Splendid wartime comedy and referenced as an over-the-top classic movie

Rating: 8/10 (8 October 2008)

This black and white classic comedy well produced by Alexander Korda deals with the friendly marriage Joseph and Maria Tura (Jack Benny , Carole Lombard), they along with a troupe of scene actors spontaneously become involved with the Polish resistance. The valiant marriage uses their talents of theatrical interpretation to save Warsaw freedom fighters from the invading Nazis. Meanwhile , during the representation of the famous play 'Hamlet' by playwright William Shakespeare, a spectator, lieutenant Stanislaw (Robert Stack), gets up his seat and goes to dressing room of themain player .....
Unforgettable characters , lots of laughs , one of the best films of the film history and the best of the great director Ernest Lubitsch, a real cinema classic. Sensational Jack Benny and sophisticated Carole Lombard who wears lush gowns , this is her last appearance , but shortly after she was deceased in a plane crash . Phenomenal secondary cast such as : Stanley Ridges as professor Siletsky and special mention for Sig Ruman as inefficient concentration camp's Colonel Ehrhardt. However, it was only nominated to musical score for the maestro composer Miklos Rozsa, though the movie deserved several Oscars, unfortunately , did not win Academy Awards . The motion picture was magnificently directed by Ernest Lubitsch incuding his usual 'Lubitsch touch'. At the time of the movie, for the 40s, this one failed and obtained lukewarm reception by public, being a flop at boxoffice, and had lousy reviewers. As Lubitsch was framed to deal slightly with a very serious issue, the 1939 Nazi invasion on Poland. Although in 1966, fortunately , the Congress of United States justly included it in the 'National Film Registry', considering as an American cultural treasure . Of course, in Germany and other countries in German influence was really prohibited, and in Spain retarded thirty years its premiere .
The film was remade as an inferior musical version (1983) by Alan Johnson starred by marriage in real life , Mel Brooks (role of Jack Benny) and Anne Bancroft (Carole Lombard's character and Charles Durning (Col.Ehrhardt).