Let this begin by my outing myself as an unashamed card-carrying political correctness Luddite. In reading several of the reviews already posted here I was shocked, shocked to find that there was grumbling going on in here. *SPOILER ALERT* One reviewer made reference to misogynism because Felicitas drowns in freezing water beneath a layer of ice and the guys rediscover the depth of their friendship. Allegedly, this happens because it is a male dominated world and women always get the **** end of the morality stick. Sorry...not buying that. She gets it in a wonderfully symbolically perfect (for her character) way (recall Frost's Fire and Ice). AND...17 years later when Phyllis Dietrichson gets offed by Walter Neff I don't think anyone was crying foul because she dies on screen and Walter is left to ponder his inevitable fate in the arms of his pal, Keyes, during the fade out. While watching Flesh and The Devil I was struck several times how noirish was the story line and some of the camera work. The film was shot so well that it was hard to take my eyes off the screen for even a moment (much the same effect that Metropolis has). Others have remarked on the undercurrent of homoerotica. I guess we find what we're looking for. The lens I viewed this film through saw two men who shared a very deep and life-long affection for and loyalty to one another. They displayed this affection openly, viscerally and verbally (through the dialogue intertitles). As a lifelong heterosexual male I have to say that these qualities in some of my male friendships over the years never resulted in me or my pals confusing one another with Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy. Acapulco Gold does not always lead to being a smack addict. So... I accepted this film for what it (in my opinion) is: a really fine film that I was thrilled to discover in the Garbo box set I just bought. So what if this wasn't the first (or last) time in the history of humankind that this theme was worked. Originality can be an overworked and highly overrated quality. For anyone interested in watching a superior film that is now 89 years old, Flesh and The Devil should satisfy. And so say all of us.
Review of Flesh and the Devil
