Tovarich (film)

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This article is about the 1937 film. For other uses, see Tovarishch.

Tovarich
Claudette Colbert and Charles Boyer in Tovarich
Directed by	Anatole Litvak
Produced by	Anatole Litvak
Written by	Casey Robinson Jacques Deval (play) Robert E. Sherwood
Starring	Claudette Colbert Charles Boyer Basil Rathbone Anita Louise
Music by	Max Steiner
Cinematography	Charles Lang
Editing by	Henri Rust
Distributed by	Warner Bros
Release date(s)	25 December 1937
Running time	98 min
Country	USA
Language	English
IMDb profile

Tovarich is a 1937 Warner Bros comedy film based on the 1935 play by Robert E. Sherwood. It was produced and directed by Anatole Litvak with Robert Lord as associate producer and Hal B. Wallis and Jack L. Warner as executive producers. The screenplay was by Casey Robinson from the French play by Jacques Deval adapted into English by Robert E. Sherwood. The music score was by Max Steiner and the cinematography by Charles Lang.

The film stars Claudette Colbert and Charles Boyer with Basil Rathbone, Anita Louise, Melville Cooper, Isabel Jeans, Morris Carnovsky and Curt Bois in his American debut role.

[edit] Plot

The title Tovarich means comrade in Russian.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Russian Prince Mikail Alexandrovitch Ouratieff (Charles Boyer) and his wife, Grand Duchess Tatiana Petrovna (Claudette Colbert) escape from Russia to Paris with the Czar's fortune which he has entrusted to them for safekeeping. They put the money in a bank, and, destitute, they take jobs as butler and maid in the home of wealthy Charles Dupont (Melville Cooper) and his wife Fernande (Isabel Jeans). At a dinner party, their secret is exposed when one of the guests, Gorotchenko (Basil Rathbone), regognises them.

[edit] Notes

This is the first Warner Brothers film to begin with the famous Warners fanfare, which was composed by Max Steiner.
The original play by Jacques Deval opened in Paris on 13 October 1933. Robert E. Sherwood's English adaptation opened in London on 24 April 1935, (Melville Cooper reprised his stage role for the movie) and on Broadway on Oct 15, 1936, starring Marta Abba.
The play was made into a Broadway musical Tovarich (1963) (Book by David Shaw, music by Lee Pockriss and lyrics by (Anne Croswell) starring Vivien Leigh and Jean-Pierre Aumont. It ran for 264 performances and won Leigh the Tony Award for Best Actress.