Comrade X (1940)

Director:

King Vidor

Writers:

Walter Reisch (story)
Ben Hecht (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

13 December 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

An American reporter smuggling news out of Soviet Moscow is blackmailed into helping a beautiful Communist leave the country.

Plot Keywords:

Reporter | Hotel | Blackmail | Valet | Communist

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Clark Gable	...	McKinley B. 'Mac' Thompson
Hedy Lamarr	...	Golubka / Theodore Yahupitz / Lizvanetchka 'Lizzie'
Oskar Homolka	...	Commissar Vasiliev (as Oscar Homolka)
Felix Bressart	...	Igor Yahupitz / Vanya
Eve Arden	...	Jane Wilson
Sig Ruman	...	Emil Von Hofer (as Sig Rumann)
Natasha Lytess	...	Olga Milanava
Vladimir Sokoloff	...	Michael Bastakoff
Edgar Barrier	...	Rubick, Commissar's Aide
Georges Renavent	...	Laszlo, World Press Attendee (as George Renevant)
Mikhail Rasumny	...	Arresting Russian Officer

Runtime:

90 min | USA:104 min (TCM print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:TV-G | Finland:S | Sweden:(Banned) (1947-1962) | Sweden:11 | USA:Approved (PCA #6794)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

At the time this film was released, in 1940, World War II had already begun in Europe, but the Soviet Union still had a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany. In the film, Mac is able to fool a character by pretending to hear news that Germany has broken the pact and launched an invasion of the USSR. Of course, that's exactly what happened the very next year when Germany launched Operation Barbarossa in summer 1941.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The script makes reference to the Soviet law that a person could divorce his or her spouse simply by sending them a postcard announcing that the marriage was over - but in 1936, four years before this film was made, Stalin had repealed that law when he rewrote the Russian constitution and made divorces considerably harder to get.

Quotes:

Mac Thompson: I, uh, I got a confession to make. I lied to you.
Theodora: What about?
Mac Thompson: The USA. It ain't a spiritual desert. Say, it's pie a la mode, two-pants suits and the home of the brave, Pike's Peak and Coney Island.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Miracle of Sound (1940)

Soundtrack:

Funiculi, Funicula

Wait for the tanks

In the days when actresses had genuine accents that put a lilt in their speech, Hedy Lamarr, like Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman, had refinement and intelligence, and could portray "foreigners" from any number of countries. Here, Hedy is supposed to be Russian, and with a light touch, too. She makes a charming foil to beefy Clark Gable, who plays his usual role as the macho-male with a wink in his eye covering a heart of gold. Their chemistry is not quite as magical as that in "It Happened One Night," with Claudette Colbert (who had the softer edge and mysterious sex appeal that truly complemented Gable's), or even his pairings with the brassy blonde with the Brooklyn accent, but there are a number of scenes in this farce that I have not seen equalled elsewhere: namely the escape scene in the Soviet tank. Before the age of graphic simulation, the prop men really had to come up with a phalanx of Soviet-style tanks -- unless they used miniatures, and to see them "chase" Gable, with Hedy at the wheel, is almost on a par with a Chaplin or Keaton routine. The miming of the Soviet tank army is also hilarious.