Three Comrades(1938)

Three Comrades 1938. Drama directed by Frank Borzage. The screenplay is by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edward E. Paramore Jr., and was adapted from the novel Three Comrades by Erich Maria Remarque (also considered the loose basis for The Deer Hunter in 1978). This was F. Scott Fitzgerald's only screenwriting credit. Robert Young replaced Spencer Tracy. Cast: Robert Taylor, Margaret Sullavan, Franchot Tone, and Robert Young. Sullavan was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

As the war has ended three loyal friends Erich Lohkamp, Otto Koster and Gottfried Lenz, try to start their civilian life by opening a auto repair shop and taxi business and are barely able to make a living.

Video: Three Comrades (1938) -- We'd Have Let You Win



One day, while celebrating the birthday of Erich, Otto and Gottfried drive him to a country inn where they meet aristocrat Patricia Hollmann. Patricia and Erich, seem to hit it off and Otto and Gottfried encourage their relationship, but not knowing that she is now poor, Erich feels that Pat's background will keep them apart.

When she invites him to the opera, they run into a mysterious friend Herr Breuer, a wealthy man who is in love with Pat, He invites them to a nightclub. Erich's borrowed tuxedo starts to fall apart, which causes him to leave. Pat is waiting for him outside his apartment when he arrives home, the two realize that they are in love.

Gottfried tries to convince Erich to marry Pat, despite his financial troubles and when Otto tries to convince Pat to marry Erich, she reveals that she had been very ill because of her lungs. Otto convinces her that she should marry Erich, no matter how brief their time together...

On their honeymoon, Pat collapses on the beach. When the doctor says that she may die if her hemorrhaging does not stop, Erich calls Otto to find Pat's doctor. Driving like a mad man through the fog in his beloved car "Baby," Otto brings Dr. Jaffe, just in time to save Pat, but the doctor warns that she must go to a sanitarium in the fall. Through the summer months, Otto, Erich, Gottfried and Pat have a wonderful time together.

Idealist Gottfried, falls victim of the times and is torn between his loyalty to his friends and his belief in the teachings of political pacifist Dr. Heinrich Becker. On the day that Pat leaves for the sanitarium, Gottfried is shot to death by men who are trying to kill Becker. Now faced with the loss of Gottfried as well Pat's illness, Erich and Otto sell their shop and go searching for Gottfried's killer. Otto finally finds the murderer and shoots him in self-defense. That same night, Erich finds out that Pat must have an operation. When Otto and Erich visit her, they learn that the operation will cost over one thousand marks, Otto decides to sell "Baby" to pay for the operation  .

When Otto goes to see her, he tells her that Gottfried is dead and that he has sold "Baby," and she tells him that their self-sacrifices for her must stop. He comforts her by telling her to live for Erich. As Otto leaves the sanitarium, Pat walks to the window... Will Erich, see her and get to her in time?

A beautiful drama about love and friendship. Robert Taylor, one of my favorite actors gives a dignified performance as Erich. Margaret Sullivan, gives a valiant performance as Pat. This film is very much worth watching. Great performances by all.

Margaret Sullavan (May 16, 1909 – January 1, 1960), began her career onstage in 1929.

In 1933 she caught the attention of movie director John M. Stahl and had her debut on the screen that same year in Only Yesterday.

Sullavan preferred working on the stage and made only 16 movies, four of which were opposite James Stewart in a successful partnership.

She retired from the screen in the early forties, but returned in 1950 to make her last movie, No Sad Songs for Me (1950), in which she plays a woman who is dying of cancer. For the rest of her career she would only appear on the stage.

She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in her seventh film, Three Comrades (1938). A drama set in post–World War I Germany. Three returning German soldiers meet Sullavan who joins them and eventually marries one of them. Sullavan made no further films, and acted only on the stage, after 1950.

She experienced increasing hearing problems, depression, and mental frailty in the 1950's. She died of an overdose of barbiturates, which was ruled accidental, on January 1, 1960 at the age of 50.

