Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (June 16, 2025)
Ah, 1938 – the final year when the First World War was the only world war! 1938’s Three Comrades a drama about veterans of what was then called “The Great War”.
In 1920, three former German soldiers operate an automobile repair shop. This group includes Erich Lohkamp (Robert Taylor), Gottfried Lenz (Robert Young) and Otto Koster (Franchot Tone).
As they pursue this business, a variety of elements challenge their alliance. In particular, all three find themselves drawn to pretty but sickly Patricia Hollmann (Margaret Sullavan).
If nothing else, Comrades comes with an intriguing pedigree. For one, it adapts a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, best known as the author of All Quiet on the Western Front.
On an even more intriguing front, F. Scott Fitzgerald served as co-screenwriter of Comades. Obviously legendary for his classic 1926 novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald did some rewrite work in Hollywood over the years, but Comrades exists as his only formal screenplay credit.
Despite these intriguing participants, Comrades never quite clicks. Perhaps this stems from another member of the crew: director Frank Borzage.
Comrades represents my fourth experience with Borzage’s filmography. Prior to this, I’d seen 1938’s The Shining Hour, 1940’s The Mortal Storm and 1945’s The Spanish Main.
None of those exactly knocked off my proverbial socks. Storm fared best of the bunch, mainly because Borzage subverted a lot of the narrative’s inherent schmaltz.
Unfortunately, the director can’t resist that trend with Comrades. What probably should offer a look at the struggles of German soldiers in the years after WWI becomes basically just a sappy romance.
Apparently Remarque’s source novel mainly focused on the Erich/Patricia relationship, so I can’t blame those behind the film for its emphasis on that subject. However, the book sounds like it took a darker view of the story.
As told by Borzage, Comrades leans heavily toward schmaltzy melodrama. Again, some of this comes from the Remarque book, but it nonetheless appears that Borzage sanded off the rough edges.
This means we get a fairly standard narrative about an apparently doomed romance without a lot much else to say for it. Despite occasional detours, we follow the Erich/Patricia romance to the exclusion of much else.
As such, the other two pals feel like afterthoughts too much of the time. While Gottfried and Otto play into the narrative to a degree, they tend to lack purpose.
When the film does bother with Otto and Gottfried, their involvement seems largely gratuitous. This exists as the story of Erich and Patricia and it rarely deviates from that path.
If Comrades explored hose two in a more dynamic manner, I’d likely mind this emphasis less. However, because it does develop into little more than a trite romantic melodrama, these choices make the end product tedious.
All of this leaves Comrades as a fairly forgettable endeavor. Perhaps a different adaptation of the source novel would fare better, but this one just feels limp.
