To Be or Not to Be Streaming
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To Be or Not to Be Streaming.
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“To Be or Not to Be” has the distinction of being the last movie starring Carole Lombard before her tragic death in an airplane shatter in 1942 and is also remembered as having Jack Benny’s finest film performance. But beyond the qualities of the stars Ernst Lubitsch’s film deserves to be singled out for its anti-Nazis spot, a distinction shared with Charlie Chaplin’s “The Gigantic Dictator” and few other films. Support in mind that the film was released on February 15, 1942, not only a month after Lombard’s death but only two months after Pearl Harbor, which means it was in the works before the United States entered World War II.
Lubitsch and Melchior Lengyel came up with the anecdote, which was turned into a screenplay by Edwin Justus Mayer. The anecdote of “To Be or Not to Be” is of a Polish theatrical company that is in Warsaw preparing to create an anti-Nazi melodrama on the eve of World War II. In the leading roles are the husband and wife team of Maria (Lombard) and Joseph Tura (Benny), who are trained in Shakespeare. However, the production is canceled by the Polish government because they are insecure Germany will attack the country is a play important of the Nazis goes on (you know how irritable Hitler can be) . So the Turas do on “Hamlet” instead and while Joseph does Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy, Maria is visited backstage by Lieutenant Stanislav Sobinski (Robert Stack), a young pilot in the Polish Air Force. Then the war breaks out, Sobinski makes it to London to fight with the RAF, and the Turas remain in occupied Warsaw.
While in London Sobinski meets with Professor Siletsky (Stanley Ridges), a Nazi agent posing as a Polish patriot, who gets the names of friends and relatives from the pilots. Sobinski becomes suspicious and is sent to Warsaw to recover the list from Siletsky before he gives it to the Nazis. In Warsaw Maria helps Sobinski, but then she is arrested by the Gestapo as Siletsky tries to salvage her to join the Third Reich. To rescue his wife Joseph and the other actors masquerade as Nazi soldiers and demolish up with one of them (Tom Duggan) dressing up as Hitler to befriend in the substantial flee.
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This is a comedy, but it is not a tall comedy in which the whole thing descends into slapstick, otherwise the overt attempts at anti-Nazi propaganda would not work. There is a similarity between “To Be or Not to Be” and the television area comedy “Hogan’s Heroes,” in terms of presenting the Nazis as incompetent buffoons, personified by Sig Ruman as Colonel Ehrhardt. The dissimilarity is that Lubitsch detached manages to work in the view that the Nazis are also killer clowns. However, the biggest joke is that these actors, less than sharp on the stage in Shakespeare, are so convincing playing Nazis. Meanwhile, Joseph cannot quite bring himself to notion that Maria is actually cheating on him.
Keep in mind that when this film was made “concentration camps” did not mean what they mean today; the terms was ragged by the United States to report the camps in which Japanese-Americans were interred during the war. But then when you peruse Jack Benny crawl in as a Nazi you know this is a different time and status. The humor is lovely extreme for a film from the early Forties (e.g., Ehrhardt recalls Joseph’s performance of “Hamlet” and declares, “What he did to Shakespeare we are doing to Poland”), but then hold in mind who is being made fun of here and you have to esteem the bite that they effect into some of these bits. Benny is exquisite distinguished perfect for this fraction and Lombard sparkles throughout. As is usually the case, the unusual is noteworthy better than the 1983 remake with the husband and wife team of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft.
I’m so surprised that this classic is not revived more often or is not better known. It really is one of the most reliable films turned out during the war years and is necessary for a number of diverse reasons. One is that Carole Lombard, the fair comedienne par excellence of the 30’s and wife of Clark Gable was killed in a plane shatter on a war bond selling tour soon after completing her role in it and secondly that Jack Benny, normally regarded as a radio personality, has the film role of a lifetime in this classic and has never been better.
The film has so many astonishing moments and features that it is hard to know where to start. Carole Lombard, one of my favourite actresses of the 1930’s has never been better than in this role and it is a melancoly experience watching her so graceful, so pleasing and chunky of life in this her last film prior to her death. The role of Maria Tura is at once street knowing, sexy and totally up to taking on the Nazi’s in the script. This performance stands up there with all her classic performances in “Twentieth Century” “My Man Godfrey” “Hands Across The Tabe” “In Name Only” and “Vigil In The Night”.
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Jack Benny, noted for his radio performances and later television work shines in the role of her husband Joseph Tura your typical egocentric actor who is known for putting the “ham” in Hamlet once and for all!!! The supporting cast is first rate with Robert Stack lustrous in one of his earliest roles as Lieut. Stanislav Sobinski, Maria’s lover who always exits the front row of the theatre as Joseph Tura the hammest actor in all of Warsaw launches into his “To be or not to be…….. speech and has his grand moment ruined night after night!! The fact that Stack and the rest of the cast neither view or sound Polish in no plan detracts from the magic of this film as we are sent on a rollicking satire about the Nazi takeover of Warsaw which of course was very topical at this time. Indeed the subject matter was considered very audacious at this time and “To Be Or Not To Be” was one of the first films along with “The Mortal Storm” to attack Nazism at a time when the outcome of the war was unruffled very hazardous.
The film has the rare distinction of successfully combining humour with a strong depiction of the fright inflicted on countless people by the Nazis. It maintains its acquire personal dignity throughout and the credit for that must be laid at the feet of Ernst Lubitsch who here combines his fill rich European experience with the crack – crack volleys of a like a flash enthralling Americam satire. The proper extinguish result (which was not a spacious success upon release, but has been redeemed with the passing of time) has considerable to do with his confident and positive handling of potentially very perilous material for that time.
The improbable humour of this fragment comes from the grand characterisations by all the cast and the storyline which has them as a Polish theatrical troupe which is pulled into working as resistance workers to wait on a Polish Lieutenant come by safety from the Nazis. What ensures is a hilarious series of events that is both clever and witty while succeeding in jogging our thoughts about man’s inhumanity to man.
If you are an admirer of the positive Lubitsch touch in film or are honest a fan of arresting, swiftly involving satires with plenty of dim humour thrown in for worthy measure “To Be Or Not To Be” is not to be missed. For me I savor it as a fitting farewell performance for the aesthetic Carole Lombard. It makes you wonder about all the grand roles she would have undoubtedly played in the 1940’s had she lived. Alas that’s something we are doomed never to accept out about. Luxuriate In this classic over a number of screenings as you will need that many to fully devour all the charm and wit of this substantial classic.
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