Tonight I watched a classic farce in the best Hollywood tradition of "To Be Or Not To Be", which we saw and reviewed recently. In that movie, the Nazis were the target of the humor, this time it was the Communist system in the Soviet Union. The leaders of both regimes in both movies were portrayed as bumbling, albeit murderous, fools : pompous to the hilt but easily taken in by wise-cracking Americans. The truth is a lot more brutal of course, but the whole idea of farce comedy as it relates to politics or regimes is to take away the power of dictators and totalitarians by mocking them, and no one did it better than Hollywood in the '30s and '40s.
The title of this evening's film was "Comrade X" (1940). I had seen it on the shelf at the Central Library during my trip Downtown two weeks ago. I already had chosen the limit of 4 dvds to check out, but I made a mental note of "X" and placed a hold on it when I got home. I thought it was a thriller, an espionage movie, and it is, in spirit at least, but it's really an out-and-out comedy and I wasn't aware of that when I reserved it. But man, did they knock it out of the park.
Clark Gable stars as an American reporter stationed in Moscow. He lives in a comically shabby hotel with other reporters from other nations. Doors fall off their hinges, beds disappear, anything that can go wrong does. This was a 1940 critique of the Soviet system, very apt in retrospect. In the movie, all such criticism is done in lighthearted fashion, a signature of the farce technique. Trouble first arises when Gable and a self-righteous German reporter (also subject to farcical portrayal) are both suspected of being spies, of being the mysterious "Comrade X", who is sending coded messages about the secretive Soviet system in his newspaper articles, which are subject to censors. Comrade X is bypassing the censors with his codes, but now he has been discovered, except the Russian bosses aren't sure who he is.
One man knows, however, a bumbling slow witted valet who works at the hotel. He is played to perfection by a character actor named Felix Bressart, who has to be seen to be appreciated. The valet seems like a dumbell, but he doubles as the hotel maid and handyman, and he has seen the special "mask" that Comrade X uses to codify his newspaper articles. It is a handkerchief with special rectangles cut out of it to reveal certain words, and it belongs to Clark Gable. Bressart confronts Gable and threatens to turn him over to the Commissar unless Gable will cooperate with him. He doesn't want money, but he does want Clark to rescue his daughter and take her out of Russia and back to America. This is part of the "West Is Best" plot point that is put forth in the amusing dialogue over the course of the film. The Russians have soul and a "logical" system they believe in with every fiber of their being, but we can see first hand that it doesn't work. Gable sees that he has no choice but to help the valet, so he ventures out one night to meet the man's daughter, who drives a streetcar.
She turns out to be Hedy Lamarr, who was considered by many to be the most beautiful actress in the movies. We've seen a lot of famous stars in our reviews here at the blog, handsome men and stunning women. Good looks have almost always been part of the requirement for leading roles. I had not personally seen much of Hedy Lamarr because she was not in too many well known films, and even though I seek out obscure films as well, she never turned up in any of those either. As I now see on IMDB, she only had 35 credits, and many of them were in movies I have not heard of. She was a big star, and also a brilliant inventor (as seen in the recent documentary "Bombshell"), but it seems that in the final analysis she had somewhat of a tragic life, related to her own reaction to being beheld as beautiful. She felt her looks were also her curse, and this is true because as a young starlet she bought into the idea of celebrity.
But in "Comrade X", she tears it up in every way. She enters the movie at about the 30 minute mark and from then on, we are in full Soviet comedic mode. Lamarr dominates as a true believer in the system. She loves Russia, loves Communism, and even loves her name, "Theodor", given to her by her goofy father (the valet) so that she would be able to get a decent job when she came of age, as all good jobs were reserved for men under Communism.
Lamarr plays it straight and also farcical. She talks fast and without humor, advocating for her beloved Russia, but once Gable gets to her we can see there are embers smoldering under the surface. Now she is trading barbs with him, and she even takes charge and as the night progresses, she demands he marry her. Such is the depiction of the self-sure Soviet Woman, equal to men under the System of Comrade Karl Marx. The difference is that Lamarr really likes making out with Gable. That aspect is emphasized. Suddenly, the stereotype of the sexless, purely ideological Soviet Woman is broken, and good old fashioned romance takes over.
Lamarr and Gable are expert farceurs, and the supporting cast provide the foundation that make the whole thing work. I found myself laughing throughout, and even thinking that this is the kind of movie that could have been remade in the 80s as a John Belushi spectacular, only because of the final 20 minutes, in which the story takes a major left turn. Suddenly the lead characters are escaping in tanks, and things get Mel Brooks crazy.
Having seen the film, I have ordered the documentary "Bonbshell", the story of Hedy Lamarr, who also helped to develop a torpedo guidance system for the Navy in WW2. The tale of her contribution is shrouded in apocryphal lore. "She really didn't know electronics", or "she only invented as a hobby".
Very likely, whatever she contributed is classified. She comes across as highly intelligent onscreen. She apparently knew a lot about radio signals, and whatever she helped to invent, it became a standard in the electronics industry. They say that today her invention would be worth 30 billion dollars. Again, who knows exactly how much is true because not enough information is provided in online accounts.
But it is clear that she contributed something very important to the military in WW2, and that her contribution has had a lasting effect on electronics and computers to this day.
In the movie, though, she's just plain funny and fun. A perfect match to fluster the self-assured but comical Clark Gable, who was a very talented comedian himself.
Two very big Thumbs Up for "Comrade X", a farce as only MGM could do 'em. ////
In other news, it looks like there is still hope for denying Kavanaugh his self-entitled post on the Supreme Court, thanks to those ladies who confronted Senator Jeff Flake in the elevator. Flake did the right thing in calling for an FBI investigation, and now that belligerent jerk really will be toast.
Trump will be gone before too much longer, just as long as we all do the right thing and reject his persona and everything he is projecting at us. And when he goes down, he will go down in flames, and it will be the greatest day in recent American history.
Stay strong. See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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