Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1937)

MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST Audience Suitability Ratings "A: fine of kind; Y: very sad; C: too sad." Christian Century p231 F 17 '37 "[It is] a stirring dramatization of the Irish rebellion. Family-mature." Am Legion Auxiliary "Excellent. Mature & 14-18." DAR "The very delicate handling of an embarrassing situation in 1923, particularly in the presentation of the faults and virtues of both parties, is the result of noteworthy direction of an especially suitable cast in this enlightening historical melodrama for the family." S Calif Council of Fed Church Women + Fox W Coast Bui D 26 '36 "Fine production qualities and excellent acting. 14-18 & adults: excellent; 8-14: no." Calif Cong of Par & Teachers "With all its varying moods, it is consistently honest throughout and the sad ending shows that no concession has been made to the demands of a public that likes a happy ending. . . The artistic values of the picture are outstanding. Mature." Calif Fed of Business & Professional Women's Clubs "The story is gripping. . . A stimulating film for mature audiences." Nat Soc of New England Women + Fox W Coast Bui Ja 2 '37 "In all a highly entertaining picture worthy of the patronage of all. Mature audience." Gen Fed of Women's Clubs (W Coast) D 14 '36 "A distinguished production, skilfully enacted and grippingly interesting. Outstanding." + + Jt Estimates D 15 '36 "An outstanding production. Very good. Adults & young adults." + + Motion Pict Guide Mr '37 "[It] has strength and rare beauty. . . Brian Aherne is ideally cast as the romantic Irish rebel leader. . . A rare treat for adults." + Nat Council of Jewish Women D 16 '36 "General patronage." Nat Legion of Decency D 31 '36 "The script writer showed a fine judgment in refusing to allow the romance to play an undue influence in the affairs of state. . . The characterizations are a credit to one and all. Undoubtedly, 'Beloved Enemy' was worth doing." + Scholastic p24 Ja 16 '37 "The story is tense and the acting by the entire cast excellent. Mature. Outstanding." + + Wkly Guide D 26 '36 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews "This Samuel Goldwyn feature is not precisely convincing in some of its action, but it has an appealing quality in its adventures. Not the least of its assets are the leading players, Brian Aherne . . . and Merle Oberon. These two players would tend to make almost any film interesting." Mordaunt Hall -| Boston Transcript p4 F 13 '37 "[It] is characterized by admirable acting throughout. . . Merle Oberon plays Lady Helen with rare sympathy and feeling. Her diction is beautiful and the picture is interesting and well done, but it lacks the virility of 'The Informer.' " Laura Elston H Canadian M p25 Mr '37 "Beautifully written and sincerely enacted love story. Adults & young people." + Christian Science Monitor pl7 Mr 6 '37 "There are in 'Beloved Enemy' strong entertainment values emanating from the convincing treatment, capable acting and high caliber direction, and an appropriate music score based upon genuine Irish folk music." J. P. Cunningham + Commonweal p333 Ja 15 *37 "Another drama of the Irish 'Trouble;' and one which may prove the most popular of the cycle. The story is fiction, but extremely well told, and very sincerely acted by Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne and a sound cast. The dialogue is very well written, and the atmosphere of unrest finely conveyed. Good entertainment." + Film Wkly p27 Ja 23 '37 "The story emphasizes too many points which have no bearing on the romance and suggests too many questions it does not answer. . . Aherne' s death at the end of the picture will not go well with the majority of audiences. As is the case with too many other scenes, it seems to have been included for its own value as an isolated fragment and without consideration for its status as but one link in the story chain. Perhaps it was inspired by some incident in the Irish uprising, but when we view a motion picture we wish to be entertained, and a lover dying does not end a romance in the manner in which we like to see one end. Merle Oberon's role is almost entirely negative, but her performance is appealing." -| Hollywood Spec plO D 19 '36 "[It] suffers by comparison with 'The Informer.' Yet it proves once again that the Irish rebellion is a first-rate subject in any medium." Mark Van Doren -| Nation p81 Ja 16 '37 " 'Beloved Enemy' is a curiously romanticized screen account of the bloody and fearful days that Ireland knew in the early '20s. . . It is performed with great skill by an assured company and H. C. Potter has staged it with a keen sense of camera values. The personal tragedy that forms its narrative is too patly conventional, though," for the violence and fanaticism of its background. Being neither the starkly moving document of the Irish revolutionary movement that Sean O' Casey captured in his drama, 'The Plough and the Stars,' nor a completely sentimentalized yarn about love in wartime, it is bound to be disappointing, for all its virtues. . . Brian Aherne and Merle Oberon succeed in distilling considerable power out of the fatal love affair." Howard Barnes h N Y Herald Tribune p5 D 26 '36 "Samuel Goldwyn, who has had some conspicuous and richly deserved successes this season, has launched another golden barque in 'Beloved Enemy.' A fine and mature and dignified drama of the Irish Rebellion of 1921, it has the stamp of quality on each of its departments— story, direction, performance and production — and it tempts us mightily to revise our tentative list of this year's best ten to make a fitting place for it. 'Beloved Enemy,' as you probably have suspected, has an enthusiastic admirer in me." F. S. Nugent + + N Y Times pl5 D 26 '36 "I must confess that I very soon found this film pretty tedious and exasperating stuff. . . There are, to be sure, nice touches. Dublin in 1921 is suggested at times. And the performers are able enough. But the film is far from the 'Informer' class." John Mosher H New Yorker p50 Ja 2 '37 "[Its] defect, an inferior story, almost hides its blight beneath the bushel of virtues. . . Dennis Riordan ... is admirably played by Brian Aherne; as the English girl whose love indirectly causes his death, Merle Oberon gives a sensitive and compelling performance. . . The author and director handled the controversial subject with kid gloves — and sacrificed much of its inherent dramatic material." -\ News-Wk p23 Ja 2 '37 "It affirms its authority in the persons of two excellent performers, Merle Oberon and Brian Aherne. These two agreeably romantic figures take what we consider a rather commonplace script and speak it with their hearts. At all moments when they are dominant upon the screen, 'Beloved Enemy' ascends to heights far above the average film-making. When they are absent, and the more callous job of plotmanipulation is under way, we keep remembering 'The Informer.' " -| Stage pl4 F '37 + + Exceptionally Good; + Good; -i Fair; \ Mediocre; Poor; — Exceptionally Poor