L'ennemie bien-aimée

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.