Nemico amato

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.

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.

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.

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.