Jim Patterson, Lillian Gish and 1928's The Enemy

A few weeks ago, I saw scenes from Lillian's 1928 "The Enemy." This film is considered lost as the final reels are, as yet, unavailable in any collection. I liked what I saw of Lillian in the film and wondered if it existed in final form, what film historians would say of the work and Lilian's performance today.

Here is what Time magazine had to say about the film in its January 9, 1928, edition.

The Enemy. Two years ago in Manhattan, Playwright Channing Pollack offered theater-goers a play whose purpose was to prove the too often demonstrated assertion that War is Hell. Transposed now to the more extensive medium of the cinema, The Enemy monotonously but accurately hammers the nail of that assertion into the stout oak of the public intelligence.

The story is that of a young American who is roused from his wedding breakfast by the call to arms. His bride waits for him, trying to find money with which to buy food for herself and her baby, her mind always a battlefield of fears and sorrows. At last the young lieutenant who is supposed to have been killed. re-appears for a  conclusion that weakens, somewhat, the effect of the picture's sound and peaceful propaganda.

Brilliant direction by Fred Niblo does much to whip up a story that is pulling a heavy wagon of argument. But most of the credit for making The Enemy an engrossing and beautiful moving picture must go to Actress Lillian Gish, in the role of the wife whom war has robbed.

Now, 29,Actress Gish appeared on the stage for the first time when she was 4 years old at a salary of $10 weekly. Now she has $8,000 a week, a police-dog, a canary, a gluttonous appetite for licorice, and a reputation for frail, golden haired beauty that has suggested. in recent popular song, this recipe for exceptional loveliness: "Put Cleopatra in dish, add a dash of Lillian Gish."


I am hopeful a full print of The Enemy will surface somewhere in the world. Miracles do happen.







In a September 24, 1927 letter from I.G. Thalberg to Lillian, he addressed The Enemy in the third paragraph.

"The Enemy" looks very fine. It is still a trifle long and due to the fact that we just put out The Wind, I have not ruched on the editing of that picture, but you have nothing to worry about there. In fact, I think it will probably prove to be one of your most successful pictures."  Jim Note: We may never know  unless a full print can be found.


 Jim Patterson, Editor
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