Three Comrades

Yes, but between whom? THREE COMRADES is remembered today for it's classy acting by Margaret Sullivan, Robert Taylor, Robert Young, and Franchot Tone, for it's setting in Germany after World War I, and for it's screenplay, which is the closest thing to a complete movie script that F. Scott Fitzgerald ever wrote. Actually his original script has been published (about twenty five years ago), and shows it was far more outspoken in pinpointing politics than this film is. Hollywood, in 1938, was aware of the Nazis and of their racial and political policies, but they were also aware of the opposition to any type of open criticism of the right in Europe by the U.S. Congress. So Fitzgerald's script was toned down. His work is still pretty good, but one misses the bite he would have fully given if the script had not been tampered with. It does give a pretty good view of the political confusion and economic dislocation following the end of the World War, but for all an audience knows the fighting in the city might be over rival soccer teams!

In the early sound era, one of the most respected directors in Hollywood was Frank Borzage: in fact, he won the very first Academy Award for Best Director (and would win a second one five years later). Yet his work is now virtually unknown. THREE COMRADES came during his tenure at MGM, where he would stay for the next five years (previously, he had been one of the star directors at Fox, and then worked at Columbia and Warner Brothers); it reunited him with Margaret Sullavan, with whom he had worked on LITTLE MAN WHAT NOW in 1934, and it would represent the only official screen credit for F. Scott Fitzgerald. There are moments (especially in the romance between the poor aristocrat Patricia and the young mechanic Erik) in which you can hear the lilt and romanticism of Fitzgerald's sensibility. THREE COMRADES was one of those movies that played a lot of television in late 1950s-early 1960s, and the moving story of three comrades (played by Robert Taylor, Robert Young and Franchot Tone) and the young woman who enters their lives (played by the great Sullavan, in her Academy Award-nominated performance) trying to find some solace and happiness in the rubble of Germany in the period immediately following the first World War is remarkably touching. Though often criticized for the (many) compromises that went into the making (this was a major studio production in 1938, beset with all the production code and commercial considerations of the era), there's still enough of Remarque's powerful story, Fitzgerald's elegant dialog, and Borzage's romanticism (as well as the superb performance by Margaret Sullavan) to make this one of the most memorable American movies of the 1930s.

Following the Great War (aka World War I), three German soldiers vow to stick together through thick and thin. The "Three Comrades" are: temporarily disillusioned Robert Taylor (as Erich Lohkamp), cautiously optimistic Franchot Tone (as Otto Koster) and politically idealistic Robert Young (as Gottfried Lenz). They begin a soon-to-be struggling automobile repair business. The hesitatingly optimistic trio become a quartet upon meeting beautifully fatalistic Margaret Sullavan (as Patricia "Pat" Hollmann). This is, of course, Germany between the two World Wars of the 20th century...

This allegorical film is too American for its own good, but the story holds up well. It benefits greatly by being from a 1936 novel by "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1929) author and young war veteran Erich Maria Remarque. The additional dialog by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edward E. Paramore Jr. is more astute than askew...

The intent is for Mr. Taylor's protagonist to carry the better qualities of the "Three Comrades" to a full representation of Germany. But, coming on like a cross between Greta Garbo and June Allyson, Ms. Sullavan takes the film away. And, considering the events of the 1940s, her character represented a bigger part of the whole. Sullavan was honored as "Best Actress" of 1938 by the "New York Film Critics" for her prescient performance. Her comrades contribute memorably and director Frank Borzage does exceptionally well with his "Hallelujah Chorus" revenge and some great closing scenes.

******** Three Comrades (6/2/38) Frank Borzage ~ Margaret Sullavan, Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone, Robert Young

This movie was notable for: the subtle and mysterious acting of Margaret Sullavan; the screenplay by Scott Fitzgerald (which was literary and a bit on the wordy side); and the interesting look at Germany immediately after WWI. Personally, I would have liked to have seen more about the politics and tensions in Germany (playing up Robert Young's role), and less of the Camille-esque love & decline plot. But that's just me.

I thought that the film was carried by Franchot Tone and Margaret Sullavan. Tone's role is nicely played down; he consistently does the right thing, even when it might appear to be the morally wrong thing. He's sure, calm, and direct at every turn. I always enjoy watching him. Sullavan was fascinating. It isn't often you see someone who appears to be an intellectual in a role that didn't necessarily call for that type. She is lovely, dignified, but hardly the standard "babe who attracts three best friends." They seem to like her for her complexity. And that in itself is unusual.

This movie was strange. It should have been better than it was -- the emphasis on the love story slows things up and even feel a bit silly. (When Pat starts wearing traditional German garb in the kitchen just cracked me up.) But the good moments, when they come, making viewing this film worthwhile.

Three friends navigate life after the scarring experience of WWI in this melancholy and even somewhat eerie film from 1938.

Notable about this movie is the fact that it's about three German men, though the fact that they're played by Robert Taylor, Robert Young, and Franchot Tone makes that easy to forget. As the dark cloud of WWII was descending on Europe, it was kind of a gutsy move for Hollywood to think anyone would be able to care about a group of protagonists who were the enemy of the film's central conflict and still the enemy in the real conflict developing overseas. But the point of the movie is that war in general and WWI in particular left everyone shattered, no matter what side you were on. The film does a fantastic job of capturing the fatalistic, doomed quality that WWI implanted in the human psyche and that fueled what would be dubbed the Lost Generation of artists coming out of it. I'm personally fascinated by WWI and its psychological effects on the world, and so this movie was of particular interest to me.

I was also interested to see Margaret Sullavan in the role that brought her her sole career Academy Award nomination. She plays a dying woman who falls in love with one of the friends and changes the group's dynamic. Her impending death is a stand in for the impending death of everyone, something that before the war was an abstract notion but after it feels close and real. Death is an ever-present shadow in this movie, and its role in the film's ending makes it both haunting and uplifting at the same time.

Grade: A