Greta Garbo

FLESH AND THE DEVIL

MGM, 1926.  Directed by Clarence Brown.  Camera:  William Daniels.  With Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lars Hanson, Barbara Kent.

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Leo von Sellenthin and Ulrich von Kletzingk, two boys who have grown up together, swear eternal friendship through a blood bond.  They attend military school together and, at home on annual holiday, Leo meets the entrancing Felicitas at a ball.  When her husband discovers Leo with her in her boudoir, a duel is called and the husband is killed. 

Forced into foreign service, Leo asks his friend Ulrich to console the widow.

Three years later Leo is pardoned by the emperor and returns to find that Felicitas has married Ulrich.  Vainly he seeks to escape her attempts to revive their former affair.

Ultimately, the two men resort to a duel, each unable to fire the fatal shot.  Hurrying to the scene of the duel, Felicitas falls through an ice floe to her death, removing the spell cast upon their lives and reuniting the friends.

American Film Institute Catalog