Sullavan's elder daughter, actress Brooke Hayward, wrote Haywire, a best-selling memoir about her family, which was made into a television movie starring Lee Remick as Margaret Sullavan and Jason Robards as Leland Hayward.

Pre- Code: Strange Interlude(1932)

Strange Interlude(1932). Romantic drama. D: Robert Z. Leonard. Cast: Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, May Robson, Maureen O'Sullivan, Robert Young, Ralph Morgan, Henry B. Walthall and Mary Alden.

In a small New England town, shortly after the World War, writer Charlie Marsden returns home from Europe to visit the woman he is secretly in love with.  There he finds Nina Leeds, angry with her father for preventing Gordon from marrying her before he died in a plane crash during the war. Announcing, that she is going to move to Boston to work as a nurse in a sanitarium for wounded soldiers.

One year later, Nina is called home when her father becomes ill. By the time she arrives home with, Dr. Ned Darrell, and Sam Evans, her father has already died.

Later when, Nina confesses to Charlie that her obsession with Gordon has caused her to be promiscuous with men, Charlie, even though he wants to marry her, realizes that Nina needs a strong man, suggests that she should marry Sam. Wanting a normal married life, Nina agrees.

Nina, soon realizes her mistake, when Sam's mother confides in her that insanity runs in the family and they should not have any children. Mrs. Evans then tells Nina that Sam knows nothing about the "family curse" and suggests Nina, have children by another man.

Nina, soon regrets her marriage and when Ned visits, she tells him about the Evans curse and the two decide to conceive a child. During their afternoon together, Nina realizes that she loves Ned, but.. Ned is not ready to get married and to prevent Nina from telling Sam, Ned announces that Nina is pregnant and that he is leaving for Europe for a year. After Ned's leaves, Nina gives birth to a son, named Gordon.

Realizing that he made a mistake, Ned returns and begs her to run away with him but, Nina, realizing that Sam would be destroyed, tells him that she is happy with the way things are.

Ned and Charlie, become silent partners in Sam's business and Sam makes them all wealthy.

Later when Ned, Charlie, Nina and Sam come to watch Gordon, now a collage athlete compete in a regatta, Ned announces that Gordon plans to marry, Madeleine. Nina, objects and asks Ned to stop the marriage and tell Sam the truth about his paternity. When Ned refuses, Nina decides to tell Charlie the truth. Gordon wins the regatta and Sam, overcome with excitement, suffers a fatal heart attack.

After the funeral, Gordon and Ned get into an argument and Gordon hits Ned, causing Nina to blurt out that he has struck his own father. Gordon, misunderstands and says that he always knew Nina and Ned were in love and gives them his blessing. Ned is about to tell Gordon the truth, but.. will Nina have a change of heart and stop him?

Fun Fact: This was the first film in which Clark Gable's trademark mustache appeared.

By the end of this emotionally moving film, you feel sorry for just about everyone in it and they all deprived themselves of happiness. Great acting, especially for Norma Shearer and Clark Gable

 May Robson (19 April 1858 – 20 October 1942).  In 1884, after being widowed, she became an actress simply to support her children.

Over the next several decades, she flourished on the stage. She starred in the 1916 silent film, A Night Out, an adaptation of the play she co-wrote, The Three Lights.

She made several other silent films, then successfully transitioned to talkies.

 She made 45 films during the 1930s. Among her starring roles was 1931's The She-Wolf, in which she was cast as a miserly millionaire businesswoman based on Hetty Green.

She also starred in the final segment of the anthology film, If I Had a Million (1932) as a rest home resident who gets a new lease on life when she is given a $1,000,000 check by a dying business tycoon.

She played the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1933), Countess Vronsky in Anna Karenina (1936), Aunt Elizabeth in Bringing Up Baby (1938), Aunt Polly in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), and a sharp-tongued Granny in A Star Is Born (1937).

Miss Robson was top-billed as late as 1940, starring in Granny Get Your Gun at age 82.

