In London, suave British officer Adolphe Menjou (as Geoffrey Roberts) begins an affair with shapely blonde Lili Damita (as Alva), unaware she and sinister husband Erich von Stroheim (as Victor Sangrito) are infidelity-brewing blackmailers. As Mr. Menjou leaves for assignment in India, Ms. Damita reveals she has fallen in love with Menjou, and refuses to milk him for more money.Handsome young lieutenant Lawrence Olivier (as Ned Nichols) joins Menjou in India, and reveals he has likewise fallen in love with a beautiful woman, who turns out to be (you guessed it) Damita. The woman really gets around. Damita takes a shower and gets whipped by von Stroheim. The film ponders, "Is the friendship between two men more important than a woman's love?" If you're interested in the cast, this may be a melodramatically fun film, despite being wholly unconvincing. With his fine "talking pictures" voice, Menjou was extending his debonair leading man career, but he is much too "long in the tooth" for his role herein. Olivier, in his first "Hollywood" film, is conversely way too "wet behind the ears". Damita shows skin and appears stilted.**** Friends and Lovers (10/3/31) Victor Schertzinger ~ Adolphe Menjou, Lawrence Olivier, Lili Damita, Erich von Stroheim

This is the sort of film that got RKO Radio studios into financial trouble. It has a great cast: Damita, von Stroheim, Menjou, Olivier. The plot is predictable, and the story threadbare. I doubt if there were many more people in the 1930s who were turned on by this kind of melodrama as there are now.A porcelain collector uses his younger wife to ensnare rich army officers, so that he can blackmail them. Two officers, serving in the British army in India, find out that they are both in love with this same woman. That is the plot in a nutshell. The saving feature of this film it to witness some pretty good acting performances. Apart from Hugh Herbert, whose Scottish accent slips like a postman in the snow and sounds about as authentic as the MacFarterchops tartan, the rest of the cast turn in some pretty good performances. Von Stroheim's performance is weird; but then again he is playing a weirdo. Menjou turns in a competent performance - as he always does. Olivier is subtle: you have to watch him carefully to fully appreciate what he does. The same can be said for Damita. Yes, it's great to have a sophisticated leading lady who doesn't mind getting her kit off; but watch her performance next to Olivier in the dining table scene. Further down the cast, the pair who play the general and his sister turn in good performances, too.The performances of the cast rescue this film, which is of its time. It is watchable.

Lili Damita plays an exotic temptress married to vicious Von Stroheim, who uses her to lure rich men, in order to blackmail them later...He's sort of a higher class pimp, 'cos the guy sort of sells her wife's favors.Adolphe Menjou and Larry Olivier are two of these men, who happen to be friends. Man-of-the-world Menjou does very well with his role of Captain Richards and a very young and dashing Laurence Olivier, is good as well as the more "naive" guy.Von Stroheim's short moments on the screen are excellent, because he can portray at very close perfection, that sort of middle european aristocratic decadence. Kudos too, for Hugh Herbert's sympathetic performance as Menjou's valet.Miss Damita (later to be Mrs. Errol Flynn) has poise but lacks acting talent, but is anyway alluring as the tempting lady.If you like pre-codes, watch it.

Aside from the fact that Damita cannot act her way out of a paper bag, I found this little gem highly amusing. Add one practically unrecognizable Adolphe Menjou (that's a good thing, mind you) in prissy mode, A young, gorgeous and very sexy Laurence Olivier in even prissier mode (nice lisp, Larry), the archetypically silly British dogsbody (Hugh Herbert, who is great), add one seriously hilarious over-the-top-but-perfectly-so performance from Erich Von Stroheim, and you have got one hell of a cool flick here!The fact that they were all fighting over this woman was lost on me - surely it wasn't for her acting skills.SPOILER (this paragraph only) My favorite part was when Olivier finds Damita and Menjou in a clandestine clutch and screams "I oughta kill the pair of ya!" while firing a revolver at them. Also, each time they mentioned the fact that Von Stroheim's character "collected porcelain," people would glance at each other slyly, as though this trait was highly taboo. Very funny!A great piece of acting by Larry before he became the "Laurence Olivier entity," if you know what I mean. A superb early performance by him that should not be missed. Recommended.