To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Just as Roberto Benigni found himself on the receiving end of some finger-wagging for making a comedy set during the Holocaust, so the great Ernst Lubitsch caught some heat for this extraordinary 1942 satire set behind enemy lines during World War II. In his best performance on film, Jack Benny stars as Joseph Tura, the lead actor and head of a Polish theater troupe that is suddenly enlisted as a Resistance organization when an American pilot (Robert Stack) requires protection. The twist is that the pilot has been having a series of trysts with Tura's wife (Carole Lombard), the hilarious evidence being the disruptive departure of Stack's character from a theater audience each night as the hammy Tura unknowingly cues the lovers by launching into Hamlet's famous soliloquy. The remarkable script by Edwin Justus Mayer ingeniously folds the tensions of a betrayed marriage into the comic suspense surrounding Tura and company's efforts to pull off a Mission: Impossible-like sting on the local Nazi command. Many unforgettable moments and lines of dialogue adorn this black comedy, and the performances--most memorably Sig Ruman's crisp volleys with Benny--are a dream. Above it all, however, is Lubitsch's unmistakable Continentalism, his accent on Old World manners especially in a dangerous situation, suggesting the Nazis' very vulgarity was a reflection of their profound evil. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com essential video

Jack

I love "The Jack Benny Show". I don't see the humor in this DVD. Must be me. Otherwise it's a great product. No defects. August 24, 2008

Brilliant outrageous comedy from the master

This brilliant farce, completed just as America entered the war due to Pearl Harbour, was as controversial as it was clever. Ernst Lubitsch, like Charlie Chaplin a few years earlier with "The Great Dictator", dared to set a comedy around the Nazis. Like Chaplin's film, it opened to mix reviews, offending both critics and the public and was not a great success.

Given that premise, this is a brilliantly scripted and directed comedy set in Warsaw at the outbreak of the war. An acting troupe outwit the Nazis's plan to destroy the underground. The plot is outrageous and hilarious. Jack Benny plays the leading actor and it is no co-incidence that he wishes to play Hamlet because he is a ham himself. Benny is beautifully paired with the gorgeous Carole Lombard as his flirtatious wife. This was Lombard's last film before she tragically died in an air crash. She was at the height of her powers. There are many great supporting actors but Sig Rumann as Concentration Camp Erhart is a standout. Surely he was the basis for the Colonel in Hogan's Heroes. The film was successfully remade as a musical comedy by Mel Brooks many years later but this version is the best.

The print of the film is OK and the DVD contains 2 short films starring Benny; the first, made in 1930 stars him as a conventional comedic leading man and is mildly amusing and the second is war time propaganda. The DVD is OK value but better if purchased as part of the Comedy Classics set. March 23, 2008

a true underrated classic.......

I am a great fan of one of the rightful kings of comedy, the late, great Jack Benny. He is featured at his wry best, here, along with the stunningly beautiful Carole Lombard--the last film she made before she tragically died in a plane crash. The title is based on the famous "To Be, Or Not To Be" soliloquy in William Shakespeare's HAMLET. A troupe of actors in Nazi-occupied Warsaw must get by on their ability as thespians to elaborately (and effectively) disguise themselves, as well as adapt new identities, in order to fool the occupying troops. Jack Benny is hilarious and Carole Lombard is gorgeous and charismatic. Don't miss out on this. September 2, 2007

absolute perfection

TO BE OR NOT TO BE paired legendary director Ernst Lubitsch with the insanely-talented comedienne Carole Lombard (in what turned out to be her final film). Written and released during the height of WW2, the film provided a much-needed breath of fresh air for wartime audiences whilst mercilessly skewering the Nazi regime.

In Nazi-occupied Poland, theatre supercouple Joseph and Maria Tura (Jack Benny and Carole Lombard) wow the crowds with their repertory production of "Hamlet"--and moonlight as members of the Polish Resistance. Based on a story from Melchoir Lengyel ("Ninotchka"), the laughs fly thick and fast, with Jack Benny in his element as the most hammy Hamlet that ever was; and Carole Lombard is at her sexiest as Tura's glamourpuss wife. The strong ensemble cast includes Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Lionel Atwill, Sig Ruman, Maude Eburne and Tom Dugan.

Fans of Carole Lombard are the ones who have always appreciated this gem more than most, because it was her last film appearance. In 1942, while returing home from a warbonds drive, Carole and her mother were both killed after their plane crashed outside of Las Vegas. TO BE OR NOT TO BE was kept on the shelf until a suitable period of mourning had elapsed. It was later re-made in 1983 by Mel Brooks as a co-starring vehicle for Brooks and his wife Anne Bancroft.

Still as fresh today as it was over 50 years ago, TO BE OR NOT TO BE remains one of Hollywood's classiest classic comedies. (Single-sided, dual-layer disc). July 30, 2007

To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Criticized for satirizing the raging war in Europe on its release in 1942, Lubitsch's clever, spirited, often side-splitting farce doubled as a tribute both to the Polish resistance and, quite ingeniously, to the mighty art of play-acting. Benny is terrifically funny as "that great, great actor" Joseph Tura, especially playing opposite Sig Rumann (as a Nazi colonel), and a young Robert Stack, the lovestruck lieutenant whose cue to tryst with Maria is the first line of Hamlet's soliloquy. Tragically, this was the feisty Lombard's final screen appearance--and she makes a grand though premature exit under Lubitsch's inspired direction. June 25, 2007

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