"I never could understand why anyone would want to be a soldier," David Niven's character muses in The Best of Enemies. It's a very ironic line for him to say, since he acted in over twenty wartime movies, and he fought in WW2 himself! Sufficed to say, unless you absolutely love war movies-or David Niven in uniform, as I do-you're not going to want to watch this one. It's not exciting enough to make a convert out of you.
The entire movie, David Niven and his Italian counterpart, Alberto Sordi, exchange verbal blows in the middle of the Abyssinian desert during 1941. Do they hate each other as much as they pretend to in front of their troops, or do they rely on each other during times of trouble? Are they friends or enemies? Hence the title. Both Niven and Sordi give very good performances, and some moments are quite touching, but Jack Pulman's and Age-Scapelli's script is a little slow. It was trying to be amusing and full of satire, but it's really only because of the acting that I was able to get through it at all.
For me, the best part of the film was David Niven's sparkling blue eyes and smile embedded in his handsome tan in Technicolor. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't so distracted by his mad good looks that I couldn't appreciate the subtleties in his expressions-he really is a marvelous actor-but since I've seen so many other more riveting war movies, I'll probably stick to The Guns of Navarone the next time I crave a Niv fix.
The entire movie, David Niven and his Italian counterpart, Alberto Sordi, exchange verbal blows in the middle of the Abyssinian desert during 1941. Do they hate each other as much as they pretend to in front of their troops, or do they rely on each other during times of trouble? Are they friends or enemies? Hence the title. Both Niven and Sordi give very good performances, and some moments are quite touching, but Jack Pulman's and Age-Scapelli's script is a little slow. It was trying to be amusing and full of satire, but it's really only because of the acting that I was able to get through it at all.
For me, the best part of the film was David Niven's sparkling blue eyes and smile embedded in his handsome tan in Technicolor. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't so distracted by his mad good looks that I couldn't appreciate the subtleties in his expressions-he really is a marvelous actor-but since I've seen so many other more riveting war movies, I'll probably stick to The Guns of Navarone the next time I crave a Niv fix.