To Be or Not to Be
Tags: comedy, satire, flashback

Plot synopsis:
Before the 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the stars of a theater company in Warsaw are the "ham" actor Josef Tura (Jack Benny) and his beautiful wife, Maria (Carole Lombard). As part of the company's rehearsal of "Gestapo", a play satirizing the Nazis, one of the actors, Bronski (Tom Dugan), takes to the street to prove that he looks like Hitler in his costume and makeup. People gawk at the appearance of the Nazi dictator in Warsaw, until a young girl asks for the autograph of "Mr. Bronski."
That night, when the company is performing Shakespeare's Hamlet, with Tura in the title role, Bronski commiserates with his friend and colleague, Greenberg (Felix Bressart), about being limited to being spear carriers. Greenberg, who is implicitly Jewish (although the words "Jew" or "Judaism" are never said in the film), reveals that it has always been his dream to perform Shylock in Merchant of Venice, especially the famous "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech, which he proceeds to recite.
Meanwhile, Maria has received a bouquet of flowers from the handsome young pilot Lt. Stanislav Sobinski (Robert Stack). She arranges to meet him, telling Sobinski to come to her dressing room when Tura begins his "To be or not to be..." speech, so they can be sure of privacy. The young man walks out, very obviously, when Tura begins his monologue, causing the highly-strung actor great distress. Shortly thereafter, the company is ordered by a government representative to cancel their production of "Gestapo" out of fear it would offend the Germans and worsen tensions between the two nations.
The next night, after a brief (and chaste) assignation, Sobinski again walks out during "To be or not to be", freshly infuriating Tura. Sobinski returns backstage to confess his love to Maria, assuming that she will leave her husband and the stage to be with him. Before she can correct his assumption, news breaks out that Germany has invaded Poland. Sobinski leaves to join the fight, and the actors huddle in the basement of the theater as Warsaw is bombed.
Hitler conquers Poland and the Polish division of the British Royal Air Force is fighting to free its mother country. Lt. Sobinski and other young pilots of the division sing together, with the Polish resistance leader Professor Siletsky (Stanley Ridges) as their guest. Siletsky hints he will return to Warsaw soon and the men jump to give him messages for their relatives but Sobinski is suspicious when he gives Siletsky a message for Maria Tura and he doesn't know who the famous actress is. When Sobinski reports the incident to higher authorities, they realize that Siletsky now has a list of the names and addresses of relatives of Polish airmen in the RAF, against whom reprisals can be taken.
Sobinski is sent to Warsaw to warn the resistance but Siletsky gets there first. The flier manages to reach Maria, who passes on the message to the underground. Immediately after, she is stopped by two soldiers who have been ordered by Siletsky to bring her to him so he can deliver Sobinski's message and determine what "To be or not to be" means to her. Siletsky invites Maria to dinner, hoping to recruit her as a spy, as well as to sample her charms. She pretends to be interested and goes home to dress up.
Just before she arrives at her apartment, Tura returns and finds Sobinski in his bed and his bathrobe. Maria and Sobinski try to figure out what to do about Siletsky, while Tura tries to figure out what is going on with his wife and the pilot. In the end, Tura proclaims that he will kill Siletsky. Later that evening, Maria returns to Siletsky's room and pretends to be attracted to him. Just as they kiss, there is a knock at the door. A Nazi officer – actually one of the members of the acting company – summons Siletsky to "Gestapo headquarters", which is the theatre, hastily disguised with props and costumes from their play.
Tura pretends to be Col. Ehrhardt of the Gestapo and Siletsky gives him the report containing the names and addresses of the families of the Polish pilots. He also reveals that Sobinski gave him a message for Maria, and that "To be or not to be" was the signal for their rendezvous. Tura reacts in an extremely jealous way and declares he will have Maria arrested. Noting this overreaction, Siletsky quickly sees that he has been duped, pulls a gun on Tura and tries to escape but is shot and killed by Sobinski.
Tura returns to the hotel disguised as Siletsky in a fake beard and glasses to destroy the copy of the information about the Polish resistance that Siletsky has in his trunk and to confront Maria about her affair. Unfortunately, he is met at the hotel by the real Col. Ehrhardt's adjutant, Capt. Schultz (Henry Victor), and taken to meet Ehrhardt (Sig Ruman). Tura manages to pass himself off as Siletsky, defuses the information by naming recently executed prisoners as the leaders of the resistance and learns that Hitler himself will visit Warsaw the next day.
