Comrade X: A political comedy set in the Soviet Union, Comrade X (1940) was conceived as a vehicle for M-G-M's glamorous acquisition Hedy Lamarr, in the hopes they might duplicate the profits they reaped from M-G-M star Greta Garbo in Ninotchka (1939). "Comrade" X is played by Clark Gable, a cynical American journalist who exposes Stalin-era cultural falsifications in his dispatches to his newspaper in the United States. Lamarr plays a Moscow tram conductor. Her coldly logical persona ultimately proves susceptible to Gable's America-inspired enthusiasms. Released in December 1940, the scurrilous tone of the dialogue toward the USSR officials was consistent with US government posture in the aftermath of the Hitler–Stalin Pact of August 1939. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 (after America's entry into WWII in December 1941), Russians became US allies in the war effort against the Axis powers. Reflecting these developments, M-G-M executives, just six months after the film's release, inserted a disclaimer assuring audiences that the movie was only a farce, not a hostile critique of the USSR. Writer Walter Reisch, who also scripted Ninotchka, earned an Oscar nomination for best original story.Durgnat and Simmons, 1988: p. 352-353: The film is addressed only in the Filmography section, not in the body of book.Baxter, 1976 p. 58: Comrade X, "an unabashed self-plagiarism by MGM of its 1939 success Ninotchka"Fristoe, TMC: See article for Reisch and Oscar award. Also see Fristoe for Gable/Lamaar film characters.Berlinale, 2020: "Just as Lubitsch's classic was a jab at the autocracy of the Soviet Union in the era of the Hitler-Stalin pact, Comrade X paid homage to the anti-authoritarian spirit of Weimar-era cinema."
