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Three Comrades  /  The Mortal Storm

Three Comrades  (1938)
September 12, 2015 - 7:30 pm

Three Comrades  (1938)


The second entry in director Frank Borzage’s “Weimar Trilogy” was adapted from its Erich Maria Remarque source novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Margaret Sullavan plays an impoverished young aristocrat who falls in with a trio of disillusioned WWI veterans whose camaraderie has become their refuge from the world.  Fitzgerald's script—his only Hollywood screen credit—is suffused with “Lost Generation” nostalgia and a bittersweet vision of love.

Production: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.  A Frank Borzage Production.  Distribution: Loew's Inc.  Producer: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Frank Borzage.  Director: Frank Borzage.  Based on the novel Drei Kameraden by Erich Maria Remarque.  Screenwriter: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edward E. Paramore.  Cinematographer: Joseph Ruttenberg.  Art Director: Cedric Gibbons.  Editor: Frank Sullivan.  Music:  Franz Waxman.  With: Robert Taylor, Margaret Sullavan, Franchot Tone, Robert Young, Guy Kibbee.  35mm, b/w, 98 min.

The Mortal Storm  (1940)


The concluding chapter in director Frank Borzage’s “Weimar Trilogy,” The Mortal Storm addresses head-on the rise of fascism.  Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart play a young intellectual couple whose families are riven by ideological differences when Hitler becomes Chancellor in 1933.  By situating the star-crossed lovers against a harrowing political backdrop, director Frank Borzage imbues his most cherished tropes with a tragic gravity.

Production: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp. A Frank Borzage Production.  Distribution: Loew's Inc.  Producer: Frank Borzage.  Director: Frank Borzage.  Based on the novel The Mortal Storm by Phyllis Bottome.  Screenwriter: Claudine West, Anderson Ellis, George Froeschel.  Cinematographer: William Daniels.  Art Director: Cedric Gibbons.  Editor: Elmo Vernon.  Music: Edward Kane.  With: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young, Frank Morgan, Robert Stack.  35mm, b/w, 100 min.