Sworn Enemy

Benefiting from MGM’s consistently high production values, Edwin L. Marin’s Sworn Enemy is original and entertaining, even if it doesn’t come with the darker, heavier themes that would emerge in noir of the 1940’s. Played by continental MGM star Robert Young, law student Hank Sherman takes a job as chauffeur for millionaire produce manufacturer Eli Decker (Samuel S. Hinds), who’s been dealing with gangster thugs harassing his workers and demanding protection payments at the command of mob kingpin Joe Emerald (Joseph Calleia). Florence Rice plays Peg Gattle, Decker’s personal assistant and Sherman’s personal love interest, whose father, framed years earlier by Emerald, is about to be released from prison and plans to work with Decker and the District Attorney to convict Emerald once and for all, which, of course, will require Sherman going undercover to enter Emerald’s close circle. Over a mere 73 minutes, the film moves like lightening through countless settings and tense scenarios (fatal car crashes, vault explosions, boxing matches, locked steam rooms) yet still finds time to develop memorable characters, especially simple-minded boxer Steamer Krupp, played lovably by former Olympic wrestler Nat Pendleton, and Calleia’s Emerald, whose tough guy persona may be compensating for not only his disability (he requires two canes) but also his homosexuality, unmistakably implied by his worship of strong male bodies (he admires the nude athletes of ancient Greece carved into his bathroom walls) and his avoidance of women (“Please don’t bother,” he tells the make-believe-drunk Peg as she displays her bare legs sexily).