"Tovarich" is the Russian word for "comrade".
(Original Broadway production) Tovarich (1936). Comedy with music. Written by Jacques Deval. English adaptation by Robert E. Sherwood. Orchestra and Arrangements by Alexander Haas. Plymouth Theatre: 15 Oct 1936- Aug 1937 (closing date unknown/356 performances). Cast: Marta Abba, Adora Andrews, Margaret Dale, Aristides de Leoni, Amanda Duff, J. Colville Dunn, Jay Fassett (as "Charles Dupont"), Irina Feodorova, Barbara Gott, John Halliday, Cecil Humphreys (as "Commissar Gorotchenko"), Ernest Lawford, Leni Stengel, James E. Truex, Frederic Worlock. Produced by Gilbert Miller.
Claudette Colbert became ill during production, causing the film to fall behind schedule.
Claudette Colbert fought with director Anatole Litvak throughout most of the filming. Her main problem was with Litvak's cinematographer, Charles Lang. Colbert, famous for demanding that when she was photographed from the side it be only the right side, didn't feel that Lang was photographing her according to her wishes, and demanded that he be fired. Litvak refused, setting off almost constant battling between the two that lasted the entire length of shooting.
Curt Bois made his American film debut in this movie.
Robert E. Sherwood's English adaptation opened in London on 24 April 1935. Melville Cooper reprised his stage role for the movie.
The musical production of "Tovarich" opened at the Broadway Theater in New York City on March 18, 1963 and ran for 264 performances. The show starred Jean-Pierre Aumont and Vivien Leigh who won the 1963 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
The original play "Tovarich" was written in French by Jacques Deval and opened in Paris on 13 October 1933.
This is the first Warner Brothers film to begin with the famous Warners fanfare, which was composed by Max Steiner. The fanfare had a bombastic beginning but no real end, as it was meant to transpose into the music of the picture it introduced, which led to new and creative chord modulations in each film in which it was featured.
When Maurice Murphy replaced Allan Conrad in the role of Georges Dupont, six days of retakes were needed, putting the movie further behind schedule.