Jo Jones, a young defense plant worker whose husband is in the military during World War II, shares a house with three other women in the same situation.Jo Jones, a young defense plant worker whose husband is in the military during World War II, shares a house with three other women in the same situation.Jo Jones, a young defense plant worker whose husband is in the military during World War II, shares a house with three other women in the same situation.
- Chris Jones as a boy
- (uncredited)
- Western Union Girl
- (uncredited)
- Minor Role
- (uncredited)
- Boy
- (uncredited)
- Minor Role
- (uncredited)
- Doctor
- (uncredited)
- Mrs. Flanagan - Jo's Mother
- (uncredited)
- Waldo Pierson
- (uncredited)
- Baby
- (uncredited)
- Boy
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis film was introduced as evidence when director Edward Dmytryk and writer Dalton Trumbo were hauled before the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was investigating them on suspicion of being Communists. Despite the film's many flag-waving speeches, the communal living arrangements of the ladies in the film was cited as evidence of how Dmytryk and Trumbo attempted to brainwash unsuspecting American moviegoers with Communist propaganda. As even more damning evidence, there was the use of the word "Comrade" in the title.
- GoofsWhen Chris comes around the hanging laundry in Jo's flashback, we hear the end of his whistling "You Made Me Love You," but his face is totally relaxed, and clearly not that of a person who is whistling.
- Quotes
Jo Jones: We're going to pool all of our salaries and we'll pay the rent, take care of the expenses of the house, and what's left over, we'll split five ways. You see, we're running this joint like a democracy!
Manya Lodge: Like a democracy! Oh, that's good! That's good. Once, in Germany, we had a democracy. But we...
Helen Stacey: You lost it.
Manya Lodge: Nein. We did not lose it. We let it be murdered - like a little child.
- Crazy creditsTO MY WIFE - Teacher, Tender Comrade Wife, A fellow-farer true through life, Heart-whole and soul-free, The August Father, Gave to me. Robert Louis Stevenson
- ConnectionsFeatured in Hollywood the Golden Years: The RKO Story: Dark Victory (1987)
- SoundtracksSymphony No. 40 in G minor K. 550
(1788) (uncredited)
Written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
First movement played on the radio in the opening scene
Four war wives who work in a munitions plant decide that if they pool their salaries and resources that instead of four individual run down rooms for rent that they can rent one spacious house with a bedroom for each, a kitchen, a living room, and a housekeeper. They sell one of the two cars they have between them and use the money to fix up the one remaining car and share it. Apparently this is Communism. Let's just ignore the fact that, at the time, movies were being made that were loaded with pro Russian propaganda because the Americans needed the Russians in the war effort. That was then this is now, as they say.
Other than that, it treads pretty traditional wartime material. One wife (Ruth Hussey) was a bit of a good time girl before the war and rather resents the fact that her good-time husband joined the navy before Pearl Harbor even happened. Another (Kim Hunter) got married on the spur of the moment and had to see her husband off that afternoon. Another (Patricia Collinge) has both a son and a husband in the war.
The central figure, though, is war wife Jo Jones (Ginger Rogers), and most of the film is about her relationship with her soldier/husband Chris (Robert Ryan) before the war as she flashes back to various scenes from their marriage. This part of the film uses a strange device. Whenever there is a scene in which Jo reminisces about Chris, the scene switches to a shot of the two of them in the distance, holding hands with clouds surrounding them, like they are in heaven, before launching into the flashback.
This gets pretty sentimental at times, and Ginger verges on hamming it up, but it did hold my interest for the rather long running time and is a splendid time capsule of the war years.
- AlsExGal
- Jan 30, 2023
- How long is Tender Comrade?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 42 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1