Comrad X 1940

     McKinley B. “Mac” Thompson sends uncensored coded news out of Moscow.  He's also a spy and he uses the alias Comrade X.  The authorities of the Communist Party send out their own news that Comrade X has been eliminated.  Comrade X isn’t really dead but the authorities are just hoping he's dead.  Mac checks into a hotel and the valet Vanya discover that Thompson is still alive and he is Comrade X.  Vanya blackmails Mac into helping his daughter Golubka leave the country.  Golubka is scheduled for liquidation by the Kremlin.  Her real name is Theodore and Mac learns he will need to marry her in order for her to leave the country.  This isn’t too difficult for Mac because Theodore is a beautiful woman.   

     This film is pretty amazing with the attitudes of America and Russia about each other as countries.  So much has happened historically in the world since 1940.  There is a lot of spying going on and the repression of the news.  Gable is good at putting over things on men and charming women.  There are comical scenes of Russian tanks following Mac and Theodore.  Ninotchka of 1939 is much better than this film.  Directed by Ernst Lubitsch with Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas.  Imdb rating is 8 out of 10.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)   

 

104 min, Comedy directed by King Vidor with Clark Gable, Hedy Lamarr, Oskar Homolka, Felix Bressart, Eve Arden, Sig Ruman, Natasha Lytess, Vladimir Sokoloff, Edgar Barrier, Georges Renavent, Mikhail Rasumny.

Note:  Imdb 6.6 out of 10, 51% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, TCM Leonard Maltin 2.5* out of 4* average user review 4* out of 5*, Three Movie Buffs 3* out of 4*.

Special Note:  Filmed in Culver City, California.  There was a Soviet law that a person could divorce a spouse simply by sending them a postcard.  There is a reference to the law in this film but it was repealed in 1936.   This film was released in 1940 and WWII had already begun in Europe.  The Soviet Union had a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany.  Mac pretends to hear that Germany has broken the pact and has invaded the USSR.  Germany launched Operation Barbarossa in the summer of 1941, which broke the pact and Germany invaded the USSR.  Because of the success of Ninotchka, MGM released Comrade X.  Gable and Lamarr were also together in Boom Town of 1938.