A romantic glow hangs over this beautiful picture like a San Francisco fog rolling across the Golden Gate Bridge. The story is based on the fine literary novel by Erich Maria Remarque, and was adapted to the screen by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Frank Borzage was the perfect choice as director for this story of three German WWI expatriates who have bonded for life and the tubercular waif they all love in varying ways. It has all the great romanticism Borzage was famous for bringing to his art, and this marvelous adaptation of Remarques masterpiece concluded his trilogy of otherworldly love intruded upon by war: Seventh Heaven, A Farewell to Arms, and Three Comrades. A sense of impending tragedy even during the happier scenes creates what one might call romantic noir, even though no crime has been committed.

Robert Taylor portrays Erich, the younger and more innocent of the three comrades. Robert Young is Gottfried, an idealist angry at the post-war rise of fascism. And Franchot Tone, in one of his finest roles, is Otto, the world-weary pragmatist. Their lives are changed forever when they meet up with fragile Margaret Sullavan, who gave the finest performance of her career as the sweet and courages Pat. Pat is dying of tuberculosis, but has just enough time left for Taylor to fall in love with her, and to touch the lives of his two friends.

Each of the comrades falls in love with her in other ways, the threesome becoming a foursome; a makeshift family trying to keep fate at bay just a little while longer. The luminous performance by Sullavan is one you will always remember. Director Frank Borzage creates a sense of doom underneath every light and happy moment the comrades share together, the romantic glow growing a little dimmer as destiny looms like a storm cloud just over the next hill.

You will rarely see a film so full of love, as Sullavan imparts to each of the comrades what they need, and in turn receives two friends who love and cherish her — and one who loves her even more. Tone gives his weary character considerable depth. Taylor's Erich is likable as the young brash member of friends, somewhat lost after the war is over and still a bit naive. Robert Young gives another solid performance as he captures the anger and restlessness of a world that has just come out of a war, yet finds itself moving in that direction again.

This was Remarque and Fitzgerald at their best, two great writers complementing each other. Director Frank Borzage brought a sensitivity and romanticism to his art few have ever matched. Margaret Sullavan gives the greatest performance of her career, her own life as fragile as Pat's, ending tragically years later. The final shot of Three Comrades is not one easily forgotten. Though elements of Remarque’s novel were softened due to the time period in which this film was made, it still resonates.

If you love the magic of film, and enjoy the romanticism only film can bring to our hearts, you’ll be moved by Three Comrades. An enduring masterwork. ( )