wartime curio

Rating: Null/10 (17 August 2003)

We're in Poland, just as a theatre company rehearses their production of a new play, 'Gestapo'. The year is 1939, and the Nazis are about to invade and attack Warsaw. The Turas, an indifferent acting couple (Benny and Lombard) are playing in Hamlet, and Lombard has an ardent admirer in flyer Robert Stack.
Once the war begins the film takes flight into a fairly funny interpretation of mistaken identities and ham acting. It also has its serious side, attempting to focus on the dark side of Nazism while simultaneously depicting its followers as buffoons.
Good though it is, I'm just not sure what it is trying to achieve. It isn't hilarious, it is more 'cue a smile' funny. Jack Benny can be tedious at the best of times, but he is bearable here. Carole Lombard is very good (of course this was her last role before being killed in an air crash a few days after filming wrapped), as are several of the support cast. It is just ultimately a little disappointing - perhaps something more bitingly satirical would have made more sense?