To Be or Not to Be
by Ernst Lubitsch, J.C. Nugent
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Carole Lombard, Felix Bressart, Jack Benny, Lionel Atwill, Robert StackDirector: Ernst Lubitsch, J.C. Nugent
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 99 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-03-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of To Be or Not to Be
Movie Review: Fantastic and Funny
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't like to throw around superlatives, for the most part. But I really think that this is the funniest film that I have ever seen. The humor is a combination of farce/screwball, satire, black and a some slapstick to boot. But what makes it really stand out is the directing, Lubitsch is simply brilliant. The cuts are just right, the timing of the scenes and the pacing of the film overall keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very end. In a sense, the film feels like one extended dance (think of early Lubitsch). The acting is also top notch. Weeks after watching the film I still laugh when thinking back about it.
But underneath the extremely funny surface are some serious issues. It is about WWII after all. There's the issue of the Jews and their response to the Germans. The Jewish identity of most of the characters is supposedly hidden but the hiding act isn't all that convincing.
Lubitsch once said that the film was about actors being actors until the bitter end. I guess people in "the biz" could relate to that better than I could.
I highly recommend this film to anyone who wants an excellently crafted comedy from a top-notch director.
Summary of To Be or Not to Be
Just as Roberto Benigni found himself on the receiving end of some finger-wagging for making a comedy set during the Holocaust, so the great Ernst Lubitsch caught some heat for this extraordinary 1942 satire set behind enemy lines during World War II. In his best performance on film, Jack Benny stars as Joseph Tura, the lead actor and head of a Polish theater troupe that is suddenly enlisted as a Resistance organization when an American pilot (Robert Stack) requires protection. The twist is that the pilot has been having a series of trysts with Tura's wife (Carole Lombard), the hilarious evidence being the disruptive departure of Stack's character from a theater audience each night as the hammy Tura unknowingly cues the lovers by launching into Hamlet's famous soliloquy. The remarkable script by Edwin Justus Mayer ingeniously folds the tensions of a betrayed marriage into the comic suspense surrounding Tura and company's efforts to pull off a Mission: Impossible-like sting on the local Nazi command. Many unforgettable moments and lines of dialogue adorn this black comedy, and the performances--most memorably Sig Ruman's crisp volleys with Benny--are a dream. Above it all, however, is Lubitsch's unmistakable Continentalism, his accent on Old World manners especially in a dangerous situation, suggesting the Nazis' very vulgarity was a reflection of their profound evil. --Tom KeoghComedy DVD Video
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