The next day, the real Siletsky's body is discovered in the theater. Ehrhardt sends for Maria to tell her but she is unable to warn Tura in time and he arranges another meeting with Ehrhardt, again posing as Siletsky. When Tura arrives, Ehrhardt sends him into a room with Siletsky's dead body, hoping to frighten him into a confession.
Thinking quickly, Tura shaves off Siletsky's beard and then attaches a spare fake beard that he was carrying in his pocket. He then calls Ehrhardt into the room and manipulates him into pulling Siletsky's now-fake beard off. This appears to prove that the real Siletsky was actually the imposter. But just as Tura is about to make his escape, the other actors, sent by Maria and again in Nazi costume, storm into Ehrhardt's office, yank off Tura's false beard and pretend to drag him away to prison. This gets Tura out of Gestapo headquarters but now he cannot leave the country on the plane Ehrhardt had arranged for him and it is only a matter of time before the ruse is discovered.
The company comes up with a bold plan; when the Nazis stage a show at the theater to honor Hitler. Sobinski, Tura, Bronski and the other actors sneak in dressed as Nazis. The actors hide until Hitler arrives and takes his seat. As the Nazis are singing the Deutschlandlied (the German national anthem) inside, Greenberg suddenly appears and rushes the box. This distracts the Führer's guards long enough for Bronski wearing a Hitler moustache, to emerge unnoticed from hiding, surrounded by his entourage of actors dressed as Nazi officers.
Playing the head of Hitler's guard, Tura demands to know what Greenberg wants and the actor finally gets his chance to deliver Shylock's famous speech from The Merchant of Venice. He ends with a ringing "if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?!" and Tura orders his "officers" to take Greenberg away. He also recommends that Bronski/Hitler leave Poland immediately and all the actors march out, get in Hitler's cars and drive away.
Back at her apartment, Maria is waiting for the actors to pick her up. They intend to leave on Hitler's plane but Col. Ehrhardt shows up and tries to seduce her. Ehrhardt is amazed when the door opens and Bronski walks in disguised as Hitler. Bronski simply turns and walks out in silence but Ehrhardt immediately thinks that Maria is having an affair with Hitler and he has just been caught trying to steal the Führer's mistress. Maria dashes after Bronski calling, "Mein Führer, Mein Führer!"
The actors take off in the plane and easily dispose of the Nazi pilots. Sobinski flies to Scotland, where the actors are interviewed by the press. Asked what reward he would like for his service to the Allies, Tura hesitates in a show of false modesty, but Maria quickly responds for him, "He wants to play Hamlet". Tura is now once again on stage as Hamlet and reaches the moment of "To be or not to be." He sees Sobinski in the audience as he begins the speech but both are amazed when a new young officer gets up and noisily heads backstage.

Review: There are no cheesy clean characters or cringe-worthy lines: this is a firework of fast, witty dialogue with an edge and the sexiest, cleverest (and most morally ambiguous) female protagonist I have ever seen in a film before the "New Hollywod" era.Even the structure and the way the story evolves are very modern; there are flashbacks and twists and turns that might be very common in contemporary films but must have seemed almost "avant-garde" at the time.The biggest fun, of course, is how Lubitsch takes the pi** out of Hitler's blind, fanatic followers.
This black classic comedy well produced by Alexander Korda deals about the marriage Joseph and Maria Tura(Jack Benny, Carole Lombard), they along with a troupe actors spontaneously become involved with the Polish resistance.
Meanwhile, during the representation of playwright 'Hamlet'by William Shakespeare, a spectator, the lieutenant Stanislaw(Robert Stack), gets up his seat and goes to dressing room of the star...Unforgettable characters, lots of laughs, one of the best films of the cinema history and the best of Lubitsch, a real cinema classic.
The film was remade in an inferior musical version by Alan Johnson(1983)with marriage in real life, Mel Brooks(role of Jack Benny)-Anne Bancroft(Carole Lombard) and Charles Durning (Col.Ehrhardt)..
Set in Warsaw, just before and then during the initial German occupation which itself triggered World War 2, it starts in a relatively light-hearted manner as we're introduced to an acting troupe headed by husband and wife team Jack Benny and Carole Lombard, he the hammish, self-confident leading man, she the toy-boy-chasing leading lady.
