- Director: King Vidor

                   - Producer: Gottfried Reinhardt

                                             - Screenplay: Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer

 

 

 

Hedy always believed that her forte as an actress spotted on comedy. Yet she did not have a chance to show off her humor until Comrade X. Satisfied with the outcome of Boom Town with the beautiful pairing of Hedy and Clark, Mayer was more than pleased to cast them together again in another production. Moreover, 1940 was only one year after the tremendous success of Ninotchka (1939) which marked Greta Garbo's first comedy, it was still a good time to make a comedy with a plot alike. So Comrade X was born. With the teaming of two of the most beautiful people in Film history, charming actings with funny moments, the movie and obviously Hedy Lamarr were praised by various movie critics and claimed by many Hedy fans to be one of their absolute favorites.  

 

 

The Soviet secret police are vastly disturbed by a person with the identity of Comrade X and decide to censor every report by foreign correspondents until he is discovered. Comrade X is actually is discovered by Vanya, a Russian porter whose daughter is a communist with too many ideals. Vanya is afraid that one day his daughter whose name is Theodore (Hedy Lamarr) would be killed in Russia, so he threatens 'Comrade X' Mckinley Thompson (Clark Gable) to reveal his identity unless he helps Theodore get out of this country. Thompson agrees.

He comes to meet Theodore in a streetcar, in which she is the conductor and convinces her of how much he loves Russia and that though being an American, he is also a communist with just the same ideals with hers. She believes and decides to marry him. Later she finds out that he lies and wants to expose him to the police. But they put her, her father and McKinley all in prison instead. Knowing their intention of exucuting everyone, Mckinley manages to escape with both Theodore and her father. Realizing all her devotion to communisim is wasted and her ideals are collapsed, Theodore is devastated but she finds her true love in McKinley and together they flee successfully to the border in a tank they steal.

 

  • Hedy Lamarr's first comedy and her second movie with Clark Gable.
  • When the film was released, WWII had already begun in Europe.
  • Paul Morrissey claimed this to be his favorite movie.
  • Nominated for Oscar for best writing - Walter Reisch
  • Ben Hecht, co-writer of the movie, in sixteen years later would write a screenplay alike Comrade X named The Iron Petticoat which starred Katharine Hepburn. 
  • In the movie, though Theodore explains to McKinley how easy it is in Russia to get a divorce (by just crossing the partner's name on the postcard), it was in fact much harder to divorce in Russia, since Stalin had erased that postcard law four years earlier.
  • The movie is not yet available on DVD, only VHS.
  • Soundtrack include "Funiculi, Funicula" written by Peppino Turco and Luigi Denza, sung by Clark Gable in the movie.

 


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Hedy as Helen of Troy