Movie of the Week: Comrade X (1940)
This week, Clark Gable is a foreign correspondent in Russia trying to drag an unwilling Hedy Lamarr back to America with him in Comrade X (1940).
Gable is McKinley Thompson, an American reporter living in Russia who is secretly sending news out of the country as the elusive “Comrade X”. His bumbling valet, Igor (Felix Bressart) discovers who he is and blackmails him to take his headstrong Communist daughter (Lamarr) out of Russia to protect her from prosecution. Everything doesn’t go as planned and soon the three of them are racing out of Russia with the Russian army on their tails.
This film isn’t some magnificent piece of movie artistry; it’s a silly little comedy with a bit of espionage thrown in. I hadn’t seen it in awhile and I actually forgot how funny it is. . Clark is always at ease playing a wise crackin’ reporter and this role is just his cup of tea.In many ways, it’s kind of like a poor man’s Ninotchka, and Hedy is no Garbo but it’s a delightful romp nonetheless. It’s really just one of those films with a pretty simple plot that seems more exotic and interesting because of its foreign location. The message doesn’t go much further than “America=Good Russia=Bad,” but what that is pretty much par for the course in 1940.
Hedy and Clark battle it out around his hotel room (she holds her own!)
Hedy emerges from the bathroom on their wedding night in I suppose what constitutes Russian lingerie? “Oh, so you did bring your parachute!” Clark wisecracks.
He hands her a nightie (why is there a woman’s nightie in his hotel room armoir?)
“I’m going to spread Communism in this?” she scoffs. “Like a house fire!” Clark retorts.
Clark was on his post-Gone with the Wind high here, and with his snappy script, he’s quite funny and also looking rather dashing.
