16 Jan Tender Comrade
Tender Comrade, WWII Movie starring Ginger Rogers and Robert Ryan
(1943) Ginger Rogers and Robert Ryan star in this story about a war bride left back in the states while her husband goes overseas. She and three of her friends pool their resources to share a home. Soon they’re also pooling a housekeeper, a woman who fled Nazi German and whose husband is also in the U.S. Army.
Although it is often “sappy” (a word used by Robert Ryan in the movie) I am sure it hit close to home for the women who were “waiting, wishing, working,” (from the movie poster.) There is plenty of conversation about what was real back then – rationing, hoarding, shortages, telegrams at night. From that aspect, it was interesting to watch.
When I saw the opening credits I noticed that “Miss Rogers’ costumes were designed by Edith Head.” I expected more. Some of her outfits looked like costumes.
Incidentally, screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was blacklisted shortly after this movie was made during the McCarthy era. In later years, he wrote the screenplay for Spartacus, and Exodus.
In 1971, he wrote a novel and then the screenplay for the haunting anti-war film, Johnny Got His Gun, about a soldier at the end of WWI who lost his arms, legs, mouth, ears, eyes, and nose. You hear everything that Johnny is thinking about as he realizes what has happened to him.
Tender Comrade [VHS] at Amazon.com
No Comments