undeniably alluring as Felicitas. Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Hansen give sound performances in their respective roles.
Fresh: A corking story, exceptionally acted and cleverly directed. A lot of glory to be distributed among all concerned.
Fresh: Garbo is mesmerising in this wild and heated romance that has to be considered in context to cope with the excesive aesthetic and thematic melodrama.
Fresh: Much ado about nothing, really, but Garbo is as luminous as ever, thanks to William Daniels' camerawork.
Customer Reviews
Flesh and the Devil
Using what we today often view as a limited medium, in the hands of director Clarence Brown, the silent photoplay testifies to how amazing the art form could be.
This story, that women, especially femme fatales like Garbo's character Felicitas is, should ever come between that special love between two male best friends, is sappy and dated, but it's told so well.
Take the scene about the duel. We see it in silhouette, unable to distinguish the antagonists, but we understand who won the duel when in the next scene, we see Felicitas trying on widow's veils.
Gems like this lie strewn all through FatD.
On top of this is the remarkable and stunning chemistry between Garbo and Gilbert. This is the film in which the two superstars fell in love.
That alone is worth the price of admission.
Cheesy? Sure.
Amazing as a high example of the art form? Absolutely.
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- $14.99
- Genre: Drama
- Released: 1926
- © Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.