Her last film was 1942's Joan of Paris.

Sworn Enemy(1936).

Sworn Enemy(1936). Director: Edwin L. Marin. Cast: Robert Young, Florence Rice, Joseph Calleia and Lewis Stone.

Just out of Law school, Hank Sherman's, begins his first night working at the Decker produce company, when thugs come by and insist that he pay protection money, which turns out to be more than he makes.. Owner Eli Decker, drives by just in time to prevent Hank from getting a beating.Decker, wants to get rid of the thugs once and for all and gives Hank, a job as his chauffeur.

Decker's secretary Peggy Gattle,later asks him to drive her to Sing Sing to meet her father Dr. Simon Gattle, who was wrongly imprisoned twelve years ago and has been finding out all he can on Joe Emerald, the gangster who framed him. They meet with Paul Scott from the district attorney's office and put together a plan to get Emerald. Gattle says that Emerald, only deals in cash and that finding his safe, might have what they need to have him arrested on income tax evasion.

Outside, Dutch McTurck, an old friend of Hank's warns him to leave Decker, but instead Hank goes to Decker and says that he wants to be part of the investigation.

Hank's brother Steve, who is a fight promoter, asks to join Decker in his car to discuss a possible fight at Madison Square Garden for boxer "Steamer" Krupp. Hank is driving the car, when it is hit by a steam shovel that kills both Decker and Steve.

At Steve's funeral, Hank is looking for revenge and accepts Dutch's offer to work for him, but, Hank is really working undercover for the district attorney.

On Hank's first "raid" with Dutch, they put castor oil in milk cans owned by a company that will not pay for "protection." When the police arrive, Hank is wounded and hides in a boxcar with Dutch, then kills Dutch when he sees him about to kill a policeman. The other gang members blame him for Dutch's death and want him to leave, so he comes up with another plan to get close to Emerald. Which is.. to convince Steamer, to keep boxing to catch Emerald's attention, who is a sports promoter.

Soon, Steamer wins so many fights that Emerald, who only walks with the aid of two canes, offers to buy his contract for $10,000. When,Steamer cannot fight without Hank, Emerald hires him as Steamer's manager, but everyone still believes that Emerald is the real manager.

Hank, then tells Emerald that his girl friend Peg, wants to be an actress and that she also needs a job. Later, Peg pretends to pass out from drinking in Emerald's penthouse, then sets fire to the apartment. Emerald rushes to his steam room, then collapses. Steamer then carries him to safety and later tells Hank, who knows that the safe is hidden in the steam room. Police detective Simmons, then goes to Emerald's apartment during Steamer's fight to look through the safe.

As luck would have it, a huge storm causes the fight's cancellation and Emerald arrives back home, just as Hank, Peg, Gattle and Simmons are in the steam room. Emerald then locks them in and turns on the steam. Will Steamer arrive in time to let them out?

 

A dark movie that, had it been made a few years later, would have been a film noir. Wonderful acting by Robert Young, Louis Stone, Samuel Hinds, Joseph Calleia and Florence Rice. Although, the movie is a typical 1930's MGM type of film overcoming odds to catch the bad guys. It filled with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing.

Florence Rice (February 14, 1907 - February 23, 1974).
Became an actress during the early 1930s and after several Broadway roles, eventually made her way to Hollywood where she acted in almost fifty films between 1934 and 1943. Blonde, pretty, and wholesome, Rice was cast as the reliable girlfriend in several MGM films, and during the 1930s, MGM gradually provided her with more substantial roles, occasionally in prestige productions. Rice never became a major figure in films, but achieved popularity in a number of screen pairings with Robert Young. Her most widely seen performances were in Double Wedding (1937), in which she was billed third in the cast credits behind William Powell and Myrna Loy, Sweethearts (1938) with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, and The Marx Brothers film At The Circus (1939). During the 1940s the quality of her roles steadily decreased and in 1947 she retired.

The Second Woman (1950).

The Second Woman (1950). Film noir, directed by James V. Kern. Cast: Robert Young, Betsy Drake, John Sutton and Florence Bates.

