Three Comrades - Film Impressions

directed by Frank Borzage, 1938

I absolutely adore the four silent films of Frank Borzage’s that I’ve seen: Lazybones, Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, and especially Lucky Star. Though I’m obviously missing *several* key films (Lonesome, The Wind, Greed, anything by Vidor or von Sternberg...so on), to me they represent a zenith of American silent film, and apart from that, the latter three are perhaps the greatest romantic ‘trilogy’ in film. I’ve only seen four, but I’ve been none too keen on Borzage’s sound films...Bad Girl and After Tomorrow were interesting, but no masterpieces. I’ve said my piece on They Had to See Paris in my Ruggles of Red Gap review, and Song O’ My Heart was even worse. So I had to say I entered this film with some trepidation. Ultimately, to be rewarded, though this film is not quite on their level still.

Three Comrades is a melodrama that takes place after the first World War, and in Germany...and though there are hints of it, this Germany is far from the romanticized countries of Italy or France presented in Street Angel and Seventh Heaven, respectively. And the three comrades in question are German war vets; bosom buddies through and through, and bosom buddies seem to be a requirement for surviving with sanity before the rise of the Nazis. But the film doesn’t seem to be so much about these three buddies, as it does the burgeoning love between Erich (played by Robert Taylor) and Pat (Margaret Sullivan, in her second of three Borzage films)...both of which are the best thing to happen to the other. But can one really find happiness in the ruins of postwar Germany?

The film is legendary for being one of the only screen credits of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and its also known that producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz tampered with the film...and while I can’t say much about Fitzgerald or Mankiewicz’s talents (being unfamiliar with them, personally), its obvious to me that the film definitely suffers from a sort of schizophrenia. For one, Robert Taylor doesn’t really seem to work...in fact, of the three comrades, only Franchot Tone has any real chemistry with the story and Sullivan’s character; and he unfortunately isn’t the leading man. The film’s story constantly switches between its three comrades and the romantic element, and in the end I don’t feel the film was very successful in coalescing these strands into a proper story.

And to be fair, sometimes through its convoluted and unrequited themes, there is more than a semblance of their weight. The film is set in the early 1920s, but being released in 1938, the audience knew very clearly what awaited Germany in most of the next two decades, and the film only needs to briefly allude to the shadows of the future for poignant effect; and when its more than allusion, its at least obvious what the audience should be feeling. So, unlike Major Dundee, its at least coherant in this regard. It just doesn't quite follow through as much as it should.

What makes this film ultimately so rewarding is the pairing of Borzage and Sullivan. Borzage excelled at elevating earthly love to divine heights, and the scenes between Taylor and Sullivan have much of that same “stuff” that made the sequences shared by Gaynor and Farrell in their trilogy so exquisite. As with those other films, there’s a deeply romantic, almost violent tenderness that punctuates the ups and downs of this star-crossed duo, and thankfully much of this passionate interplay between the two lovers bleeds into the film’s later scenes and neatly covers up many of the film’s more glaring flaws. And then there’s Sullivan...of all of the people we see on screen, she’s the one who shines. It’s a peculiar kind of radiance; one could compare it to that of the cold light of a dying star if one felt poetic. If one wants to be less poetic, one could say she more than makes up for anybody’s lack of chemistry with her.

So, in conclusion, Three Comrades could be said to be a failure...but it’s the kind of failure that, in its own way, succeeds, and almost entirely due to the preoccupations of its director, and its leading lady’s strength. A very worthy film; never exactly unbearable, beyond watchable in its worst moments, and ravishing in its best. I give the film an 83 / 100