Comrade X (1940)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

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 | Anti Communist | Soviet Union

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Clark Gable	...	McKinley B. 'Mac' Thompson
Hedy Lamarr	...	Golubka, aka Theodore Yahupitz and Lizvanetchka 'Lizzie'
Oskar Homolka	...	Commissar Vasiliev (as Oscar Homolka)
Felix Bressart	...	Igor Yahupitz aka Vanya, the Valet
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:

Paul Morrissey (director of many Andy Warhol films) once acknowledged that Comrade X was his favorite movie.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Near the end of the film, the leader of the Soviet tanks gives them an order to turn right (in Russian) but they are all shown turning left.

Quotes:

Vanya: The communists have ideas. But they found out you can't run a government with everybody going around having ideas. So what is happening, the communists are being executed so that Communism should succeed.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Las cosas del querer (1989)

Soundtrack:

Funiculi, Funicula

fun pairing of Gable and Lamarr

Clark Gable and Hedy Lamarr star in "Comrade X," a 1940 comedy from MGM also starring Eve Arden, Felix Bressart and Oscar Homolka. Gable and Arden are American journalists in Russia while the Russians search frantically for "Comrade X," a reporter sending out uncensored stories to the United States. One man knows the identity of Comrade X - a bumbling valet in the hotel where many of the reporters stay (Felix Bressart). He fears his outspoken daughter is in danger of being purged by the Russians like so many and blackmails Comrade X into getting her out of the country. Well, we've known from the beginning who Comrade X is - who else - and he reluctantly agrees to his assignment - reluctantly until he gets a look at the daughter (Lamarr), who is driving a streetcar using the name Theodore. Women can't drive streetcars.

Everyone is very good in this film, and Lamarr's staggering beauty and Gable's macho man are pluses. The supporting cast is great - Homolka is a government official who says his predecessor "met with an unfortunate accident" - as many of them do throughout the film.

I have to agree with one of the posters here - the scene with the tanks is absolutely priceless, particularly when you realize that films didn't have the mechanisms for "special effects" as they do today.

Lots of fun at the expense of good old Mother Russia.