Tender Comrade

1943 film by Edward Dmytryk

December 29, 1943 (1943-12-29) (U.S.)^[1]

Running time

101 minutes (copyright print)CountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget$750,000 (approx)^[2]

Tender Comrade is a 1943 black-and-white film released by RKO Radio Pictures, showing women on the home front living communally while their husbands are away at war.

The film stars Ginger Rogers, Robert Ryan, Ruth Hussey, and Kim Hunter and was directed by Edward Dmytryk.^[3] The film was later used by the HUAC as evidence of Dalton Trumbo spreading communist propaganda. Trumbo was subsequently blacklisted.

The film's title comes from a line in Robert Louis Stevenson's poem "My Wife" first published in Songs of Travel and Other Verses (1896).^[4]

Plot

Jo Jones works in an airplane factory and longs for the day when she will see her husband again. The couple have a heart-wrenching farewell at the train station before he leaves for overseas duty. With their husbands off fighting in World War II, Jo and her co-workers struggle to pay living expenses. Dissatisfied, they decide to pool their money and rent a house together. Soon after, they hire Manya, a German immigrant housekeeper. Jo discovers she is pregnant and ends up having a son whom she names Chris, after his father. The women are overjoyed when Doris's husband comes home, but the same day Jo receives a telegram informing her that her husband has been killed. She hides her grief and descends the stairs in order to rejoin the homecoming celebration.

Cast

Ginger Rogers as Jo Jones
Robert Ryan as Chris Jones
Ruth Hussey as Barbara Thomas
Patricia Collinge as Helen Stacey
Mady Christians as Manya Lodge
Kim Hunter as Doris Dumbrowski
Jane Darwell as Mrs. Henderson
Richard Martin as Mike Dumbrowski

Reception

The film made a profit of $843,000.^[5] Rogers' fee was $150,000 plus ten percent of the profits over gross receipts of $1.5 million; by 1953 this had earned her $105,000.^[6]

References

^ "Tender Comrade: Detail View". American Film Institute. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
^ McDonagh, Fintan (7 July 2021). Edward Dmytryk: Reassessing His Films and Life. McFarland. p. 69. ISBN 9781476680927.
^ Hal Erickson (2012). "Tender Comrade". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2012-11-04. Retrieved 2011-05-05.
^ Hanson, Peter (2007). Dalton Trumbo, Hollywood Rebel. McFarland. pp. 70–1. ISBN 978-0786432462.
^ Richard Jewell & Vernon Harbin, The RKO Story. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1982. p190
^ McDonagh, Fintan. Edward Dmytryk: Reassessing His Films and Life. p. 63.