Three Comrades (1938) Review

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Franchot Tone, Robert Young and Robert Taylor star as three young German friends who survive the rigors of World War One, and stick together as business partners during the economic hard times that followed. In many ways, this is an explicit continuation of the better-known "All Quiet On The Western Front." It is also based on the work of novelist Erich Maria Remarque and also presents an atypically sympathetic view of the Germans who took part in the war (at least of the common soldiers...) This film deals less with the horrors of war than with its social aftermath, and with the collision of Germany's cultural rigidity with an emerging modern world, at times stifling, and at others liberating. Nazism is dealt with somewhat elliptically; one of the three friends is a left-wing idealist and runs afoul of a right-wing mob, leaving the other two to pick up the pieces. Raw stuff for the time, but ultimately not the whole story. The film was decidedly behind its own times: even though open hostilities had not broken out with the German Reich, by the late 1930s World War Two was all but inevitable, and the film's ending, in which our heroes abandon the charred husk of the Old World for the romantic horizons of the New, is simply wishful thinking. By the time this film came out, walking away from the mistakes of the past was hardly an option: the spectre of war had already reared again, and was hardly going to let these young men out of its clutches. Still, if you completely ignore the reality of the times the film was produced in, this succeeds finely as a conventional tragedy-romance. F. Scott Fitzgerald apparently started the script, which was the only screenplay he himself wrote, but it was taken away from him at the last minute, after the producers decided his lofty philosophical musings were too dense to translate into Hollywood boxoffice success.

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A romantic glow hangs over this beautiful picture like a San Francisco fog over the Golden Gate Bridge. The story is based on the fine novel by Erich Maria Remarque and was adapted to the screen by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Frank Borzage was the perfect choice as director for this story of three German WWI expatriates who have bonded for life and the tubercular waif they all love in different ways. It has all the great romanticism Borzage was famous for bringing to his art. Three Comrades concluded his trilogy of otherworldly love intruded upon by war begun in the silent era with Seventh Heaven, and continuing when sound came along in A Farewell to Arms. A sense of impending tragedy even during the happier scenes creates what one might call romantic noir in one of the most romantic films ever made.

Robert Taylor portrays Erich, the younger and more innocent of the three comrades. Robert Young is Gottfried, an idealist angry at the post-war rise of fascism. And Franchot Tone, in one of his finest roles is Otto, the world-weary pragmatist. Their lives are changed forever when they meet up with the fragile Margaret Sullavan. She gave the finest performace of her career as the sweet and courages Pat, dying of tuberculosis but with just time enough left for Taylor to fall in love with her.

Each of the comrades falls in love with her in other ways as well, the threesome becoming a foursome, a makeshift family trying to keep fate at bay just a little while longer. It is a romantic film with a luminous performance from Sullavan you will always remember. Borzage creates a sense of doom underneath every light and happy moment the comrades share together, the romantic glow growing a little dimmer as destiny looms like a storm cloud just over the next hill.

You will rarely see a film so full of love, as Sullavan imparts to each of them what they need and in turn receives two friends who love and cherish her, and one who loves her even more. Tone gives his weary character considerable depth. Taylor's Erich is likable as the young brash member of friends, somewhat lost after the war is over and still a bit naive. Robert Young gives another solid performance as he captures the anger and restlessness of a world that has just come out of a war, yet finds itself moving in that direction again.

This was Remarque and Fitzgerald at their best, two great writers complementing each other. Director Frank Borzage brought a sensitivity and romanticism to his art few have ever matched. Margaret Sullavan gives the greatest performance of her career, her own life as fragile as Pat's, ending tragically years later. The final shot of Three Comrades is not one easily forgotten. If you love the magic of film, and enjoy the romanticism only film can bring to our hearts, then this is a must see masterpeice from a director who painted more than one such portrait in his career behind the camera. Beautiful.