The story begins when Major Badger, stops by one Sunday to warn Amelia Foster and her niece Ellen, that Jeff Cohalan, is a dangerous criminal. They find him unconscious in the garage, with the car engine running. Ellen remembers their first meeting: On a train to Pine Cliff, where Jeff meets Dr. Hartley, who is concerned about Jeff's problems with depression. In the dining car, he meets Ellen, who is going to visit her aunt, who lives next door to Jeff.

Later, at Ben Sheppard's office, where Jeff works there as an architect, another employee Keith Ferris, notices his forget fullness. Ellen meets with Jeff, on the beach and asks him to show her the house "Hilltop". Later, Ellen finds out that Jeff built the house for his fiancee, Vivian Sheppard, who was killed in a car accident, the night before their wedding. Ellen, finds herself attracted to Jeff, who's being haunted by explainable, harassment...or is it.. paranoia?

This is a better-than-average psychological thriller, where Robert Young gives a wonderful performance. The Second Woman, is a cross between the films, Rebecca, Gaslight and Fountainhead, one of those movies you like to watch in the middle of a stormy night...

Florence Bates (April 15, 1888 – January 31, 1954) was a character actress who often played grande dame characters in her films.

Bates showed musical talent as a child, but a hand injury stopped her from continuing her piano studies. She graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in Mathematics in 1906, after which she taught school.

In 1909 she met and married her first husband and gave up her career to raise their daughter. When her marriage ended in divorce, she began to study law and passed the bar in 1914, becoming at the age of 26 the first female attorney in her home state.

After the death of her parents, Bates left the legal profession to help her sister manage their father's antique business. She became a bilingual radio commentator whose program was designed to foster good relations between the United States and Mexico.

 In 1929, she closed the antique shop and married wealthy oil baron William F. Jacoby. When he lost his fortune, the couple moved to Los Angeles and opened a bakery.

In the mid-1930's, Bates performed in Jane Austen's, Emma. When she decided to continue working with the theater group, she changed her professional name to that of the first character she played on stage.

 In 1939 she was introduced to Alfred Hitchcock, who cast her in her first major screen role, Mrs. Van Hopper, in the film, Rebecca.

Bates performed in more than sixty films over the next thirteen years. Among her credits are: Kitty Foyle, The Moon and Sixpence, Mr. Lucky, Heaven Can Wait, Mister Big, Since You Went Away, Kismet, Saratoga Trunk, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Winter Meeting, I Remember Mama, Portrait of Jennie, A Letter to Three Wives, On the Town, and Les Misérables.

Bates had a regular role on The Hank McCune Show and made guest appearances on I Love Lucy, My Little Margie, and Our Miss Brooks.

The Bride Walks Out(1936).

The Bride Walks Out(1936). Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Gene Raymond and Robert Young.

The story begins when fashion model Carolyn agrees to quit her well paying job and live on Michael's small earnings as an engineer.  After their wedding ceremony, Carolyn, gets into a heated argument with Michael. After which, Michael gets into a fight and is arrested. While the couple is in court, Carolyn meets wealthy Hugh McKenzie, who falls in love with her at first sight and pays Michael's fine.

Unable to keep up their payments, Carolyn loses the furniture on New Year's Eve and gets drunk with Donovan, the repossesser and Hugh and Mattie Dodson, Paul's wife.

Later, at a New Year's Eve party. When Carolyn and Michael arrive home, they find that Hugh has replaced all of the repossessed furniture. Carolyn, wants to repay Hugh and secretly goes back to work. Will Michael ever find out the truth and walk out on her?

This charming movie makes light of some of those old fashioned sexist ideas made for a different time.

Helen Broderick (August 11, 1891 – September 25, 1959) was  known for her comic roles, as a wisecracking sidekick.

She is best known for her performance in the film, Fifty Million Frenchmen.

