MGM attempted to catch a Russian wave with this fairly blatant rip-off of their own hugely successful Garbo vehicle "Ninotchka" from the year before and certainly threw a lot of its best resources at it with Gable as lead, King Vidor directing and Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer on writing duties. There's also the lovely and as most people now know, super-intelligent Hedy Lamarr as his female co-star, although sadly she only gets to exhibit one of those attributes in the movie itself.
Unlike "Ninotchka", it works in reverse, setting the action in Moscow, where Gable is the wastrel reporter who's supposedly squandered his talent on wine and women if not song but who is, in secret, a double agent for Uncle Sam, the Comrade X of the title. Unfortunately, or as things transpire, fortunately for him, his cover is blown by his hotel valet Felix Bressart who proceeds to blackmail him into agreeing to smuggle his coach-driver daughter, Soviet apparatchik Lamarr, out of the country, only she doesn't know or want it yet. Cue much confusion, slapstick and especially condescendingly stereotypical digs at those Russians, remembering that the film was made in the days before Russia became an ally of the Western powers against the Nazis.
I personally think the movie would have worked far better if it had continued as it began and could have succeeded as a tense spy thriller instead, but no, it was far easier to take the easy lampooning road for cheap laughs involving those perceivrd Russian traits of drunkenness, heavy acccents and the usual capitalism good, communism bad schtick. It's not helped either by director Vidor's seeming inability to garner much in the way of humour from admittedly sub-standard material in what comes over as hack-work from the usually reliable Hecht and Lederer team, which is a pity as both Gable and Lamarr deserve better.
Essays have been written about Hollywood's sometimes uneasy relationship with Russia as the war developed and in one sense, this is an interesting example of its prevailing attitude to Uncle Joe, but just don't expect too much otherwise in the way of laughs or entertainment.
Unlike "Ninotchka", it works in reverse, setting the action in Moscow, where Gable is the wastrel reporter who's supposedly squandered his talent on wine and women if not song but who is, in secret, a double agent for Uncle Sam, the Comrade X of the title. Unfortunately, or as things transpire, fortunately for him, his cover is blown by his hotel valet Felix Bressart who proceeds to blackmail him into agreeing to smuggle his coach-driver daughter, Soviet apparatchik Lamarr, out of the country, only she doesn't know or want it yet. Cue much confusion, slapstick and especially condescendingly stereotypical digs at those Russians, remembering that the film was made in the days before Russia became an ally of the Western powers against the Nazis.
I personally think the movie would have worked far better if it had continued as it began and could have succeeded as a tense spy thriller instead, but no, it was far easier to take the easy lampooning road for cheap laughs involving those perceivrd Russian traits of drunkenness, heavy acccents and the usual capitalism good, communism bad schtick. It's not helped either by director Vidor's seeming inability to garner much in the way of humour from admittedly sub-standard material in what comes over as hack-work from the usually reliable Hecht and Lederer team, which is a pity as both Gable and Lamarr deserve better.
Essays have been written about Hollywood's sometimes uneasy relationship with Russia as the war developed and in one sense, this is an interesting example of its prevailing attitude to Uncle Joe, but just don't expect too much otherwise in the way of laughs or entertainment.