Garbo and Gilbert in love - Colin Shindler

When Jack Gilbert, the hottest star of the silent era of Hollywood, first met Greta Garbo, the icy young Swede, she snubbed him. Not long after, Louis B Mayer, head of MGM, forced them to work together in a film. He felt that the young starlet who lit up the silver screen could only benefit by playing alongside Gilbert. Garbo, sad and vulnerable after the death of her sister, wanted to go home. Gilbert was facing divorce from his wife and didn't want to work with such an awkward co-star, who already insisted on walking off the set promptly at 5.30, even in mid-scene.So everyone was expecting some kind of explosion when they began working on 'Flesh and the Devil'. They got one: an explosion of passion. There, on set, in front of everyone, they fell madly in love with each other. What followed in their lives was to be as turbulent and as dramatic as any Hollywood melodrama. They were the first 'most glamorous couple in the world' to find out all about life in the media spotlight. Their lives would never be the same again.