1926 Greatest and Most Influential Erotic / Sexual Films and Scenes
The Enemies of Women (1923)

Director Alan Crosland's costume romantic epic-drama was produced by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst through his Cosmopolitan Productions. A full version of the film has not survived intact. Currently, 20 minutes (approx. 2 or 3 reels of 11) are missing, and many sections of the film are in poor shape.

The first two title-cards described the self-indulgent behavior in the old regime of a rich Russian class of aristocrats who were "fabulously rich" and reckless in the "corrupt and dissolute society":

"The enemies of women are the enemies of mankind. They are the libertines who live for themselves alone, who spend their lives in cynical self-indulgence, and regard women merely as a means of self-gratification. Too much wealth, too much luxury, too little labor and responsibility, too little contact with the actualities of existence create this sordid concentration on self, this stolid indifference to the welfare of others."

Wealthy profligate Russian Prince Michael Fedor Lubimoff (Lionel Barrymore) (known for his "unlimited wealth" and his single-minded "duty" to pursue "selfish pleasure") was paired up with Duchess Alicia de Lille (Alma Rubens) from Paris - prime examples of the film's preface. They were engaged in a love-hate affair since childhood, and she reportedly was paying her husband 5,000 francs a month to stay away from her so she could pursue her own promiscuous interests. When she arrived at his luxurious palace (an enormous set), there were numerous sequences, duplicating Cecil B. DeMille's excesses, of the degenerate behavior of dozens of women, cavorting around, bowing down and dancing.

The film was famous for the Prince's saber duel against the Duchess' Cossack brother (Paul Panzer). When he killed his opponent, the Prince was forced to flee his country, and after a short stint in Paris, he ended up in Monte Carlo (where Alicia was also relocated), living at Villa Serena - another decadent locale after the Great War:

"Here were gathered the parasites and profiteers who fattened on the wreckage of the tidal wave of blood and sacrifice that was sweeping Europe."

He was jealous that she had a young 'boyfriend' or 'lover,' not realizing that the young man was her own son Gaston (William Collier Jr.).

Lubimoff had become an "enemy" of women - declaring to a gathering of other men that women must be denounced. He proposed the establishment of a male "community" that called themselves "enemies of women":

"What have women done for you? They have made an old fool out of you!...Women! They work their way into our lives and dominate us and use us for their own ends and make a mess of our friendships and our peace! Man's greatest wisdom lies in getting along without them."

Near the end of the film, Lubimoff hosted a ball at his Villa Serena, similar to the party in the opening palace sequence.

[Note: Clara Bow (before becoming popular) was uncredited as "Girl Dancing on Table" - a scene that required her to dance on a table in a state of undress (but not naked). It was impossible to pick her out from a number of dancing girls in this film sequence.]

A face-off/duel with guns was conducted between the jealous Lubimoff and Gaston. Although both declined to shoot, Gaston collapsed and died from strain, due to a bad heart (from gas exposure in the war). Then, Alicia arrived and accused Lubimoff of killing her son: "He's my son! My son! You have killed my son!" - and he reacted with astonishment and dismay. After Lubimoff returned to his villa, all of the revelers were lying all over the courtyard, satiated after a night's drunkenness and orgy. He whipped them to get them to leave, and then was so distressed by the thought of hurting Alicia that he hung his head in despair. One of the final title cards told the moral of the story:

"'For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,' and those who sow self-indulgence, perverted pleasures and a delight in evil, shall reap evil, emptiness of heart, and loathing."

He decided to sacrifice his hedonistic ways by courageously entering the front lines in the Great War, in order to "redeem the cowardice of self-indulgence." He turned over Villa Serena to Alicia to care for the wounded, and returned there to reconcile with her. She stated what they both now had realized: "We were wrong - - life does not mean self-seeking. We can never find joy except in self-giving. And we who have learned this in pain and suffering - - may yet find a little happiness - - together!" The film concluded with them in each other's arms.

