To Be or Not to Be (1942)

To Be or Not to Be
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Written by Edwin Justus Mayer from an original story by Melchior Lengyel
1942/USA
Romaine Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Streaming on Hulu Plus
#161 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die

[box] Maria Tura: It’s becoming ridiculous the way you grab attention. Whenever I start to tell a story, you finish it. If I go on a diet, you lose the weight. If I have a cold, you cough. And if we should ever have a baby, I’m not so sure I’d be the mother.

Josef Tura: I’m satisfied to be the father.[/box]

This satire of the Nazi occupation of Poland has become much funnier with age.

Josef  (Jack Benny) and Maria (Carole Lombard) Tura star as Hamlet and Ophelia in a Warsaw production of Macbeth.  Their company is also preparing a play about Nazism.  A young Polish pilot (Robert Stack) has fallen hard for Maria.  They start having trysts in her dressing room nightly as Josef starts Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, causing the pilot to walk out on him each time he hears the words “to be or not to be”.  The final performance of the play is on the night the Nazis invade Poland.  The pilot escapes to England where he begins flying for the RAF.

Segue to 1941 and “Professor Siletski” visits Polish fliers and confesses that he is going to Warsaw on a secret mission for the British.  He collects the names and addresses of all of their friends and family at home.  When the pilot gives him Maria’s name, the professor has never heard of her.  He correctly guesses that Siletski is a Nazi spy.  He flies to Warsaw to try to stop Siletski before he gives the names to the Gestapo.

Siletski gets there first.  The rest of the movie is devoted to the hilarious efforts of the actors to fool the Nazis and save the day while posing in the costumes from their aborted play.  With Felix Bressart and Lionel Atwill as members of the troupe and Sig Ruman as a Gestapo colonel.

This film has definitely got the Lubitsch touch and a high percentage of great comic zingers.  There is some pathos, too.  Unfortunately, in the aftermath of Lombard’s tragic death (this was her last film) and American entry into the war in Europe, audiences didn’t find it too funny at the time.  Lombard and the supporting cast are always wonderful.  Jack Benny showed a surprising range as a comic actor.

To Be or Not to Be was nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Werner R. Heymann).

Three Reasons to watch – Criterion Collection