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Recommendations
Senior Film Conservator
For cinephiles who admire the unique vision within Best of Enemies, its lasting impact ensures that its spirit lives on in modern recommendations. Each of these movies shares a piece of the unique vision that made Best of Enemies so special.
At its core, Best of Enemies is a study in to provoke thought and inspire awe in equal measure.
William H. Hartman, an American businessman who has contributed a lot of money to help bring about prohibition, visits the beer garden of his German-American neighbor, Gus Schneider, hoping to buy Schneider's lease. Schneider, who hates Hartman, refuses. Hartman, whose young son Jimmie is a playmate of Schneider's daughter Lena, orders Jimmie not to play with Lena, after which he imbibes from a hidden bottle of whiskey. After prohibition takes effect, Schneider's converted restaurant draws few customers. Hartman now refuses Schneider's offer to sell the lease, and soon Schneider is dispossessed. He moves back to Germany, although he keeps his American citizenship. Meanwhile, Hartman builds a forty-story office building on the spot of Schneider's former beer garden. Twelve years later, Jimmie is devoting more time to music than to his studies. Although Hartman would like his son to become a financier, he agrees to send him to a conservatory in Germany. There he meets Lena, who is also studying music. Their initial attraction is furthered when they have dinner together and realize their identities. Because Schneider hates the name of Hartman, Jimmie suggests that Lena introduce him as "Jim Harty." Hartman, after perusing a girly magazine from Europe, decides to take a trip to visit his son. When Jimmie sees that his roommate August, a cellist, cannot afford to eat lunch everyday, he visits Schneider in his hofbrau and convinces Schneider to hire him and his fellow students to play jazz for food and beer. On the night of Lena's music competition, after which Jimmie plans to sail home, Lena tells him in German, which he does not understand, that she would like more than anything for him to stay. When Lena does not win, because a professor whose name is Hartman breaks a tie vote and chooses her competitor, Schneider vows to choke the next Hartman who comes into his life. Jimmie, who has now learned what Lena told him in German, comforts her and, after telling her that he loves her, gets a job in a brewery and moves in with a friend. He writes a tune based on the rhythm he hears at the brewery and on Lena's music, and soon after he performs the song with his band, he has a hit which makes the hofbrau one of the busiest places in town. Hartman, with a blonde date, drinks beer there, not knowing that Schneider is the owner, but when he sees Jimmie, he goes backstage and orders him to give up the band. When Schneider interrupts and learns Jimmie's identity, he fires the band and objects to Jimmie marrying his daughter because, he says, he does not want to be the grandfather of little Hartmans. Jimmie and Lena elope on an ocean liner bound for America, and the two fathers follow. When Jimmie learns that they are on the boat, he delivers messages to both, supposedly from the other, urging a reconciliatory meeting. Hartman and Schneider drink beer together and sing, and decide to open a brewery together, when Jimmie and Lena interrupt them and reveal that they have married. A final argument about which father gave in and wrote the first note is never settled because in the midst of their bickering, the notes are blown overboard.
Best of Enemies was a significant production in United States, showcasing the immense talent of Arno Frey, Greta Nissen, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers. It continues to be a top recommendation for anyone studying Music history.
Based on the unique unique vision of Best of Enemies, our vault has identified these titles as the most compelling follow-up experiences for fans of Music cinema:
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Dave Henderson, an orphan who has become the beneficiary of a rich man's will, falls in with race-track crooks Martin Tydeman and Bokky Sharvan who bilk him out of his $100,000 inheritance. In retaliation, Dave steals the money from Tydeman's safe, but is caught and sentenced to five years in jail. In prison, Dave becomes friendly with Millman, who is about to be released, and reveals the money's hiding place to him, arranging to rendezvous at the end of Dave's term. Once released, Dave is hounded by members of Tydeman's gang as well as the police, who are waiting for him to retrieve his bounty. While taking refuge at the house of Capriano, an old bomb maker, Dave falls in love with the old man's daughter Teresa. However, Capriano sets a trap for Dave, who awakens in a drugged state to find the $100,000 missing. With the help of Millman and Teresa, Dave recovers the money, turns it over to the police and resolves to go straight.
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Dir: Maurice Campbell
Carver Endicott, a young sophisticate, is rejected by his fiancée for being too foppish and dull. When she feigns an interest in his father, Carver attempts to disgrace his family name by working as a farmhand and later as a busboy in a hotel. However, the newspapers only praise him for his self-sacrificing principles; and finding that he cannot bring shame to the family through menial labor, he takes up with a notorious actress. But when this maneuver also fails, he returns to his former fiancée, who has no further complaint about his being an inexperienced dullard.
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Dir: Unknown Director
The Judge needs a present for his wife's birthday, so Harry suggests a new corset. They go to the shop, but he's so embarrassed to ask the saleslady he hides in a phone booth.Harry goes in, but finds a GUY wearing one, and runs out.They both dress as women to get back in, but Mrs. Rummy gets there and chases him out.
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Dir: Victor Heerman
In the gold fields of the Canadian Northwest, a man is falsely accused of a crime and determines that a lookalike is responsible.
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Dir: Roy Clements
A man agrees to marry the daughter of a deceased friend - who is, in fact, being impersonated by the servant girl of the daughter, who has also already died.
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Dir: F. Martin Thornton
In Paris an orphan cartoonist loves a man with a mad wife, who dies in time to prevent her marriage to a jilted Comte.
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Dir: Maurice Elvey
A lady marries a horse trainer but withholds herself until her crippled brother is cured.
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Dir: Vernon Stallings
Krazy Kat is held in jail and Ignatz finally bails him out after encountering "guilt".
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Dir: Jacques Jaccard
Douglas MacLeod of the Royal North West Mounted Police is in love with Suzanne Foucharde, who has adopted an abandoned Indian baby, the illegitimate child of Louis La Rocque and Na Fa Kowa. When La Rocque insinuates that the baby is Suzanne's, her brother Henry defends his sister's honor and kills the villain. In spite of his love for Suzanne, it is Douglas' duty to arrest Henry. He does so, but later allows him to escape, taking the bullet himself that was fired after Henry by Constable Burke. Meanwhile, the dead body of Na Fa Kowa is found, accompanied by a note proving that the Indian was the baby's mother. In the spring, when Douglas recovers from his wounds, he and Suzanne are married.
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Dir: Malcolm St. Clair
A dancing instructor gets involved with a newly rich family.
View DetailsAnalysis relative to Best of Enemies
| Film Title | Atmosphere | Complexity | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| From Now On | Ethereal | High | 89% Match |
| An Amateur Devil | Tense | Linear | 98% Match |
| A Fitting Gift | Surreal | Layered | 96% Match |
| The River's End | Gothic | Linear | 91% Match |
| The Tiger's Coat | Gothic | Abstract | 88% Match |
This guide was algorithmically generated using the cinematic metadata of Rian James's archive. Last updated: 5/31/2026.
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