Three Comrades: F. Scott Fitzgerald's Screenplay

by Erich Maria Remarque, Matthew J. Bruccoli (Editor)

Much of the magic surrounding his legendary name had vanished by the time F. Scott Fitzgerald—forty-one years old, deeply in debt, full of re­morse that “I had been only a mediocre caretaker of most things left in my hands, even of my talent”—mounted a third assault on the money of Hol­lywood and, by writing this adaptation of Remarque’s Three Comrades, proved that the writer, if not the man, had sur­vived the famed “crack-up.”

 

 

The screenplay for Three Comrades, starring Robert Young, Margaret Sulla­van, Franchot Tone, and Robert Taylor, ultimately was the result of the collaboration of E. E. Paramore and producer Joseph Mankiewicz, though Fitzgerald fought to salvage as much of his original script as possible. By his own reckoning, only about a third of the final script was his, and “all shad­ows and rhythm removed.”

 

The script published here is the one Fitzgerald tried desperately to save. Neither Mankiewicz nor Paramore has written a line. This script is, of course, valuable to those who would know the complete Fitzgerald. It also proves fas­cinating as a study of adaptation, show­ing which scenes Fitzgerald chose to dramatize to catch the essence of the Remarque story as well as showing how he made visual what the novelist could place in the heads of his readers.

 

Series editor Matthew J. Bruccoli provides the background in an il­luminating Afterword and in an appen­dix containing eight scenes that re­sulted from the collaboration of Man­kiewicz, Paramore, and Fitzgerald.

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Erich Maria Remarque was a German novelist best known for All Quiet on the Western Front (1929), a landmark anti-war novel based on his experiences in World War I. The book became an international bestseller, defining a new genre of veterans’ literature and inspiring multiple film adaptations. Its strong anti-war themes led to condemnation by the Nazi regime, which banned and burned his works.
Born Erich Paul Remark in 1898, he adopted the surname Remarque to honor his French ancestry. He served on the Western Front during World War I, where he was wounded, and later pursued various jobs, including teaching, editing, and technical writing. After the massive success of All Quiet on the Western Front, he wrote several other novels addressing war and exile, such as The Road Back, Three Comrades, and Arch of Triumph. His outspoken opposition to the Nazi regime forced him into exile in Switzerland and later the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1947.
Remarque’s personal life included high-profile relationships with actresses Marlene Dietrich and Paulette Goddard, the latter of whom he married in 1958. In 1943, his youngest sister, Elfriede, was executed by the Nazis for anti-regime remarks, an event that deeply affected him. He spent his later years in Switzerland, where he continued writing. His final completed novel, The Night in Lisbon (1962), was another bestseller.
He died in 1970 at the age of 72, leaving behind a literary legacy that continues to shape discussions on war and its consequences.

AKA:
Эрих Мария Ремарк (Russian)