If "Flesh and the Devil" is remembered at all today it's for the onscreen passion of Gilbert and Garbo but there's a lot more to this tragic melodrama which is one of the last great silent films. There's Clarence Brown's direction for one thing, keeping the novelistic plot sensible and approachable and drawing from his two leads beautifully modulated performances and then there's William Daniel's splendid cinematography, (it's little wonder actresses loved him). The plot itself is that old chestnut of two friends falling out over a faithless woman, (Garbo milking it for all its worth), but in Brown's hands it takes on the status of potentially real tragedy. This is a film that really deserves to be better known.
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