Sooner or later a flop had to arrive for Ruth Leuwerik: 'Geliebte Feindin' was it in a really BIG way.
The pic was an out-and-out disaster and so bad that the sheer ineptitude of the entire undertaking has a rather perverse entertainment value. Even by today's campy standards this production is surely the most bizarre and most wretched film Miss Leuwerik ever made.
Set in Egypt about 1900 a ruthless English officer makes rather innocent Ruth Leuwerik, married to - believe it or not - a member of the Foreign Legion, betraying her very own husband. Do not ask why or how. It just happens. In no time at all, she's become a svelte woman of mystery, toying with lovers and still suffering and weeping for her long lost husband. It's all too sad to bear thinking about.
This utter trash is almost unbearable bad. Worst idea: to film it at all. Ruth Leuwerik, who achieved fame as cross between Ann Harding - endless suffering in mink - and Greer Garson - the noble First Lady of the House -, is a much underrated actress, capable of many a thing. But one thing was out of her formidable range: sexiness. No matter how hard they tried, she never ever came even close to the sultry exotic glamour of Garbo in the Orient ('Wild Orchids' or 'The Painted Veil') or Dietrich's performance in 'Morocco'.