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This is a poignant movie adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's novel about three life-long friends in post World War I Germany and beautifully filmed by cinematographer and four-time Oscar winner Joseph Ruttenberg ("Waterloo Bridge", "The Philadelphia Story"). I read somewhere that this is a movie that MGM ran into some problems in its production because it was considered by some to be a war-mongering story. For this film version to be approved by the Hollywood production code in 1938, the political presence had to be toned down. Audiences will not see Nazi emblems and mention of Hitler and other Nazi leaders are noticeably absent. Remarque's novel have dealt harshly with the rise of Nazism in Germany in using it as a backdrop for a love story about three ex-soldiers, Erich Lohkamp (played by Robert Taylor) and his wife-to-be Patricia 'Pat' Hollman (Margaret Sullavan), who is dying from tuberculosis...and Erich's two friends, Otto Koster (played by Franchot Tone) and Gottfried Lenz (Robert Young), who share their fondness for Pat. The upheaval that is happening in Germany at that time were adequately represented, although there is no denying that it suffered from the censorship.

This is Margaret Sullavan's movie. The slight and delicate actress had the most convincing performance in this film. She only made sixteen films (not surpirising, since she's really a stage actress) but on all these films she reputedly left an indelible mark on each and every one of them...and that is plain to see here. Director Frank Borzage would light up and close in on her pretty smiling face and her breathy, husky voice would give cheeriness in an otherwise tempestous period.

Ably directed by two-time Academy Award winner Frank Borzage, and with some suitably Teutonic flavored music from multiple Oscar winner Franz Waxman, this is one film genre of the pre WWII period that will always be worthwhile to see.

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Erich Maria Remarque's novel receives a first-class treatment from MGM in this 1938 film, which was directed by Frank Borzage from a screenplay by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edward E. Paramore. The "Three Comrades" are three young German soldiers--Erich Lihkamp (Robert Taylor), Otto Koster (Franchot Tone), and Gottfried Lenz (Robert Young)--who are searching for a reason to live in post-World War I Germany. The trio are also bound by their love for Patricia Hollmann (Margaret Sullavan), a young girl dying of tuberculosis. Her illness and the general unrest in Germany combine to dampen the youthful spirits of the three young men in this love story that will remind older people of "La Boheme" and younger ones of "Rent."

I came across "Three Comrades" because I read about its rather infamous "deleted scenes." Fitzgerald's original script had explicitly excoriated Nazi Germany. There were scenes in which a poor Jew proclaims his love for Germany, a rich Jew refuses to cheat the three comrades, and one in which the Nazis burned books (including those by Remarque). Of course, the Hays Office censored all of these scenes and made MGM remove most of the political references. The end result is a love story in which the additional pathos of a world heading back to war has been stripped away. The performances by Taylor and Sullavan are affective, and the supporting cast of Guy Kibbee, Lionel Atwill, Henry Hull, Charley Grapewin and Monty Woolley is excellent, although none of them seem particularly Teutonic. A decent love story, "Three Comrades" could have held a more prominent place in cinema history.

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One of the few movies in which the spirit of once esteemed author turned screenwriter, F. Scott Fitzgerald, is evident. A rather simple story of post-war Germany; a trio of war vets adjust to life after the war and share their affection for the dying, tubercular Patricia. Robert Taylor seems less than thrilled with his role and the tight-lipped Franchot Tone is probably conscious of how awful he is! Those who hold affection for this movie generally cherish the beautiful performance of the elfin Margaret Sullavan in one of her best roles as the dying Patricia Hollman. Slender and special, Sullavan was unique among Hollywood actresses of the day; she was not conventionally beautiful but she had something better genuine acting ability plus a voice that could send chills up and down your spine. Sullavan hailed from Virginia where she was born in 1911. A non-conformist, the stage-trained Sullavan was brilliant yet insecure and she disliked Hollywood immensely, therefore she did not fit the stereotype of actresses of the day (rather like a less ambitious version of Bette Davis) Admittedly schmaltzy entertainment for sentimentalists, this Frank Borzage film handed Sullavan the New York Critics Award for Best Actress for this and was nominated for BA, alas Davis took Oscar home that year for her portrayal of Julie Marsden in JEZEBEL.