This nice little comedy (based on a French play that Robert Sherwood rewrote) deals with a matter that was of interest around the entire world after 1917 - 1921. What happened to the remnants of the Russian aristocracy left in tatters by the hurricane of the Bolshevik Revolution? The fact was that for most of them who fled or escaped Russia there was only poverty left to face - the great estates and the jewelry and wealth had been confiscated by the revolutionary government of Lenin and Trotszky. A few had been smart enough to have funds and wealth in lands outside the borders of old Russia, but most never thought of it.
Charles Boyer is Prince Mikhail Ouratieff and Claudette Colbert is Grand Duchess Tatiana Romanoff. You have to get that straight first, because although Boyer is a Prince he is not of the royal blood (as Colbert is - being of the Tsar's family). They are married (and quite loving) but Colbert is of higher social rank - so in many scenes Boyer is forced to agree to her point of view. However, Boyer has one thing that is more important. As an aide to the Tsar (one of his duties was to tell Nicholas II what the weather was each day) he was entrusted before the end of the Empire with over 20 million francs of Romanoff money kept in a French bank. This was a sign of the Tsar's great faith in Boyer's devotion, but it was a mixed blessing. He and Colbert were caught, and she was tortured by a leading Commissar, one Dimitri Gorotchenko (Basil Rathbone). However they managed to escape.
Now in Paris some dozen years after fleeing Russia they are living in poverty. All Boyer has is a sword and a flag. But French bankers are aware that he has legal title to use the million of francs in the Romanoff accounts and hope he will. Few have the illusion that the Soviet regime is going to collapse. But, as Boyer keeps insisting, the money is not his to spend - it's the Tsar's. He was entrusted to keep it for the day of return to Holy Russia. As Boyer keeps saying, he won't spend anything: "Not a billion, not a million, not a thousand, not a sou!"
But he and Colbert have to survive. They start looking at the want ads and find a job for a butler and maid at the home of a Mr. and Mrs. Dupont, a wealthy banker and his wife (Melville Cooper and Isabel Jeans). There are also a daughter and son (Anita Louis and Maurice Murphy). Boyer and Colbert figure that their service to the Russian Royal Family in St. Petersburg's Court prepares them for being servants.
After an initially bad moment or two (particularly as the four Duponts are all somewhat selfish and demanding), Boyer and Colbert gradually win the family over by their charm, their physical attractions, and their ability to figure out how to satisfy the needs of the employers and to do the various activities in the house. But they also discover the secret of labor unions, and (horrible though it may seem) how it may behoove to join one for servants.
Then comes the critical point: a large oil deal is being set up by a consortium from Britain, France, and the Netherlands, to develop two Russian oil fields. This is unheard of - and actually Stalin's Russia is not too thrilled about having foreigners control their oil. So they send their best man to deal with this problem and meet Dupont and his associates. You got it - it's Rathbone.
TOVARICH has actually not aged too badly, even though the old Soviet Union is a thing of the past too. Boyer and Colbert make a sweet, lovable pair - willing to do anything to be successful as servants. Cooper, Jeans, Louise, and Murphy eventually show more human features, such as Cooper's momentary lapses (at one point the banker can't recall his own name). And Rathbone, although capable of governmental viciousness (in his off-screen torturing of Colbert) actually wins our respect in the end - he turns out, like Boyer and Colbert, to be as patriotic as they are. With NINOTCHKA and COMRADE X, TOVARICH makes up a trilogy of film comedies that do paint a picture of the plight of a mighty nation struggling to regain it's feet, in the face of internal disarray and rivalries, and foreign hostility. Certainly a worthy film.
Charles Boyer is Prince Mikhail Ouratieff and Claudette Colbert is Grand Duchess Tatiana Romanoff. You have to get that straight first, because although Boyer is a Prince he is not of the royal blood (as Colbert is - being of the Tsar's family). They are married (and quite loving) but Colbert is of higher social rank - so in many scenes Boyer is forced to agree to her point of view. However, Boyer has one thing that is more important. As an aide to the Tsar (one of his duties was to tell Nicholas II what the weather was each day) he was entrusted before the end of the Empire with over 20 million francs of Romanoff money kept in a French bank. This was a sign of the Tsar's great faith in Boyer's devotion, but it was a mixed blessing. He and Colbert were caught, and she was tortured by a leading Commissar, one Dimitri Gorotchenko (Basil Rathbone). However they managed to escape.
Now in Paris some dozen years after fleeing Russia they are living in poverty. All Boyer has is a sword and a flag. But French bankers are aware that he has legal title to use the million of francs in the Romanoff accounts and hope he will. Few have the illusion that the Soviet regime is going to collapse. But, as Boyer keeps insisting, the money is not his to spend - it's the Tsar's. He was entrusted to keep it for the day of return to Holy Russia. As Boyer keeps saying, he won't spend anything: "Not a billion, not a million, not a thousand, not a sou!"
But he and Colbert have to survive. They start looking at the want ads and find a job for a butler and maid at the home of a Mr. and Mrs. Dupont, a wealthy banker and his wife (Melville Cooper and Isabel Jeans). There are also a daughter and son (Anita Louis and Maurice Murphy). Boyer and Colbert figure that their service to the Russian Royal Family in St. Petersburg's Court prepares them for being servants.
After an initially bad moment or two (particularly as the four Duponts are all somewhat selfish and demanding), Boyer and Colbert gradually win the family over by their charm, their physical attractions, and their ability to figure out how to satisfy the needs of the employers and to do the various activities in the house. But they also discover the secret of labor unions, and (horrible though it may seem) how it may behoove to join one for servants.
Then comes the critical point: a large oil deal is being set up by a consortium from Britain, France, and the Netherlands, to develop two Russian oil fields. This is unheard of - and actually Stalin's Russia is not too thrilled about having foreigners control their oil. So they send their best man to deal with this problem and meet Dupont and his associates. You got it - it's Rathbone.
TOVARICH has actually not aged too badly, even though the old Soviet Union is a thing of the past too. Boyer and Colbert make a sweet, lovable pair - willing to do anything to be successful as servants. Cooper, Jeans, Louise, and Murphy eventually show more human features, such as Cooper's momentary lapses (at one point the banker can't recall his own name). And Rathbone, although capable of governmental viciousness (in his off-screen torturing of Colbert) actually wins our respect in the end - he turns out, like Boyer and Colbert, to be as patriotic as they are. With NINOTCHKA and COMRADE X, TOVARICH makes up a trilogy of film comedies that do paint a picture of the plight of a mighty nation struggling to regain it's feet, in the face of internal disarray and rivalries, and foreign hostility. Certainly a worthy film.
