"Three Comrades" (1938) directed by Frank Borzage, starring Margaret Sullavan, Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone and Robert Young.
The cast is distinguished. Playing Patricia is Margaret Sullavan; a radiant screen actress who made far too few films and yet made a strong impact in those that she did appear in such as The Moon’s Our Home, The Shop Around the Corner and The Mortal Storm. In Three Comrades we can understand why these three men are captivated by her vivacious beauty —inside and out. Robert Taylor enjoyed working with Sullavan, describing her as “enchanting. Her talent warranted a much bigger career than Hollywood ever allowed her.”
Appearing with Bob, as his fellow Comrades, are Franchot Tone, a superb actor who never became the huge star in pictures he should have, and Robert Young, who had been toiling in films since 1930, and despite some good performances over the years would find his greatest success on television as the patriarch of Father Knows Best.
Joseph Mankiewicz, was frustrated by Fitzgerald’s overanalytical and talky script and ended up hiring an MGM contract writer named Edward Paramoure to collaborate with him on a rewrite. Despite having written some superb films, like The Bitter Tea of General Yen, Trouble for Two and the 1936 version of Three Godfathers, Mankiewicz thought of Paramore as “a Hollywood hack,” but someone he felt might be able to rein Fitzgerald in. Mankiewicz became known as “the man who rewrote Fitzgerald.” Sullavan told Frank Borzage that the “dialogue is beautiful, but there is too much of it.” She felt that the “camera, rather than the dialogue,” should tell the story.
According to author Lawrence Quirk, Franchot Tone also objected to the wordiness, but he came to rue it. “I could have kicked myself because I had cut off my nose to spite my face—half my footage was cut, and I had only myself to blame.” Fitzgerald called Mankiewicz an “ignorant and vulgar gent.” He did acknowledge that about 1/3 of the picture was his script, but with “all shadows and rhythm removed.” However, Fitzgerald’s wife Zelda was more enthusiastic. She lauded the love scene on the beach between Taylor and Sullavan, calling it “superb.”
The resulting film was right up Borzage’s ally as he had a reputation for being a director who could bring out the romantic quality in almost all of his films. Robert Young, who worked with Borzage more than once, would recall him as a “sentimental slob but... a lovely, lovely man.” It is a film beautifully played by each of its four lead actors, despite the drawback of not being more relevant to the events then occurring in Nazi Germany. Commonweal was mixed. It felt the film was “too sentimental,” but tossed a bouquet to Sullavan and Tone by calling their performances “entirely convincing.” Much to Metro’s chagrin the picture didn’t perform well at the box office. Despite this it did turn up on several critic’s best ten lists. -"Robert Taylor: A Biography" (2013) by Charles Tranberg,
After leaving him on the Fourth of July, Vicky Lane filed for divorce from Tom Neal, citing his “unreasoning jealousy.” During the divorce proceedings in 1949 —which were dutifully reported by the Los Angles Times— she told the court that “I couldn’t go down to the corner to get a package of cigarettes without being accused.” In August, Lane won her decree on the grounds of mental cruelty.
After the divorce, Neal spent most of his time chasing starlets and cocktail waitresses in between notching screen credits as a grade-Z Errol Flynn in dreck like Amazon Quest (1949) and Radar Secret Service (1950). Then in 1951, at a pool party at the Sunset Plaza Apartments, he met the woman who would drive the final nail into the coffin of his Hollywood career.
Due to a tabloid nightlife that included copious amounts of booze, dope, and shady underworld characters, Barbara Payton had blacklisted herself with the major studios in little more than a year and a half. When they met, she was still seeing actor Franchot Tone (himself on the downward slope of a classy A-list career), but when she saw Neal at the pool, “It was,” she said “love at first sight.” He felt the same, later telling reporters. “Four minutes after we met, we decided to get married.” Neal blamed Tone for throwing the first punch, but in an unintentional slip of honesty, he blamed the ferocity of his attack on a deeper need to impress Payton. Claiming that she kept egging him on, he said, “She digs that blood and guts stuff.” Neal had nearly killed Tone. With a cerebral concussion, and a broken nose and cheekbone, Tone was rushed to California Lutheran Hospital.
Of course, in his own horrible way, Neal had helped the "Detour" myth take shape by living his life like a noir antihero. Over time, Tom Neal and Al Roberts simply merged—actor and role folding into one dusty, broken man wandering the desert at night, cursing his fate. -"Tom Neal: The Broken Man" by Jake Hinkson (Noir City, 2012)
Jean Wallace had married Franchot Tone in Yuma (Arizona) in 1941. In August of 1948, she sued Tone for divorce, asserting that he was "extremely jealous" and had frequent violent fits of temper. On December 8, Jean testified in Santa Monica Superior Court that she “had warned Franchot against association with Barbara Payton, because Barbara was mixed up with narcotics.” Jean then pointed to Barbara in the courtroom as the main reason why Franchot should not be granted custody of their children. Jean's attorney mentioned a dozen glamour girls involved with Tone (while still occasionally sleeping with Jean). Tone, under questioning, admits he had seen Barbara Payton unclothed "frequently."
Alternating between civil and contentious, the custody battle between Franchot Tone and Jean Wallace would continue into the following year. On May 21, 1952, Wallace obtains custody of her two children in Santa Monica, reminding the court about Tone’s love brawl with Tom Neal about Barbara Payton. [...] “I feel the deepest sympathy for her and retain the most lovely memories of the time we spent together,” with his characteristic formality intact, Franchot Tone issued this statement upon hearing of Barbara’s re-emergence in the news, arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct in 1962. -"Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye: The Barbara Payton Story" (2013) by John O'Dowd
Barbara’s button nose, pert and bunnylike as any Midwestern cheerleader’s, curved into the baby spot and above it her incomparable white-lashed black eyes batted. “Life’s for the living,” she said, downing her gimlet and running her delicious pulpy tongue across her Minnesota-farm-girl teeth, thick and white as a bar of Ivory soap. “So what’s the bottom line, then, pretty boy? For the ruckus? What did my wayward boyfriends cost me?” He flicked his finger along the sheen of sweat on her glass. “It’s simple. You clean it up for a little while, close those lilywhite gams on set and everything’s apples and ice cream again.” He forced himself to meet her eyes and gave her his jolliest smile. “Making a late-night date, Hop? I do all the warming up and some other girl gets the hot payoff?”, Barbara grinned widely. She’s not interested in me, he reminded himself. Barbara Payton had two tastes: dull-eyed muscle men and flush, faux-ivy debonairs. He was a long way from either. “A girl like you,” he began, moving right past her sarcasm, “she’s not meant for the bruising ride through the darker corners of the Hollywood Hills.” “I’ve done the sugar-daddy gig, hon. Maybe you heard.”
“I don’t mean a sugar daddy, sugar lips. I mean a man who will do right by you. Bells and whistles and rice and the bouquet. And I think Franchot is the fella to do it.”
The girl, she had it all, but her legs went only one way—out. But the stories never stopped. Divorce from Franchot Tone. Divorce from wife-beating drunk Tom Neal. Paying a two-hundred-dollar bar tab with two fur coats. Rumors of heroin and picking up bellboys at the Garden of Allah on Sunset... He knew this was coming. Were there no surprises? -"The Song Is You" (2009) by Megan Abbott
Franchot Tone ("Bewildered") video
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