Tender Comrade | |
---|---|
Theatrical poster
|
|
Directed by | Edward Dmytryk |
Produced by | David Hempstead |
Written by | Dalton Trumbo |
Starring |
Ginger Rogers Robert Ryan Ruth Hussey Kim Hunter Patricia Collinge Mady Christians |
Music by | Leigh Harline |
Cinematography | Russell Metty |
Edited by | Roland Gross |
Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date
|
|
Running time
|
101 minutes (copyright print) |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Tender Comrade (1943) is a black-and-white film released by RKO Radio Pictures, showing women on the home front living communally while their husbands are away at war. The film starred Ginger Rogers, Robert Ryan, Ruth Hussey, and Kim Hunter and was directed by Edward Dmytryk. The film was later used by the HUAC as evidence of Dalton Trumbo spreading communist propaganda. Trumbo was subsequently blacklisted. The film's title comes from a line in Robert Louis Stevenson's poem "My Wife" first published in Songs of Travel and Other Verses (1896).
Jo Jones (Ginger Rogers) works in an airplane factory and longs for the day when she will see her husband (Robert Ryan) again. The couple have a heart wrenching farewell at the train station before he leaves for overseas duty in the war. With their husbands off fighting in World War II, Jo and her co-workers struggle to pay living expenses. Unable to meet their rent, they decide to move in together and share expenses. The different women's personalities clash, especially when tensions rise over their German immigrant housekeeper Manya (Mady Christians). Jo discovers she is pregnant and ends up having a son who she names Chris after his father. The women are overjoyed when Doris' (Kim Hunter) husband comes home, but the same day Jo receives a telegram informing her that her husband has been killed. She hides her grief and joins in the homecoming celebration.
The film made a profit of $843,000.