Comrade X
| Comrade X | |
|---|---|
1940 US Theatrical Poster
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| Directed by | King Vidor |
| Produced by |
Gottfried Reinhardt King Vidor |
| Written by |
Walter Reisch (story) Ben Hecht Charles Lederer Herman J. Mankiewicz (uncredited) |
| Starring |
Clark Gable Hedy Lamarr Oskar Homolka Felix Bressart |
| Music by | Bronislau Kaper |
| Cinematography | Joseph Ruttenberg |
| Edited by | Harold F. Kress |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $920,000 |
| Box office | $2,079,000 |
Comrade X is a 1940 American comedy spy film directed by King Vidor and starring Clark Gable, Hedy Lamarr, and Oskar Homolka.
In the Soviet Union, American reporter McKinley "Mac" Thompson (Clark Gable) secretly writes unflattering stories, attributed to "Comrade X", for his newspaper. His identity is discovered by his valet, Vanya (Felix Bressart), who blackmails Mac into promising to get his daughter, a streetcar conductor named Theodore (Hedy Lamarr), out of the country. Theodore agrees to a sham marriage so she can spread the message of the benefits of Communism to the rest of the world. However, Commissar Vasiliev (Oscar Homolka) is determined to unmask and arrest Comrade X.
Gable prophetically jokes that "Germany just invaded Russia" and "Panzer tanks are rolling into Ukraine" to get the Russian hotel manager to kick the German reporter out of his room. Less than a year after release, Germany did indeed invade Russia and the Ukrainian SSR.
This is one of the first prewar American films that openly criticized Nazi Germany. Most films dealing with Europe at the time either ignored the terrors of the totalitarian dictatorship, depicting Germany as "business as usual." This of course changed after the start of World War II in Europe, and more specifically, after the Fall of France. After Germany declared war on the USA, Hollywood became a major source of propaganda, depicting Nazis as cruel savages intent on world domination, from Hitler down to the common footsoldier.
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