"To Be or Not To Be" is an outstanding comedy and drama. Better than Chaplin's "The Great Dictator", it is surely the best Nazi satire. While it moves freely between suspense and comedy, the scenes with Jack Benny are generally the comic ones. The quality of the script is extremely high, and the film makes the point of praising Polish resistance and condemning Nazism with much humor and without becoming strident.
Joseph Tura (Jack Benny) and his wife Maria (Carole Lombard) lead a troup of actors in Poland, before and during the Nazi occupation. Maria conducts a liason with bomber pilot Lt. Sobinski (Robert Stack, so young that he is nearly unrecognizable). Sobinsky, part of a Polish squadron based in England, suspects Professor Siletsky (Stanley Ridges) of being a Nazi spy. Siletsky returns to Poland to deliver a list of members of the Warsaw Underground, and Tura's troupe is recruited to prevent him from doing so.
Jack Benny's character must impersonate Siletsky, generating suspense and getting him into much trouble. Benny was a great comedian with perfect timing, facial expressions and vocal inflections. It helps that he is given great lines, particularly during his interviews with blustering Colonel Ehrhardt (Sig Rumann).
It is difficult to find problems with "To Be or Not to Be." Nothing comes of a suicide note that Maria forges for Siletsky, and Benny's frequent references to that "Great, great Polish Actor Joseph Tura" are funny but unlikely. Any problems that the film has are irrelevant given the quality of the script (Edwin Justus Mayer) and direction (Ernst Lubitsch, who also produced).
"To Be or Not to Be" was only nominated for one Academy Award, for the Werner Heymann score. The Oscar snub may have been due to Lubitsch being a German. It was the final film for Lombard, who died in a plane crash shortly after production. (95/100)
A classic black comedy set in wartime Poland which deals with the members of an acting troupe who inadvertently become involved in the war effort. Aca...More at Family Video
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