Sworn Enemy

Directed by Edwin L. Marin, Sworn Enemy follows ambitious law student Henry Sherman (Robert Young) as he agrees to help the police capture the mobsters responsible for his brother’s death. It’s a seemingly straight-forward premise that’s employed to surprisingly convoluted and hopelessly tedious effect by Marin, as the filmmaker, working from a script by Wells Root, delivers a sluggish drama that contains few, if any, elements designed to capture the viewer’s interest and attention – with the arms-length atmosphere compounded by a competent yet entirely bland central performance by Young. Marin’s meandering modus operandi paves the way for a midsection that hopscotches from one subplot to the next with little thought towards cohesiveness or momentum, and it’s clear, certainly, that the frantic, frenetic climax, which is just about endless in its execution, is hardly able to pack the tense and exciting punch Marin is presumably aiming for – with the end result an utterly misguided disaster that feels much, much longer than its 73 minutes.

* out of ****