Terrific silent melodrama starring Greta Garbo as a seductive woman who comes between two lifelong friends (John Gilbert and Lars Hanson). It's a beautiful-looking film with great direction and cinematography. Also some sizzling chemistry between Garbo and Gilbert. It can be very corny in spots with an unintentionally funny ending that you have to see to believe, but I think the good outweighs the bad. Modern audiences will probably also find a great deal of subtext between the Gilbert and Hanson characters. The two men are frequently affectionately embracing one another and at least half a dozen times in the film I thought they were about to kiss. Add to that the movie's basic message of "bros before hoes" and you come away with a different interpretation of the film than was perhaps intended. Then again, maybe it was the point of the story all along. At any rate it's a good film whether one wants to think about the different layers or not.
Review of Flesh and the Devil
