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...Best of Enemies. War is heck in this comedy of military errors starring David Niven and Alberto Sordi...
...Best of Enemies. A comedy of military errors, starring David Niven and Alberto Sordi as World War II officers who do practically everything but fight...
...soon fixes that. He lets the prisoners escape in the hope that they will inform the British high command as to what poor shape the Italian detachment is in; perhaps, he thinks, the English won't dispatch any troops after such a pitiable quarry. Naturally, the English send Niven right back to the chase. The major demands that Blasi surrender his fort. But pride is Blasi's stand-in for honor, and he demands some elaborate Italian form of face-saving military etiquette. Nonsense, says Niven, holding out for unconditional surrender. While the British major is practicing imaginary...
Their leaders are ingratiating bean brains. Major Richardson (David Niven) is a swaggerstick-thin Colonel Blimp. Captain Blasi (Italy's Alberto Sordi) is a soulful doleful duce. Each spends most of his time taking miscalculated risks and falling into the other's hands. Niven falls first, when his plane crashes...
Sandhurst-trained David Niven never lets down the light comedy side of officership. As Blasi, Sordi lacks comic bite, and tends to be more laughed at than with. Director de Laurentiis seems to abide by some central-casting Geneva Convention that national stereotypes are immutable. The English are natty, tightlipped, unflappable. The Italians are sloppy, openhearted, fidgety. The film is unflaggingly amiable, and a few of the older moviegoers may be nagged by the recollection that the real thing was less jolly...