chicagoreader.com
Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby is
not the first movie to insult F. Scott Fitzgerald
Revisiting Frank Borzage's
Three Comrades, the only film on which F. Scott Fitzgerald received
screenwriting credit
If nothing else, the recent
release of Baz Luhrmann’s Great Gatsby adaptation provides a good excuse to
revisit the sole film on which F. Scott Fitzgerald received screenwriting
credit, the 1938 melodrama Three Comrades. The movies are similar insofar that
neither one really respects Fitzgerald’s writing—the author was reportedly
unhappy with Comrades because relatively little of his work made it into the
completed film. Since it takes place in Germany, an executive at MGM submitted
the script (cowritten by Fitzgerald and Edward E. Paramore Jr. from Erich Maria
Remarque’s novel) to the German ambassador for approval—the studio wanted to
make sure that nothing in it would offend the tastes of the Nazi Party, who had
been threatening to ban American films if they contained anything perceived as
anti-German. (At this point the United States were still officially neutral in
regards to Germany; furthermore most Hollywood studios were financially
unstable throughout the Great Depression and were afraid to lose German ticket
sales.) The ambassador proposed numerous changes to the screenplay, all of
which were put into effect.
It’s hard to say how
Fitzgerald-esque Three Comrades would have been if this act of appeasement
hadn’t taken place, given the other dominant personalities involved: director
Frank Borzage, producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and MGM itself, which had the
most recognizable house style of the major studios. (Dave Kehr, in his Reader
capsule review, was not receptive to the MGM touch.) Yet one can hear
Fitzgerald’s voice in some of the dialogue, particularly in the movie’s
effervescent first half. The story takes place shortly after World War I,
centering on three inseparable war buddies who open a garage together. Their
friendship, we quickly realize, gives them a go-getting spirit and makes them
unafraid of starting a business during an economic depression. “We’re going to
be very rich,” says the most cynical of the friends, in a short speech that
Fitzgerald must have written. “Germany’s going to need expert mechanics in the
years to come. There’ll be all sorts of things to repair: souls, consciences,
broken hearts by the thousands …”
Fitzgerald’s eloquent prose
fits rather nicely with Borzage’s graceful visuals. What might have sounded
self-consciously florid in the hands of another director feels musical under
his direction.