In the early 1930's, she performed in the films: The Band Wagon, As Thousands Cheer, Fifty Million Frenchmen, the Astaire-Rogers movies Top Hat and Swing Time.

The wife of actor Lester Crawford, she was the mother of Academy Award-winning actor Broderick Crawford.

Today We Live (1933) .

Today We Live (1933). Cast: Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper, Robert Young, and Franchot Tone. The film is based on "Turnabout" by William Faulkner. Faulkner also provided the dialogue for the film, making it the only film version of his work that he co-wrote. Joan Crawford's character was added to the film to add a love interest. She met her future husband Franchot Tone on the set of the film. They married two years later.

In World War I, Diana, a English girl, gets caught up in a love triangle between British Naval Officer, Claude and an American fighter pilot, Bogard. A rivalry for Diana develops between the men. Claude is blinded in action, just as he realizes Diana and Bogard's true feelings for one another. A suicide mission comes up, the men all go off to fight the war. Who will come back for Diana?

 Fun Facts:

Variety reported in its review that director Howard Hawks used footage from the movie, Hell's Angels (1930) for the big bomber expedition sequence, the main dogfight, and the head-on collision of two airplanes.

Film debut of Franchot Tone.

I thought this film had beautiful sets and interesting costumes. Joan Crawford's fans will find that she was at the height of her beauty and dominates the first forty-five minutes of the film. This love story is a strange one.

H.M. Pulham, Esq (1941).

H.M. Pulham, Esq (1941). Directed by King Vidor and based on a novel by John P. Marquand. Vidor co-wrote the screenplay with his wife, Elizabeth Hill Vidor. Cast: Robert Young, Hedy Lamarr, Ruth Hussey, Charles Coburn, and Van Heflin. There is also an early uncredited appearance by Ava Gardner.

Harry Moulton Pulham Jr. is a middle-aged Boston businessman, who has a wife, Kay, with whom he has settled into a too comfortable marriage, but.. it did not start out that way.

Harry finds himself in charge of organizing a twenty-five-year college reunion, he thinks back to after the end of World War I. His friend Bill King, helps him get a job for a New York City advertising company, where he falls in love with, Marvin Miles. She does not want to be a traditional wife and he cannot imagine living anywhere other than Boston. So they break off their relationship. Harry,  marries a woman with the same ideas about marriage as he has.

Many years later, Marvin, who has also married arranges to meet Harry again where sparks begins to fly and Harry is tempted to have an affair, but they both realize that it would not be a good idea.

 

 Harry, begs his wife to go away with him on a romantic vacation, to rekindle their love. At first, she says "no", but.. will she change her mind and agree to go away with him?

 This was Hedy Lamarr's favorite film and she delivered the best dramatic performance of her career. Here she is not the mysterious seductive woman, as in her other films. She is loving and kind, in her role as a career girl who falls in love with her boss. Robert was not the first choice for the role. Both Gary Cooper and James Stewart turned the role down, leading Vidor to offer the role to Robert Young.

Ruth Hussey, was encouraged by a friend to try out for acting roles at the Providence Playhouse. The theater director there turned her down, saying the roles were cast only out of New York City. Later that week she traveled to New York City and on her first day there she signed-up with a talent agent who booked her for a role in a play starting the next day back at the Providence Playhouse.

In New York City she also worked as a model with the world-famous Powers agency. She then landed a role in the film,, Dead End and toured the country in 1937 and at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles where she was spotted by talent scout Billy Grady. MGM signed her to a players contract and she made her film debut in 1937. She quickly became a leading lady in MGM's "B" unit. For a 1940 "A" picture role she was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Elizabeth Imbrie, the magazine photographer and girlfriend of Jimmy Stewart's character in the film, The Philadelphia Story.

Hussey also worked with Robert Taylor in, Flight Command (1940), Robert Young in H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), Van Heflin in Tennessee Johnson (1942), Ray Milland in The Uninvited (1944) and Alan Ladd in The Great Gatsby (1949). In 1946 she starred on Broadway in State Of The Union the Pulitzer Prize play. In 1960 she co-starred in the film, The Facts of Life with Bob Hope.

