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This is a fine film depicting the fictitious love affair between an English Lady and an Irish rebel leader in the 1920s. Merle Oberon gives an endearing performance as Lady Helen, who coincidentally meets Dennis Riordan (played by Brian Aherne) under false pretenses. They should have been enemies. She represented everything their respective sides were fighting against. But her charms beguiled him and when they each realize they are falling in love with the enemy, it is too late.

This is a story of star-crossed lovers, each having to decide between their moral convictions and a true love that may never come again. Brian Aherne is charismatic as the clever rebel leader. Henry Stephenson is perfect as Lord Athleigh, Helen's tough but wise father, sent to Dublin to settle the Irish uprising one way or another. David Niven is splendid in a supporting role as Gerald Preston, assistant to Lord Athleigh, only a year before he is to wow audiences as Captain von Tarlenheim in "The Prisoner of Zenda".

Although this is a love story, there is plenty of action and intrigue involving the hunt for Riordan and the rebels by the English.

If you like Merle Oberon, don't miss her in "The Divorce of Lady X" or "Wuthering Heights", both with Sir Laurence Olivier.

Leave it to Sam Goldlwyn (and associates) to turn the Troubles of 1920 into a typical Hollywood melodrama and soapy love story. This is truly a curiosity, right up there with John Howard Lawson's BLOCKADE—the one about the Spanish Civil War. Whenever Hollywood touched controversial political subjects like this one there was always a chance that one side or other of the box-office might be offended. Therefore, we are never quite certain what the Irish want, other than Brian Aherne wanting Merle Oberon (and who can blame him), but somehow the message is clear that if an Irish rebel Romeo and an English lady Juliet had managed to wiggle themselves into a peace conference things might have worked out better for both sides. This is a lavish production, lit glamorously by the great Greg Toland with lots of moody sets build on the Goldwyn Formosa Street lot, and the usual collection of expatriated English and Irish character actors. The great Irish actor and Abbey Theater member, Dennis O'Dea, has a small part as one of the rebels. He was later to seen in a similar role in ODD MAN OUT. All-American Jerome Cowan, best remembered as a wise-cracking best friend or reporter, makes his screen appearance here wearing a cap cocked on his head as he uses an odd Irish accent.

What happens when the leader of the Irish rebellion meets the daughter of an English nobleman? Well, when it's the passionate Merle Oberon and the ridiculously handsome Brian Aherne, they fall in love. In Beloved Enemy, you'll find a forbidden romance among the turmoil of war, similar to Romeo and Juliet. Just as in all classic romances, you can probably guess what will happen, but if you choose to watch this one, you won't be watching it for the plot twists. You'll be watching it for the eye candy, ladies, or because your girlfriend is forcing you to, gents. It is very fun, though, for voluntary watchers, because it has all the elements of a doomed, classic romance.

As you might suspect, since this is a movie about Irish people, Donald Crisp is one of the supporting characters, adding responsibility and gravity to the Irish cause. A young Jerome Cowan shines as one of the Irish rebels, and David Niven is the "designated friend" of Merle. I'd recommend this one, although it doesn't reach the heights of Duel in the Sun, because sometimes, us ladies just can't get enough dramatic love. And when you get to watch Brian's gorgeous face for ninety minutes, you're in for a great time!

"Lady Helen" (Merle Oberon) arrives in Dublin with her father "Lord Athleigh" (Henry Stephenson) who is charged with trying to bring peace to the increasingly unruly city. The night they arrive, an ambush is thwarted and that serves to introduce her to the dapper stranger "Dennis" (Brian Aherne) whom we soon find out is not quite what he appears. What now ensues is a rather unlikely romance between the two that culminates in a police chase, some high-level negotiations, betrayals galore and a bit of tragedy. There is a surprisingly strong supporting cast to this rather lacklustre historical drama. David Niven and Donald Crisp add a wee bit of depth to the story, but essentially this is just a far-fetched romance that uses the guise of the early Irish troubles as a conduit to allow Oberon to glow and for the fairly unremarkable Aherne to try to keep up. It's quite wordy and has too much score, but easily passes ninety minutes if you just want to let it wash over you and not get too hung up on the politics of the thing.

Film loosely based on Irish revolutionary Michael Collins. They added romance to this 1936 picture, and even though it has been fictionalized, it's still a very good picture.

The chemistry between revolutionary Brian Aherne and Merle Oberon, the daughter of a British diplomat is just fine here. They meet by chance when Oberon accompanies her diplomatic father to Ireland for him to see what is going on.

There are some fine supporting performances here, especially by Henry Stephenson, as the diplomat, David Niven as an attaché and another gem role for Donald Crisp, as a militant revolutionary.