When these foibles are adroitly woven into the plot at a climactic stage later in the film you appreciate how well written and crafted the movie is.I've never seen Jack Benny in any other feature and only know him for his deadpan humour on American TV much later than this but he's great here as the cuckolded husband pressed into action by the Polish resistance, struggling to balance his personal life with the National Good.
There are only a couple of misfiring jokes like when Lombard complicity moans "Heil Hitler" when receiving a kiss from the Polish traitor or the too obvious "Friends, Romans and countrymen" line from Benny but there are far more hits than misses for sure.For me this film could have worked as a drama without the comedy and as a comedy without the drama.
This cinematic satire, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, contains some excellent acting--especially by its leads, Jack Benny and Carole Lombard.
Lubitsch certainly earns, again, our respect for his directorial skills.But regardless of the talents on display in "To Be or Not To Be", this is a film that should be seen for its place in history.Just two years before its release, Chaplin gave the world the wonderful film "The Great Dictator", a tour de force spoof of Hitler.
Realising too late that Professor Siletsky is a double agent taking addresses to the Nazi's, Lt Sobinski alerts Tura who is forced to play several roles to try and outwit the Nazi's and protect the underground resistance.Despite having heard it mentioned (and avoided the remake) I had still never seen this film until earlier today.
The whole support cast, whether Polish actor or German commander, all play very well managing to bring both wit and pathos to the film.Overall a film that is not as uncomfortable to watch as I suspected it might have been, in fact one that is downright hilarious at times and has all the sharpness and wit that I want in a comedy.
Jack Benny plays his role with just the right amount of exaggeration for it to work perfectly, and he, Carole Lombard, and the rest of the cast help Ernst Lubitsch to tell a lively yet worthwhile tale.
Nobody realized that his performance as Joseph Tura would be his best one, and that within two years he'd make his final starring fiasco in THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT.Benny and Lombard proved to work well together as the egotistical, but oddly loving couple of theater hams.
In fact the actors making up the Tura company are all good, including Lionel Atwill (who briefly is seen playing Claudius to Benny's Hamlet), Felix Bressart as Greenberg (who dreams of doing the Shylock speech from THE MERCHANT OF VENICE), Tom Dugan as Bronski (who hopes to play Hitler on the stage), Charles Halton as Dubosch (the stage manager, and the head of the Warsaw underground), and Maude Eburne as Lombard's cynical maid Anna.
Referring to Joseph Tura (Jack Benny) playing Hamlet on stage, Colonel Ehrhardt (Sig Ruman) states, "What he did to Shakespeare we are doing to Poland." Only someone with the comic genius of Ernst Lubitsch could compare the Thespian rape of Shakespeare with the physical rape of a country and make it work.Jack Benny, although one of the most popular entertainers of all time, never got his just deserts for his acting abilities.
The rest of the cast, including newcomer Robert Stack, keep up the pace and give all the support needed to make Lubitsch's film a winner, in particular the histrionics of Sig Ruman, the definitive Nazi stooge, later parodied in the popular TV series "Hogan's Heroes."The script which Lubitsch himself helped put together blossoms with hilarious one-liners such as "So they call me Concentration Camp Ehrhardt?" To read a few of the most famous ones, see IMDb quotes for the film.
This leads Joseph to think he is a failure as Hamlet until later in the film he learns that the young man, Lt. Stanislav Sobinski (Robert Stack), is leaving each time for a rendezvous with Joseph's wife, Maria.
Though this was somewhat controversial when first released because some, including Jack Benny's own father, misunderstood the satire, the film is possibly even more funny and relevant today than during World War II when the Nazi menace was for real.
The film is a good comedy that seems to has kept some of its freshness intact.The film works because of the great contribution of Jack Benny and Carole Lombard, who sadly, died before the film had its premiere.
They play the Turas, a Polish theatrical couple that foresee the Nazi invasion of their country.In fact, Jack Benny, a man associated as a comedian, first on radio, then on television, was an actor with an uncanny sense of timing.
However, the nice surprise about the movie was the acting of Jack Benny in the starring role (along with the wonderful Carole Lombard).
(Lord-Robert Stack's almost 10 years Younger than me in that film...) You also get to see how good Carole Lombard was, and it's sad she was dead before the movie was out.If you have ever wondered about just how good an actor Jack Benny was, check this out.
There is a certain sense of melancholy I feel when I watch this 1942 classic Ernst Lubitsch movie, as it represents the last appearance of the luminous Carole Lombard, surely the most breathtaking and high-spirited of actresses during Hollywood's golden era.