The Enchanted Cottage (1945).

The Enchanted Cottage (1945). Cast: Robert Young, Dorothy McGuire, and Mildred Natwick. It was based on a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. The Enchanted Cottage was previously adapted for the silent screen in 1924, with Richard Barthelmess and May McAvoy as the newlyweds.

While waiting for Laura and Oliver Bradford to arrive, their friend blind pianist John Hillgrove, plays a song called "The Enchanted Cottage," for his guests: The story begins when the main house is destroyed by fire. Which leaves only one wing left standing. The original owner, an English nobleman, remodeled the wing and rented it out to honeymooners. One day, Laura Pennington, a Lonely/homely young woman, arrives looking for work at the cottage as a housekeeper. Mrs. Minnett, likes the the girl and hires her.

Oliver Bradford and his fiancee, Beatrice Alexander, decide to rent a room at the cottage but, Beatrice, is disappointed by what she sees. Laura tells her that the cottage is enchanted and shows her the window on which lovers throughout time have etched their names. When Oliver etches Beatrice's name using her engagement ring, the stone falls out of its setting, creating a sense of doom. Oliver, a pilot, is called to war before they can marry and they have to cancel their plans.

One year later, a telegram comes from Oliver, saying he would like to rent the cottage for an indefinite period of time. Expecting the newlyweds, Laura is shocked when Oliver arrives alone, horribly disfigured and disabled from an airplane crash.
Soon after, Oliver's mother, stepfather and Beatrice come to visit, but Oliver refuses to see them. Oliver receives an ultimatum from his mother.. either come home or she will move in with him. Not wanting to live with his mother, Oliver proposes to Laura and she accepts. You have to watch the movie to find out if they too fall under the spell of, The Enchanted Cottage.

This is without a doubt a very powerful touching love story, one of my all time favorite films. If you love romance films, you will love this one.

They Wont Believe Me (1947): This is more than just a trip to Montreal.

They Won't Believe Me (1947). Cast: Susan Hayward, Robert Young, Rita Johnson and Jane Greer. Film noir. Director: Irving Pichel. Produced by Alfred Hitchcock longtime assistant, Joan Harrison.

Womanizer Larry Ballentine, is on trial for the murder of his girlfriend and wants to take the stand in his own defense. During his testimony, we learn that he married his wife, Gretta, for her money and had many affairs. He makes plans to leave his wife for Verna, withdrawing all of his wife's money from the bank. Larry's plan falls apart after Verna is killed in a car accident. This film has plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing. What will the jury decide?

Joan Harrison, worked on the screenplays for four Alfred Hitchcock films: Rebecca (1940) and produced the director's TV series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents as well film noirs : two with director Robert Siodmak (Phantom Lady, 1944; Uncle Harry, 1945). Joining Harrison were director Irving Pichel (The Most Dangerous Game, 1932); screenwriter Jonathan Latimer, who wrote Nocturne (1946) and The Big Clock (1948); cinematographer Harry J. Wild, who worked on Murder, My Sweet (1944) and Cornered (1945); and composer Roy Webb, whose music scores for film noirs like The Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) and Crossfire (1947).

What I enjoyed most about this film was Robert Young in the role of Larry Ballentine. I was used to seeing, Young in romantic comedies. In this Film Noir, He plays a liar, a thief, a coward who is lacking in moral character and yet it is one of his best, performances. In my opinion. :)

Rita A. Johnson (August 13, 1913 – October 31, 1965), began acting on Broadway in 1935 and started her film career two years later.

She played a murderess in Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) and a doomed wife in the RKO film noir They Won't Believe Me (1947).

Her film career came almost to a complete stop after a 1948 accident (a hair dryer fell on her head) that required delicate brain surgery.

Her screen time in movies after that was limited due to her reduced mobility and powers of concentration.

She also suffered from alcoholism from the time of her injuries  until her death of a brain hemorrhage on October 31, 1965.