Flesh and the Devil (1926)

A glossy, melodramatic, sensual silent film about a bitter and deadly love triangle (with a homosexual subtext), from director Clarence Brown - marked the first time John Gilbert co-starred with Greta Garbo. The film was produced in 1926 and released late in the year. It was the first of six films Garbo made for director Brown and the first of four she made with real-life lover John Gilbert - two of which were directed by Brown.

The couple portrayed the tragic protagonists:

Leo von Harden (Gilbert), an Austrian soldier

Countess Felicitas von Rhaden (Garbo), an impulsive, languorous, beautiful 'devil' seductress/temptress

Leo was smitten by her when he first saw her descend from a train car at a train station and enter her carriage when he returned home from duty, and then when he pursued her at a fancy social ball at Stoltenhof into an outdoor shadowy garden, telling her: "You are very beautiful." She responded: "You are very young" - their faces lit only by a single match flame as they shared a cigarette together, exquisitely photographed. He interpreted her blowing out the match as an invitation to kiss her - and although clothed, they erotically shared their first kiss together, in the first of the film's three extended love scenes. Reportedly, this was Hollywood's first French (open-mouthed) kiss on screen.

In the next scene, as the Countess laid back on a chaise-lounge, she and Leo kissed again - allegedly the first-ever horizontal-position kiss in American film. She removed her wedding ring and placed it on his little finger, promising: "So that you may not forget me." The two lovers were caught kissing by her enraged aristocratic husband Count Rhaden (Marc MacDermott). After a deadly duel between von Harden and the Count over Felicitas' love and honor, officially blamed on a dispute at a card game to avoid scandal, von Harden was advised by the military court to enlist in the African service for five years (although he served only three). She promised: "When you come back, Leo...I'll be waiting."

During his long absence, he had his childhood male friend Ulrich (Lars Hanson) (blood-brothers in "undying friendship forever") attend to and console the grief-stricken, "unprotected", and widowed Countess (without Ulrich knowing of the affair). He didn't expect that Ulrich would fall in love with her and marry her. When Leo returned, the bond between the two friends was seriously threatened. The local town's Pastor Voss (George Fawcett) knew that Leo had retained his love for Felicitas even though she had married, advising:

"My boy, when the devil cannot reach us through the spirit, he creates a woman beautiful enough to reach us through the flesh. Once before, that woman led you into temptation - and you sinned. Aren't you afraid of what she may do to you a second time?"

Although he felt betrayed, Leo was sinfully tempted to carry on an affair with her (and re-establish his relationship with Ulrich), after she told him: "Why do we pretend? I love you, and you love me." During a communion scene in the church, after Leo drank wine from the cup, Felicitas turned the goblet back to where his lips had touched before drinking herself. Unhappily married to Ulrich, Felicitas confessed to Leo: "If you stay away from me, I can't go on with Ulrich."

Driven emotionally mad with lust for each other, they succumbed to kissing again (while lying down) during Ulrich's absence, causing Leo to become crazed: "This is the end, Felicitas! I can blow out my brains or run away!" She vowed: "If you die, I'll die with you! I'll never be parted from you again!" They kissed as they decided to run away together, although their plan was delayed when Ulrich returned with a diamond bracelet present for Felicitas, and she confessed that she wasn't "brave enough to leave all this." Losing control, Leo began to choke Felicitas in her bedroom, questioning why she had duped him: "You mean, stay here in Ulrich's house, faithless to him?" Ulrich saved her as she double-crossed Leo and accused him of breaking in, going mad, and harming her when she wouldn't leave with him.

The two men prepared to duel the following morning for Felicitas' love on the Isle of Friendship (evoking childhood memories) - but reconsidered, dropped their weapons, and embraced each other. Ulrich realized the truth - that Leo had shot the Count because he was in love with Felicitas.

However, the duplicitous temptress, who had been persuaded by Ulrich's virtuous, younger teenaged sister Hertha (Barbara Kent) (who always had a secret crush on Leo, pure unselfish love in contrast to Felicitas, but was ignored) to stop the duel, raced to the men but fell through thin lake ice and drowned - breaking her spell over the two men.