She and co-star Jack Benny play Maria and Joseph Tura, the egocentric stars of a Polish acting troupe who are caught in the 1939 Nazi invasion of Warsaw.
As a world-class flirt, she is carrying on with a handsome young pilot named Stanislav Sobinski, and their trysts begin once he hears his cue to get up from his theater seat, Hamlet's famous opening line to his soliloquy as spoken by an increasingly perturbed Joseph.The romantic triangle quickly takes a backseat to an espionage thriller involving a German spy named Professor Siletsky, who holds the names of members of the Polish underground.
While it sounds like a piece of wartime propaganda, the film actually becomes more farcical even as people are getting killed.As Joseph, Benny has never been better, conveying both self-absorption and cunning expertly, and the script by Edwin Justus Mayer and an uncredited Lubitsch gives him a number of great one-liners.
I watched this film recently and thought id leave a brief comment,i found this original version better than the remake although the one with Mel Brooks is good as well.What i like about this Jack Benny version is that the humour is never forced,you can see the sincerity in the actors as although they are playing for laughs they are also saddened by the dark humour in their scripts,this film was probably Ernst Lubritsch's way of drawing the publics attention to what was really going on during that period in Warsaw,Chaplin did the same thing when he made the Great Dictator.Sometimes the best way to get your point across to people is through comedy as the horrors that were really going on during this time were being very played down by the press and the government and yet the public had to be made aware in some way.I found this a very intelligent comedy,in that its funny when it wants to be and yet makes sure you see its serious nature.And on the other hand making fun of your enemy is a great way of getting back at them.Great film a real pity that it was Carole Lombards last..
Charles Chaplin was put on a death list by Hitler for lampooning him in "The Great Dictator" in 1940, and while Ernst Lubitsch's film isn't quite as scathing as Chaplin's, I still have to think that so openly mocking the Gestapo while the war was still raging took a lot of guts for everyone involved.This isn't necessarily a laugh out loud comedy; there are no really big laughs to be had.
Of course, the most praise must go to Jack Benny, who seems so utterly comfortable on screen, but Carole Lombard is as sexy and engaging as ever, even if she has quite a bit less to do.Very funny, very entertaining, and probably a must see from the period of war-time cinema.Grade: A.
Then there is this terrific cast, Jack Benny who needed only this one film to achieve immortality, beautiful Carol Lombard who had the task of playing the faithful wife to the great actor Joseph Tura and at the same time being just believably enough attracted to this guy who is able to drop a couple of tons of bombs.
This movie about a company of Polish actors during the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939 does have laughs (Hitler's "Heil myself!") and it is intricately and cleverly plotted and plays well as an intrigue.
Jack Benny and Carole Lombard are great but I will always have to say my favorite person in the movie was Sig Ruman.
The film opens a troupe of Polish actors rehearsing a play satirizing the Nazis in August, 1939, a month before the invasion, and it was highly topical at the time.Lombard is simply radiant in her last film, and finds the right restraint and touch between comedy and cooing out double entendres.
Director Lubitsch, known for sophisticated comedies, was a refugee from Hitter Germany and obviously relished the idea of making fun of the Nazis on screen but the public at this stage was in no mood for fun and the film, unlike the big success of Chaplin's earlier Dictator, was a flop at the box-office despite the star appeal of Benny and Lombard.In retrospect it can be seen as a World War II Hollywood landmark that is funnier now than it was then.
While not as dramatic or filled with memorable lines and patriotic songs, To Be or Not To Be, like Casablanca, the film features two main Hollywood stars, Carole Lombard and Jack Benny and a love triangle in which romance must be subordinate to a greater cause.
Bronski is playing a secondary role to the famous Polish actor Josef Tura, played by Jack Benny, then a radio star whose trademark straight face and deadpan humor marks the film.Tura's wife Maria, also a popular Polish actress, is played by Carole Lombard who was to meet a shocking death in a plane crash in January, 1942 shortly after the film was completed.
Friedman saying that "The studio bosses were always—even at this point—afraid of thrusting Jews into the spotlight." Whatever the reason, To Be or Not to Be is marked with the genius of one man, the great Jewish director Ernst Lubitsch who said, "What I have satirized in this picture are the Nazis and their ridiculous ideology," and that the tone and temper of the film "cannot leave any doubt in the spectator's mind what my point of view and attitude are toward these acts of horror." While the film is a broad and biting satire, from the beginning of production in November 1941 to its completion on December 24th, however, events made sure that To Be or Not to Be, as well as Charles Chaplin's The Great Dictator, was no longer a laughing matter..
