Good wartime suspense thriller

Rating: 7/10 (24 August 2014)

It's 1939. Husband and wife, Joseph (Jack Benny) and Maria Tura (Carole Lombard), are theater stars. He's a self-obsessed diva and she has an admirer in bomber pilot Lieut. Stanislav Sobinski (Robert Stack). After the German invasion, Sobinski is in England. He meets Professor Siletsky who is going back to Poland. Everybody gives him family and friends names to send greetings to. Sobinski is suspicious when he doesn't know who Maria Tura is. Before Sobinski could tell the higher ups, he's gone back and Sobinski is sent after him.
This is a suspenseful thriller with some jokes thrown in. The remake is funnier and jokier. This one still has the funniest line "Heil myself". Mel Brooks makes walking out on "To be or not to be" much funnier than Jack Benny. Jack is less outrageous than Mel. This one is just more of a spy action movie being shown right in the middle of the war. It does struggle with the tone as it keeps going back to the big laughs with Jack Benny. It's a battle between the dark serious subject matter and Jack Benny trying to ham it up.