I due nemici

This movie is one of my favorites. Niven is hilarious as is Sordi. They play off each other beautifully and the script is a laugher from beginning to end. Sordi's wide-eyed expressions and expressive Italian style complimented Niven's traditional Brit, "Jolly ho, Old Pip!" making a wonderful film. The soccer game between the Italians and Brits using a round Ethiopian basket is a classic scene. I love this film, have seen it at least a dozen times and will see it again every chance I get. Hey, join in and see it too. You will not be disappointed.

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.

It is nigh on impossible not to like this film. It is not a 'classic' comedy by any means but cannot fail to raise a smile or two. It is all down to the casting of course. David Niven is pitch-perfect as a none-too-competent Major and the always excellent Alberto Sordi is an obvious choice following his role in Risi's tragi-comedy 'Everybody go Home'. There is marvellous support from Harry Andrews, David Opatoshu and Michael Wilding. We also have Michael Trubshawe who was known as Niven's 'mascot' and indeed gave his name to the pilot officer played by Robert Coote in Niven's best film 'A Matter of Life and Death'. Director Guy Hamilton also has the aid of an infectious score by Nino Rota and cinematography by one of the best in the business, Giuseppe Rotunno. Quite a few had a hand in the script not least the prolific duo of Age-Scarpelli. Peter Ustinov once observed that 'the army is the final repository of the fool'. The characters in this film certainly do nothing to contradict that view! The highlight is a touching scene between Niven and Sordi in which they show each other photographs of their loved ones. Rather than depicting the cruelty of war, this film simply depicts its absurdity.

Saw this film while stationed at a remote site in the military. As I remember, it was one of the few movies, at the time, that really made me laugh. It so resembled the nuttiness of everyday military life. It displays attitudes of peoples from different cultures required to depend upon each other for survival. It shows that war, itself, is a national problem while the average soldier is really not so different from his enemy. If this were on DVD, I would purchase it, in a heartbeat. The truths brought forward in this story are as meaningful today as when I saw it in 1962. Best yet, every member of the military audience viewing it, laughed until they rolled. It didn't matter what their political orientation, the humor was there for all to see. If a fan of "King of Hearts", I recommend it.

This is a great movie. Last time I saw it was in the late 60s of the last century in local LA TV station and the first time was at a film festival in Peru in the early 60s as I was still living there. I still remember the acting from Sordi contrasted with that of Niven. The former bombastic and mercurial and the latter always calm and cool. The setting in the North African? wilderness-desert during WW II shows these enemies irritating each other with military moves until they are drawn together when they realize they might fall victim to the natives. I have been looking for this movie in VHS earlier and now on DVD. Has it been lost?