This love story brings out the futility of war and the famous line in Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities," in that every revolution breeds fanatics. How true.

If only the problems of Irish independence and how much of it would be granted could have been solved by Michael Collins falling in love with say David Lloyd George's daughter. It might have made for some interesting tales of romance.

Which is what we have here in Beloved Enemy. The Collins character is renamed Dennis Riordan and it seems that the sight of the beautiful Merle Oberon, daughter of British envoy Henry Stephenson is enough to almost make him forget about the cause of Irish independence. Riordan is played by Brian Aherne and he's a dashing sort of rebel. No wonder Merle decides he's for her.

Although Beloved Enemy is a nice romantic story, I feel it cheapens what Michael Collins was all about. He and Arthur Griffiths in signing the treaty with the British and getting Dominion status and six Protestant counties opting for inclusion in the United Kingdom, settled for 5/6 of a loaf so to speak. Collins paid with his life for thinking of the widows and orphans and a chance for Ireland to heal. He died and many more died in the Civil War that followed before Ireland just had a peace of sheer exhaustion.

There's a good character in the film played by Karen Morley who is the widow of an IRA man now trying to support her son Ronald Sinclair. The real Michael Collins was thinking about the thousands like her when he signed the treaty.

Jerome Cowan made his film debut in Beloved Enemy and David Niven has one of his earliest roles as Henry Stephenson's secretary. Beloved Enemy is historical romance, but hardly history. See both John Ford films, The Informer and The Plough and the Stars for a better idea about Ireland during the Rebellion.

I admit it. I gave this film a 10 for purely subjective reasons. I love the sound, the look and the emotional content of the two stars. Brian Aherne was so very beautiful that he is quite literally stunning. Merle Oberon was never lovelier. The sound, the dialog, the vocabulary. Wow. They had faces and voices then and they had grace. If one compares the sheer heart of these performances, these scripts with the current crop, one could weep. A profound thank you for this film, even with the fictionalized ending. Lovely. Truly memorable in every meaning of that word even if the 10 is a bit of an exaggeration, it is only a very slight one. Lovely.

In the "love-against-the-backdrop-of" genre, BELOVED ENEMY occupies a rather high position because of the intelligence with which an extremely unlikely romantic relationship is handled. Merle Oberon, the daughter of a British bigwig (Henry Stephenson), falls in love with an Irish rebel leader (Brian Aherne). But not only does her love for him not turn her against her own people, she even rats on him to the British military, only to be hugely relieved when he escapes from their ambush. Then she has the gall to visit him and admit her betrayal! This is truly a case of love conquers all. On one level this film is a plea for peace from a woman's point of view. Movies with pleas for peace were not uncommon in the mid- to-late Thirties. Needless to say, this production is a pure Hollywood gloss on the realities of the 1921 Irish Civil War, but at least the opening credits admit clearly that the story is "legend based on fact" with fictitious characters. When the going gets a bit heavy, we have those stunning physical specimens of Oberon and Aherne (their surnames even sound like poetry together) to feast our eyes upon. In close-up profile they both look exquisite. Oberon was a fine actress, much underrated. She had her limitations, but here, as in many other films, not only turned in a creditable and convincing performance but was a pleasure to watch as she did so. Aherne, as finely carved a block of wood that ever took human form, never quite comes to life. He is somehow not all there.

This is not a true story, although it is highly inspired by the Irish liberation war and conveys well enough the sentiments and main structure and development of the difficult struggle, where the most sensible ones were the most prone to get killed by fanatics for being diplomatic. The character this film makes you think of is Michael Collins, who described about the same development of character as Brian Aherne does, but Michael Collins was ultimately killed by his own. Here the drama is soothed and balanced by the lovely Merle Oberon, who was not too famous yet but the more enchanting for her youth, seconded by the equally youthful David Niven in the most important supporting part and making a very elegant and gentlemanly impression. The drama is very Irish, you have seen these problems and passions of fanatics and freedom fighters in almost every Irish film, and they are all of outstanding power and interest for their drama and fervent pathos. This is just one of a large number of all those Irish freedom passion plays, while all the best ones are more tragic. Here Merle Oberon gets the better of the tragedy.

I haven't seen this film myself but I've just come across a comment on it by my father, after seeing it in 1938:

I did not enjoy it as much as I might have had I not been studying the actual facts and happenings of that particular year (1921). After what I had read and pondered so much to retain in my memory I could hardly even endure to look at the picture at all, it was so different from what was in my mind. The human touch in it was the only thing that appealed to me, otherwise the picture was empty. Probably I would have thought it a great picture had I not read so much about that particular period, recently.