TOVARICH

US, 1937, 98 minutes, Black and white.
Claudette Colbert, Charles Boyer, Basil Rathbone, Anita Louise, Melville Cooper, Isabel Jeans.
Directed by Anatole Litvak.

Tovarich is a popular comedy from the late 1930s, something of a classic comedy. It focuses on Russian emigres in Paris (echoes of Ninotchka, which was to be filmed in the following years).

Claudette Colbert and Charles Bover enjoy themselves as a Russian prince and princess who are reduced to poverty in Paris, in the 30s, gain employment from a banking family, confront their former persecutor and torturer - in the form of Basil Rathbone. The film is amusing and light - though it may have had stronger impact in tems of realism within 20s years of the Russian Revolution with so many of the aristocracy moving towards France and other countries of exile. The direction is by Anotole Litvak, a popular director of the time with such films as The Sisters, and All That Heaven Allows.

1. Popular and classic comedy of the 30s? Appeal now?

2. Black and white photography, studio sets? Musical Score?

3. The title, the 30s, Russian comrades, the Soviet Union, the Russian Revolution and White Russian exiles?

4. The stars, their popularity and style, vivacity? Michael and Tina in Paris in the 30s, poor, their love for each other, the memories of the past and their aristocracy? Lack of money, Tina stealing in the market place, pursued by the police and the children? The truth about the paying of the bills for Russian aristrocracy? Their poor situation, the banker visiting them? Michael and his cheque for billions of dollars given to him by the Tsar?

5. Paris in the 30s, the refugees? Money and debt? The bankers? The aristrocrats hiring theriselves out as servants? The contrast with the Paris elite?

6. Going for the job, the interview, pleading their cause? The family and its giddy snobbery? The hairdressers and the mother and her behaviour, their leaving? Emergencies? Reliance on Tina and Michael? Their children, their self-centredness, their willfulness? Interest in Tina and Michael, attached to them? The servant role, offering good service, reliable?

7. The growing infatuation of the youngsters? The preparation for the dinner, getting the host and hostess ready? The guests and their arrival? The discovery of the truth about Tina? The crisis for the host and hostess? Impeccable behaviour during the evening?

8. The meal? The tension with the servants? The international guests and their response the Germans and their language, the English countess, the Spanish gigolo? The commisar and his going to the kitchen, his appeal for the money to keep parts of Russia for the Union? Tina and her change of heart?

9. The cheque, the kitchen scene and the interaction? Tina's decision? Michael signing the cheque?

10. The family and the dilemma, having nobily remain, the bargain?

11. Tina and Michael dressed as aristrocracy , going to the party - and their future? The light touch about the clash of cultures in the context of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath? for servants, pleading for them to stay?