All you really need to know about this film is that it stars Jack Benny and the sublime Carole Lombard and is directed by the great Ernst Lubitsch.
Husband and wife Carole Lombard (Maria) and Jack Benny (Joseph) are the leading lights in a Polish Theatre Company during the outbreak of World War 2.
Maria (Carole Lombard) and Joseph Tura (Jack Benny) are cast as the leading roles.
The acting is, of course, excellent, with each actor/actress giving off performances that make it seem as if the role were tailor-made for them (which appears to be the case for Jack Benny).After viewing this film, it is surprising to see that it is often excluded from many "Greatest Comedies of All-Time" lists, and may be overlooked.
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.
#49 on AFI's 100 Funniest Movies list.Jack Benny and Carole Lombard (her last film) star as the leaders of a Polish acting troupe that works to foil the Nazis during World War II in occupied Warsaw.
Ernst Lubitsch directed this satirical WWII comedy that is set in Nazi occupied Poland, where an acting troupe led by Joseph Tura(played by Jack Benny) is performing Shakespeare.
A theatre group led by popular stage actress Carole Lombard (as Maria Tura) and her hammy husband Jack Benny (as Joseph Tura) rehearse their funny Nazi play "Gestapo" – eventually, they're ordered to cancel the comedy due to the risk of offending Adolph Hitler, the German dictator then invading countries and disposing of their Jewish citizens in concentration camps.
Laughter is still the best medicine.********* To Be or Not to Be (2/15/42) Ernst Lubitsch ~ Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack, Sig Ruman.
Lubtisch's filmmaking and comic timing moves like a precise slab of butter (if that's a weird analogy), smooth and on point all the time.It follows a Polish theater company that see a the Germans invading, bombing their town, and the two stars of the company played by Jack Benny and Carole Lumbard, embroiled in a plot with a Nazi-leaning professor and even going up to Hitler himself.
This is meant to be a piece of world war two theatricality that can and does endure because it deals with showmanship, actor ego (from Benny with his Hamlet to the side characters trying to get Shylock just right) and playing a character as it's main focus (if there's any modern film that owes It's debt to Lubitsch and how people put on ruses in such high stakes it's Inglouious Basterds, down to a climax in a theater full of Nazis).And as funny as Jack Benny is, especially when his character reacts to that dear of a bomber pilot who has the hots for Carole Lombard, I think Lombard really makes this even better than expected.
To make a comedy in 1941 about Nazis in Poland--complete with references to concentration camps--during the midst of the most violent war the world had ever seen strikes me as being an exceptionally daring adventure to have undertaken.This could easily have been a disaster but sharp writing and the hilarious performances of Jack Benny as a hammy/Hamlety actor, Sig Ruman as the quintessential bumbling Nazi officer, and Carole Lombard as the leading lady stuck in the middle elevate it to the sublime.This is a movie for anyone who appreciates smart, funny movie making from the era of classic cinema..
Today, we can laugh at "Mr. Benny playing a comedy scene with a Gestapo corpse." But it works best if you understand the times, The War. What most people today know about World War II they learned from watching movies.
Husband and wife, Joseph (Jack Benny) and Maria Tura (Carole Lombard), are theater stars.
Lombard is in this a lot but she's not near as good as Jack Benny.This film is about 90% comedy and 10% serious.
The comedy To Be or Not to Be is directed by Ernst Lubitsch and stars Carole Lombard and Jack Benny.
JACK BENNY and CAROLE LOMBARD are ideally cast as a ham actor and his zany actress wife in TO BE OR NOT TO BE, a story of Poland facing the Nazi invasion and how a theater troupe gets to do some real acting by fooling the Nazi authorities.The real comedy highlight of the film is SIG RUMAN as Col. Ehrhardt, foolishly thinking that Benny is a loyal German involved in spying activities for the Fuhrer and afraid of showing any disloyalty to Hitler by telling Earhardt a joke poking fun at the Fuhrer.
That he does - and a lot more -in "To Be or Not to Be," a 1942 film about the Lunt and Fontanne (Benny and Carole Lombard) of Poland, Josef and Maria Tura, as they go up against the Nazis.
It stars Jack Benny and Carol Lombard as Joseph and Maria Tura - a married couple and stage performers living in occupied Poland during WWII.