Herman J. Mankiewicz (1897–1953)

Coming on the heels of Garbo’s “Ninotchka” this film was somewhat dismissed as lightweight, but in retrospect it is a delightfully hilarious blend of political satire and slapstick comedy from King Vidor. The writing team of Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer gave Vidor a script which poked fun at Communism while still allowing its stars, Clark Gable and Hedy Lamarr, to be themselves. The result was a film perhaps less sophisticated than Ninotchka, but funnier throughout and generally more entertaining.

Gable portrays a hard drinking and fun-loving American reporter named McKinley B. Thompson. Thompson has been secretly sending unflattering reports about the goings on in Russia back to the States as “Comrade X.” The Russian Chief of Police is desperate to expose him and shut him up for good. When Thompson gets a photo of that same police chief being knocked off by the soon to be new Chief of Police, who just happens to be the Communist guru of revolutionist Hedy Lamarr, he’s got a big story.

All that may have to wait, however. It just so happens that Thompson’s hotel valet, Vanya (Felix Bressart), knows McKinley is Comrade X. You can guess who his daughter is, and what he wants is for Thompson to get her out of Russia before she gets killed. She is in much danger, as Vanya tells Thompson, because Communist are being shot so that Communism can prosper! Thompson doesn’t have much choice and that’s when the real fun begins.

Even a stoic Communist can make your jaw drop if she’s Hedy Lamarr; even if she’s running a Russian street car. Gable and Lamarr are marvelous together, and how he convinces her he loves Communism and needs to take her back to America to educate the masses is a riot! Not even Russian tanks can keep Thompson from getting the story, and the entire Red Army couldn't keep him from falling for the cutest little Commie you’ve ever seen.

Eve Arden has a nice turn as Thompson’s fellow Foreign Correspondent gal-pal in director King Vidor’s hilarious take on apple pie vs. Communism. They don’t make stars or films like this anymore. The last two lines of this film are unforgettable.… (meer)

2022 movie #175. 1940. American newman/spy (Gable) in Moscow is blackmailed by a guy to to smuggle his daughter (Lamarr) out of Russia. Half serious drama and half madcap comedy (they escape in a tank like a Keystone Kops comedy). Lamarr, who I've never seen in a movie, is great. In the last scene, the newsman, the daughter and the father are at a baseball game. After a home run, the father asks what's going on. His daughter says "Dodgers are killing Reds". The father says 'The counter-revolution has begun at last".… (meer)