Friendly Enemies

I have one serious problem with this film, which I will address in a bit. To begin, FRIENDLY ENEMIES was a dramatic play that ran an incredible 440 performances on Broadway from July 1918 to August 1919. The cast was made up of popular New York actors of the period, most of whom are today forgotten. The play was first adapted to the screen in 1925 and starred the Dutch-act comedy team of Lew Webber and Joe Fields. And therein lies the problem of this faithful-to-the-period talkie remake. Cast as two German patriarchs now ensconced in America are Charles Winninger and Charles Ruggles. Both Charlies were very fine actors with great comic timing. But for some reason director Allan Dwan had them emulate Webber & Fields' vaudeville-style Dutch accents rather than use more realistic dialects. He would have been better off using authentic German-American actors. Felix Bressart and Jean Hersholt would have been perfect. Ilka Gruning, who plays Winninger's wife, was Austrian and her authentic dialect was perfect. Much of the power of the dialogue was lost to distraction in the leading players' exaggerated accents. As always, Otto Kruger is very fine as the villain in the piece, understated and chillingly threatening. As with all Edward Small pictures of this period, the production values are first-rate. And, as with most Edward Small pictures of this period, FRIENDLY ENEMIES is very difficult to see. Keep an eye out for it. It remains a timely and thoughtful story.