Released in 1944, Tender Comrade was used as evidence against its blacklisted director, Edward Dmytryk, and producer, Dalton Trumbo during their October 1947 HUAC hearings. 1 A brief synopsis is as follows:
Granted a one-night leave before being shipped out for overseas duty, soldier Chris Jones visits his wife Jo. After an affectionate reunion, Jo and Chris bid farewell at the train station and dream of the day that Chris will return home. Jo collapses, sobbing, as Chris's train departs, but composes herself enough to go to her job at the Douglas Aircraft Factory. While eating lunch with three of her fellow workers, Jo proposes that they pool their resources and rent a house together. The three women: Barbara Thomas, an embittered, unfaithful wife whose husband Pete is in the Navy; Doris Dumbrowski, whose sudden wedding to her soldier boyfriend on the eve of his overseas departure prevented them from consummating their marriage; and Helen Stacey, whose husband and son are both in the service, accept Jo's idea, and they move in together, vowing to run their household as a democracy.
-Tender Comrade, TCM.com (http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/92533/Tender-Comrade/)
Surprisingly, it was not the eerily Soviet-centirc title that bought this film into contention, but rather a line meant to be spoken to lead actress Ginger Rogers. In 1947, Rogers' mother, Lela, claimed Dmytryk and Trumbo were Communists based upon the remark, "Share and share alike, that's democracy." 2 Ginger never spoke this heavily quoted statement—not because Lela Rogers was successful in forcing Dmytryk and Trumbo to omit it, however; rather, it was due to the fact that the line was never actually in the script. 3
1 Tender Comrade, http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/92533/Tender-Comrade/
2 Humphries, Reynold. Hollywood’s Blacklists: A Political and Cultural History. Edinburgh University Press Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. 2008.
3 Humphries, Reynold. Hollywood’s Blacklists: A Political and Cultural History. Edinburgh University Press Ltd, Edinburgh, UK. 2008.