Three Comrades **** (1938, Robert Taylor, Margaret Sullavan, Franchot Tone, Robert Young) – Classic Movie Review 6695

F Scott Fitzgerald gains his only scriptwriter credit during his stay at MGM (though he also worked on A Yank at Oxford and The Women) for his adaptation (along with Edward E Paramore Jr) of Erich Maria Remarque’s gripping but dour novel.

The MGM studio cast Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone and Robert Young as three close friends Erich Lohkamp, Otto Koster and Gottfried Lenz, former German soldiers who are embroiled in the troubles of inter-war Germany, but find solace in their mutual shared love for Patricia Hollmann (Margaret Sullavan), who is dying of incurable tuberculosis.

Director Frank Borzage’s 1938 love story film is a hugely sentimental weepie, but it is a winner all the way thanks, mainly to Best Actress Oscar nominee Sullavan, who is just marvellous. On the downsides, the once much-praised ghostly ending is a bit embarrassing now and you just wish that they had shown more courage and rigour in telling the story. But, otherwise, this is a superb old movie.

Producer Joseph L Mankiewicz uncredited re-wrote much of Fitzgerald’s dialogue. Censorship stopped Nazis being mentioned in the script.

Also in the cast are Guy Kibbee, Lionel Atwill, Henry Hull, Charles Grapewin, Monty Woolley, Stanley Andrews, Jessie Arnold, Barbara Bedford, Henry Brandon, George Chandler, Spencer Charters, Harvey Clark, Roger Converse, William Haade, Donald Haines, Priscilla Lawson, Mitchell Lewis, Marjorie Main, Claire McDowell, Edward McWade, Esther Muir, Ferdinand Munier, George Offerman, Sarah Padden, Leonard Penn, Frank Reicher, Phillip Terry, Morgan Wallace, W Allyn Warren, Josephine Whittell, Norman Willis and George Zucco.

It runs 100 minutes, is an MGM film, is shot in black and white by Joseph Ruttenberg, is scored by Franz Waxman and designed by Cedric Gibbons.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6695

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