To Be or Not to Be

Rating: 8/10 (15 September 2011)

I remembered the title obviously because of the William Shakespeare soliloquy, and that it featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, but I didn't know anything about it being a comedy or war film, I was watching though with it being five stars out of five. Basically, set in World War II, we look at the occupants of a Polish theatre company while the country is invaded by the Nazi Germans, and particularly the antics of "great great" actor Joseph Tura (Jack Benny) and his actress wife Maria Tura (Carole Lombard, in her last film). The film has an odd opening with Adolf Hitler in the middle of Warsaw, but it is actually actor Bronski (Tom Dugan) proving his fellow actors that his resemblance to the real Hitler is uncanny, but a little girl recognises him and asks for his autograph. Then we see the production company putting on Shakespeare's Hamlet, with Bronski saying with his friend and colleague Greenberg (Felix Bressart) that he wants a starring role, i.e. "carry the spear", and Greenberg says he'd love to play Shylock. Then we see Maria getting a bouquet of flowers from young pilot Lieut. Stanislav Sobinski (Robert Stack), and the arrange to meet when her husband Joseph is one stage as Hamlet playing the famous "to be or not to be" speech, and someone blatantly walking out, Maria and Sobinski begin an affair before he has to leave to join the war fight. When Sobinski gets to his Polish division for the British Royal Air Force he meets resistance leader Professor Siletsky (Stanley Ridges), but he gets suspicions when he asks the Professor to pass a message to Maria, but he has never heard of the famous actress, even living in Poland for ages. Back in Warsaw Maria herself is taken by two Nazi soldiers to Siletsky who does pass on the message, but then he wants to recruit her as a spy for the Nazis, she pretends to be interested and leaves with an excuse. Telling about what happened she gets her husband Joseph keen to do what needs to be done, killing the Professor, so when Maria returns to him she pretends to find him attractive, and members of the production company pretend to take him to Gestapo. But in fact he is taken to the theatre disguised with props and Joseph disguised as Col. Ehrhardt, hoping to get valuable Nazi information, and with his nerves he cannot help repeating the words "so they call me Concentration Camp Ehrhardt?", and the Professor realises he's been duped, but being chased he is shot himself. Now Joseph disguises himself as Siletsky with a fake beard and glasses to destroy information that must not be found, but he is unintentionally taken to the real Col. Ehrhardt (Sig Ruman) to give a report, and he smooths his way through the meeting, and manages to find out Hitler will be visiting Poland. The next day the real Siletsky's body is discovered, but Joseph does not find out before he goes for another meeting with Ehrhardt, so he placed in a room with the body, and he tries to dupe his way in making it look like the body is the one in disguise, quickly shaving his beard and putting on his spare fake one, and when he is about to escape the actors turn up to take off the other fake beard and pretend to take him to prison. Then the biggest event the actors have faced comes along, Hitler and many others are attending a play in the country, and Bronski dons his convincing Hitler moustache again and get in unnoticed, and Joseph is disguised as the head of the Führer's men. After whatever happens there Maria is ready to leave with the other actors, but Ehrhardt suddenly shows up trying to seduce her, and she is saved by his shock of seeing Bronski in his Hitler disguise, allowing her to walk out. All the actors are on Hitler's plane and easily dispose of the Nazis on board as they mindlessly obey orders from disguised Bronski to simply jump out without parachutes, they land and after the little surprise at the disguised actor they are praised as heroes, and asked what reward they want Joseph is interrupted by Maria saying "he wants to play Hamlet". The end of the film sees Joseph indeed playing Hamlet on stage and eyeballing Sobinski in the audience as he says the words "to be or not to be", as it triggered the hypnotised walk out reaction, but he instead has a new young man walk out. Also starring Lionel Atwill as Rawitch, Charles Halton as Producer Dobosh and Maude Eburne as Anna. Obviously World War II was actually going on at the time, so that is the only way they could get away with the bad taste jokes that are impossible to remake and recreate in modern time (even though a remake was tried with Mel Brooks in 1983), but it is not just the comedy that is great, the cast led by Benny and Lombard are terrific, and there is some poignancy to what is going on, a most watchable Second World War satire. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Music for Werner R. Heymann. It was number 49 on 100 Years, 100 Laughs, and it was number 85 on The 100 Greatest War Films. Very good!