DEAREST ENEMY (Rodgers & Hart) Anne Jeffreys, Robert Sterling (DVD)

Following the success of VAI’s release of A Connecticut Yankee (VAI 4541) comes another Rodgers and Hart rarity: Dearest Enemy, in a 1955 television adaptation produced and directed by Max Liebman. Dearest Enemy, which opened on Broadway in 1925, was the team’s first hit book musical. It received a rave review in The New York Times, not just for its music but for the “richly colored design of the plot,” which takes place in New York City during the Revolutionary War. This production stars the distinguished Hollywood and stage actress Anne Jeffreys and her real-life husband Robert Sterling (best remembered for his partnership with Jeffreys in the 1950s TV show Topper). In the character roles of the older romantic couple are the wonderful comic actors Cyril Ritchard and Cornelia Otis Skinner who, between them, chalked up nearly 100 years of stage and screen experience!
B&W, 77 minutes, 4:3, All regions

DEAREST ENEMY
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
Book by Herbert Fields
TV Adaptation by Neil Simon and William Friedberg

Betsy Winthrop: Anne Jeffreys
John Copeland: Robert Sterling
Mrs. Murray: Cornelia Otis Skinnner
General Howe: Cyril Ritchard
Cornwallis: Donald Burr
Courier: Donn Driver
Amanda: Leila Martin
Clara: Wynne Miller
Adele: Elaine Spaulding
Florence: Greta Gray
General Tryon: Byron Halstead
General Clinton: Lewis Brooks
American Soldier: Evan Wright

Charles Sanford, conductor

Produced and Directed by Max Liebman
Dances and Musical numbers
staged by James Starbuck

Live Telecast, November 26, 1955