If the People's Cube kollektive were to film a comedy, it would be Comrade X. Luckily for us, it has already been filmed, so we can simply sit back and follow the misadventures of Clark Gable and Hedy Lamarr in pre-WWII Stalinist Russia.

It has all the makings of a people’s classic. The fact that it’s not can only be explained by a conspiracy theory: its mockery of all things communist, with zero redeeming qualities, is too triggering in today's USSA (United Safe Spaces of America). Mocking communism is about as popular as wearing a MAGA hat at the Oscars, where Comrade X would win "Best Canceled Non-Movie."

That’s why I could only find it on a Russian web page that hosts foreign movies about the Motherland. It's free, and you can even go wild and maximize it to full screen – a true rebel move in a world of shrinking windows.


P.S. Wearing kapitalist headphones has seriously improved my viewing experience.

Oh, wow! Hedy Lamarr is in it. I loved her in "Blazing Saddles!"


(I also liked Clark Gable in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?")


The song was pretty good, too:


There's also a Marvel comic-book villain:
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/comrade-x/4005-16780/
 

RE: The song was pretty good, too

Was that Avengers-era Diana Rigg as the MGM Lion?? I'm down!

Music is very reminiscent of The B-52s. Dig it! Helping me get my groove on for another Monday afternoon of Stakhanovite drudgery here in Northern Bidenistan.......

Red Zeppelin wrote: ↑

8/28/2023, 1:00 pm

Was that Avengers-era Diana Rigg as the MGM Lion??

Yes, it was Diana Rigg, whom I once had the pleasure of meeting.

"Comrade X" may be the best screwball comedy of its era after "His Gal Friday." It definitely feels as if The People's Cube collectively produced it or at least wrote the script.

In 1940 it was nominated by AMPAS for Best Original Story.

The sound quality left something to be desired, so it's difficult to pick up some of the dialog. One thing was clear, though: at the marriage counter, when Gable says, "I'm American," the bureaucrat responds with "Oh, Amerikanyets!" (female American) instead of "Amerikanski" (male American). Russian was also dubbed in for some scenes (eg, the girl fight).

Additionally, Gable's "hip" 1940 American vernacular is dated and—other than "boogie woogie"—may no longer make sense to modern viewers.  

The tanks scene special effects were remarkable for 1940. It appears that one real tank was cosmetically altered for close shots while a few dozen radio-controlled scale models of it were used for the mass maneuvers.


The make and model of the real tank is hard to pin down but it's not Russian (it has return rollers). It looks similar to an American Marmot-Herrington but the single wheel between the two suspension bogeys is very unusual.

The interior of the tank may have looked cramped but it's probably five times more spacious than any real tank interior. That's because a set had to be built to accommodate all the actors and action needed for those scenes.

"Comrade X" might have reached a much greater level of popularity if not for Germany's invasion of the USSR, whose alliance with the US and UK seemed to curtail further Hollywood satire about Soviet life. By the mid-1950s, after the McCarthy hearings targeted Hollywood, the term "red baiting" would signify any attempt to mock or villainize communists or the USSR until 1965's "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming" (with some exceptions, including "Rocky and Bullwinkle" cartoons).  

In conclusion, the one thing I'd hoped to see was nowhere to be found in "Comrade X"—no one fell out of any windows.
  
 

A very equal film review, Comrade O!

The Russian on the most part was fully authentic and done by professional actors, probably immigrants in Hollywood. That's in contrast to a lot of other Hollywood movies, where botched pretend Russian ruins the fun for me.

As I posted initially, listening in headphones improved the audio dramatically (they enhanced treble). Without them, I also had hard time understanding the speech.

The tank scenes in the end were indeed amazing. And the line "it's gonna be kinda tough to surrender to these people. You got to catch 'em first" is a classic. Also, "you can't run a government with everybody going around having ideas."

And finally, here's one important character behind the scenes who was never in the shot.

Red Square wrote: ↑

9/4/2023, 12:00 pm

A very equal film review, Comrade O!

Thank you, Comrade R.S.

I will soon be posting a new thread for "Ninotchka." It's not as comical as "Comrade X" but it has some solid Soviet-loyalist moments, mostly in the first third of the film.

You can also find Comrade X for free streaming at archive.org. Here is a link:



But you have to start with the letter h. Couldn't get the link text to show.

Uh . . . that didn't go as planned. Help Oleg!

ratskins wrote: ↑

9/5/2023, 12:39 pm

You can also find Comrade X for free streaming at archive.org. Here is a link: ttps://archive.org/details/01-hedy-lamarr/Comrade+X+(1940).mp4. But you have to start with the letter h. Couldn't get the link text to show.

Uh . . . that didn't go as planned. Help Oleg!

1) All you had to do was type in the letter h, but...

2) You should switch to Poor Text before you type or paste a url if you want to show the link in all its glory, but in this case...

3) The link is for a Hedy Lamarr tribute, not "Comrade X."

Thanks for trying. Try again, Comrade. You have nothing to lose but the back-breaking oppression of internet protocols. 
 

Next up, "Ninotchka."

Kommissar Uberdave wrote: ↑

9/28/2023, 6:27 pm

Next up, "Ninotchka."

Seems you missed the "Ninochka" post from almost a month ago.

Link:

Ninotchka: A May-Watch-If-You-Want Film for All Comrades

 

Colonel Obyezyana wrote: ↑

9/28/2023, 8:40 pm

Kommissar Uberdave wrote: ↑

9/28/2023, 6:27 pm

Next up, "Ninotchka."

Seems you missed the "Ninochka" post from almost a month ago.

Link:

Ninotchka: A May-Watch-If-You-Want Film for All Comrades

If I were Komrade Chairman Josef Stolen, I could say I did, when I didn't, and smile and wave as I trip up the stairs...