Deft Delightful & Dangerously Hilarious Nazi Satire

Rating: 10/10 (30 December 2012)

No one else but Ernst Lubitsch could have made To Be or Not to Be. That it's superb and sublime and witty and ingeniously funny cannot be emphasized enough. The film has a great script, direction and cinematography (Rudolph Maté).
While the entire cast shines, Lombard and Benny are absolutely stellar. It's a shame that Benny did not get matched with similarly genius director post-TBONTB is a real shame because with the right director and script he could have gone on to be a film star. Perhaps the fact that much of the story takes place in a theatre and then on the many theatre troupe's "stages" as they foil the Nazis throughout the story, nurtured Benny's own natural unique comedic talent in a way that his other films could not.
And then there's Lombard. Carole Lombard was and still is imho, the best comedic actor other than Chaplin-Lloyd-Keaton-Dressler-Stanwyck. I don't find that the comedians of today can even come close to the previously mentioned comedians. Lombard and Benny play the most perfectly narcissistic clever power-couple seen anywhere in film or real life. That this was Lomabrd's final film before her tragic death (plane crash during a war bond tour) is sad for all of us. Her seduction of the dashing young Robert Stack's Lt. Sobinski and the evil double-agent, Professor Siletski (Stanley Ridges)is wonderful to watch. The petty banter between the egomaniacal husband and wife acting team, the Turas (Lombard and Benny) is equally delightful. Also worth mentioning is Lombard's maid, Anna (Maude Eburne) who has some great lines like, "What a husband doesn't know won't hurt his wife."
While audiences in 1941/42 may not have been able to appreciate this satire,it's worth noting that Roberto Benigni's film Life Is Beautiful (which has a higher IMDb rating) was also criticized for mixing humor in a story about the holocaust when screened at Cannes in 1997. Some people were outraged that Benigni would include comedy in the concentration camp scenes. But the film went on to win several top awards.
Another film which comes to mind mixing war/genocide with comedy in a very skillful way is Arthur Penn's, Little Big Man (1970-based on a novel of the same name by Thomas Berger). I don't know if there were any criticisms of comedy being used in a movie about the genocide of Native Americans but in my opinion, Little Big Man, although a different style than TBONTB, is a superior comedy about a very serious and tragic time in America's history.
I believe these knee jerk reactions to films which show or allude to barbaric shameful historic events are without merit. For it's art which brings light to not only these man-made horrors but illuminates the beauty and power of the human spirit.
Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be should not be over-looked. It's one of the finest examples of comedy from any era. Plus you get to watch Lombard and Benny at their most sublime.