Three Comrades (1938)
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65% of users liked it
(252 ratings)
Based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, Three Comrades represented one of the few successful screenwriting efforts of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in Germany in the years just following World War I, the film stars Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone and Robert Young as three battle-weary, thoroughly… More Based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, Three Comrades represented one of the few successful screenwriting efforts of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in Germany in the years just following World War I, the film stars Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone and Robert Young as three battle-weary, thoroughly disillusioned returning soldiers. The three friends pool their savings and open an auto-repair shop, and it is this that brings them in contact with wealthy motorist Lionel Atwill--and with Atwill's lovely travelling companion Margaret Sullavan. Taylor begins a romance with Sullavan, who soon joins the three comrades, making the group a jovial, fun-seeking foursome (this plot element bears traces of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, as well as the 1931 film The Last Flight). Though Sullavan suffers from tuberculosis (her shady past is only alluded to), she is encouraged by her male companions to fully enjoy what is left of her life. This becomes increasingly difficult when one of the comrades, Young, is killed during a political riot (it's a Nazi riot, though not so-labelled by ever-careful MGM). In the end, the four comrades are only two in number, with nothing but memories to see them through the cataclysmic years to come. Despite its Hollywoodized bowdlerization of the Remarque original, Three Comrades remains a poignant, haunting experience. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Frank Borzage
- Written By
- Erich Maria Remarque, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edward E. Paramore, Jr.
- Genres
- Drama, Romance, Classics
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Jun 3, 1938 Wide
- On DVD
- Apr 28, 1993
- Studio
- Warner Home Video
Critic Reviews
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Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Borzage very often captures some potent emotions, almost despite the material.
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Dan Callahan, Slant Magazine
Sullavan won the New York Film Critic's prize for her role here, and it was deserved: if Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner stands as her best movie, then this is certainly her best performance.
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Cast
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Robert Taylor
as Erich Lohkamp
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Margaret Sullavan
as Pat Hollmann
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Franchot Tone
as Otto Koster
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Robert Young
as Gottfried Lenz
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Guy Kibbee
as Alfons
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Lionel Atwill
as Franz Breuer
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Henry Hull
as Dr. Heinrich Becker
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Charles Grapewin
as Local Doctor
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Monty Woolley
as Dr. Jaffe
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Ricca Allen
as Housekeeper
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Jessie Arnold
as Nurse
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Barbara Bedford
as Rita
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Henry Brandon
as Man with Patch
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Ralph Bushman
as Comic
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George Chandler
as First Comic
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Spencer Charters
as Herr Schultz
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Harvey Clark
as Bald-Headed Man
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William Haade
as Younger Vogt man
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Donald Haines
as Comic
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Priscilla Lawson
as Frau Brunner
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Mitchell Lewis
as Boris
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Marjorie Main
as Old Woman
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Claire McDowell
as Frau Zalewska
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Edward McWade
as Major Domo
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Esther Muir
as Frau Schmidt
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Ferdinand Munier
as Burgomaster
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Sarah Padden
as Frau Schultz
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Leonard Penn
as Tony
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Phillip Terry
as Young Soldier
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Morgan Wallace
as Owner of Wrecked Car
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E. Alyn Warren
as Bookstore Owner
- Norman Willis
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George Zucco
as Dr. Plauten
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Ted Offenbecker
as Adolph
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Walter Bonn
as Adjutant
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Roger Converse
as Becker's Assistant
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George Offerman
as Adolph
