Liebenswerte Gegner

As far as I know The Best Of Enemies is the only film ever done about a forgotten part of World War II, the campaign in Ethiopia. The first nation to fall to Fascist aggression is ironically the first liberated by it. When Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa was captured by the British there was great rejoicing in the United Kingdom which at that point didn't have a lot to rejoice about. That incident is most important in the climax of the film.

David Niven and Albert Sordi play beautifully off against each other as they take turns being each other's prisoners. Neither is a professional soldier and that's important as discipline from both armies kind of breaks down as the two try to get back to the war from the back outposts of the Ethiopian desert that both small companies are stuck in.

I will say The Best Of Enemies does give credence that the Italians were not best of soldiers during World War II.

Best scene in the film is when the native Ethiopians surround both and want the weapons they have and prove to be better strategists than either commander. The native chief gives out with a timely warning about taking your white man's war back to your own countries.

The Best Of Enemies is a fine comedy with perfectly matched leads and even has some serious messages we should listen to.

The 'capture' sequence of the English patrol and the Italian patrol was filmed in Israel, a little way into the Negev Desert from the seaside town of Eilath.

I was an American student attending Tel Aviv University, on school break at the time, when the director of production hired me to play the role of the Ethiopian Bandit Chief who conducts the capture. However, one problem presented itself, though I was an 'African' American, I was not dark complected enough to play an Ethiopian!

The solution proposed was for me to 'live-on-the-beach' for a week until my skin was dark enough. This was the first and only time in my life that I was "paid to be Black!" Friends and family still chuckle about this singular 'experience' even today.

Another good war movie. Who says war movies need to have blood and violence? This was a battle of wits between the Italian commander and the British commander.

This movie has all the elements that precipitate war. Two armies that do not speak the same language with claims to past glory. And in the end they find themselves as men with a common goal - to survive in the desert.

The football scene was interesting in that, peeled down to basics, the men found a common passion. Could it be saying that conflict can be settled in a sportsmanlike manner? The funniest dialogue I found was when the British commander ordered the Italians to dig a latrine in the middle of the desert because it was the civilised thing to do. The Italian commander retorted, "My people were building sewers while your people were painting themselves blue."

I saw this movie in Killeen, Texas just after I returned from Kagnew Station, an Army Base in, then, Ethiopia. I had visited Italian and English War Cemetaries in Asmara. The main battle took place near Keren.

The movie takes place some distance south of either city after the fall of Asmara. The scenery was accurate and must have been filmed in the proper area.

The interplay between the British and the Italians was quite accurate and enjoyable. An example of the situation presented was cited in Under the Red Sea Sun where the author found the Italian officers still carrying their sidearms in Asmara.

One of the most ironic scenes in the movie takes place when the mountain tops surrounding the group is dotted with 'shifta.' The 'shifta' were trained by the English to help overthrow the Italian rule, but became independent entrepreneurs, a la Jesse James, after the fall of Asmara.

I saw this movie on TV years ago. Sadly I haven't seen it for at least five years, not even on cable. The story deals with the interplay between Italian and British units, mostly focusing on the commanding officers on each side. Sordi and Niven couldn't have been better in their roles. Against the backdrop of the African WW2 campaign the two sides seem to be more of a nuisance to each other than effective participants in the war, but towards the end of the movie we are given a reminder of the tendency to become egotistic as being a major world power involved in a campaign which totally ignores the native population in the country being fought over.This is a very appropriate touch to the movie. The two sides(Brits & Italians) were not the only game in town. I would love to see this movie out on video or DVD and would purchase it immediately.