TOVARICH (1937)

[drednm]

Watched this tonight. Excellent film. Is it public domain?

What a complex plot: part screwball comedy and part history lesson. All the actors were great.

[mndean]

Watched this tonight. Excellent film. Is it public domain?

No such luck, renewed in 1965.

[drednm]

Yes WAC wrote and said they own it but underlying rights issues prevent them from releasing it on DVD.

[Ray Faiola]

A great film with a great score by Max Steiner. This is probably Melville Cooper's finest hour and one of the great performances of continental farce.

My favorite exchange:

Rathbone to Colbert: "Pardon me, what did you put in this water?"

Colbert: "Rat poison."

I have a great print of the feature and the trailer. While Warners can't release it to the home market, they did make a nice 35mm transfer for TCM.

Boyer's role was played by John Halliday on Broadway. The play was later musicalized with Vivien Leigh and Jean-Pierre Aumont in the leads. Capitol released a cast album.

[drednm]

I liked Isabel Jeans as well and May Boley was fun as the cook.

[Ray Faiola]

Here's a photo of Bela Lugosi, Eugenie Leontovich and Osgood Perkins in a late '30's stage production.

[filmnotdigital]

The same source was used for the 1935 French film, Tovaritch.
It,s out there, from French TV, for those who understand enough of the language or want to compare,
but the version has no subtitles

[Hal Erickson]

Plus: This was the first Warner Bros. film to use the famous WB 'fanfare' behind the opening logo.

[Ray Faiola]

Hal - Max actually composed the fanfare for GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND IT; but TOVARICH wound up being released first.