To Be or Not to Be
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Movie Reviews of To Be or Not to Be
Movie Review: absolute perfection
Summary: 5 Stars
TO BE OR NOT TO BE paired legendary director Ernst Lubitsch with the insanely-talented comedienne Carole Lombard (in what turned out to be her final film). Written and released during the height of WW2, the film provided a much-needed breath of fresh air for wartime audiences whilst mercilessly skewering the Nazi regime.
In Nazi-occupied Poland, theatre supercouple Joseph and Maria Tura (Jack Benny and Carole Lombard) wow the crowds with their repertory production of "Hamlet"--and moonlight as members of the Polish Resistance. Based on a story from Melchoir Lengyel ("Ninotchka"), the laughs fly thick and fast, with Jack Benny in his element as the most hammy Hamlet that ever was; and Carole Lombard is at her sexiest as Tura's glamourpuss wife. The strong ensemble cast includes Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Lionel Atwill, Sig Ruman, Maude Eburne and Tom Dugan.
Fans of Carole Lombard are the ones who have always appreciated this gem more than most, because it was her last film appearance. In 1942, while returing home from a warbonds drive, Carole and her mother were both killed after their plane crashed outside of Las Vegas. TO BE OR NOT TO BE was kept on the shelf until a suitable period of mourning had elapsed. It was later re-made in 1983 by Mel Brooks as a co-starring vehicle for Brooks and his wife Anne Bancroft.
Still as fresh today as it was over 50 years ago, TO BE OR NOT TO BE remains one of Hollywood's classiest classic comedies. (Single-sided, dual-layer disc).
Movie Review: Brilliant outrageous comedy from the master
Summary: 5 Stars
This brilliant farce, completed just as America entered the war due to Pearl Harbour, was as controversial as it was clever. Ernst Lubitsch, like Charlie Chaplin a few years earlier with "The Great Dictator", dared to set a comedy around the Nazis. Like Chaplin's film, it opened to mix reviews, offending both critics and the public and was not a great success.
Given that premise, this is a brilliantly scripted and directed comedy set in Warsaw at the outbreak of the war. An acting troupe outwit the Nazis's plan to destroy the underground. The plot is outrageous and hilarious. Jack Benny plays the leading actor and it is no co-incidence that he wishes to play Hamlet because he is a ham himself. Benny is beautifully paired with the gorgeous Carole Lombard as his flirtatious wife. This was Lombard's last film before she tragically died in an air crash. She was at the height of her powers. There are many great supporting actors but Sig Rumann as Concentration Camp Erhart is a standout. Surely he was the basis for the Colonel in Hogan's Heroes. The film was successfully remade as a musical comedy by Mel Brooks many years later but this version is the best.
The print of the film is OK and the DVD contains 2 short films starring Benny; the first, made in 1930 stars him as a conventional comedic leading man and is mildly amusing and the second is war time propaganda. The DVD is OK value but better if purchased as part of the Comedy Classics set.
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.
Movie Review: A Near-Perfect Comedy, Filmed and Set at a Unique Moment in Time
Summary: 5 Stars
I came to this film late, mostly as a curiosity having watched the Mel Brooks remake many times.
Boy am I glad I finally caught this. This film provides a rare window on the early days of the war, as seen by a Western Europe equally perplexed and disgusted by the rise of Nazism. In the hands of a brilliant director, and a motivated cast, this film transcends its moment and enters the realm of high art.
I could go on about the sets, the intricate comic plot that grows increasingly absurd, the luminous Carol Lombard and her amazing gowns, the always funny Jack Benny hamming it and serving as the butt of many jokes, the great character actors populating the cast as real and fake Nazis, or even an early fine performance by Robert Stack, but I'll simply urge you to see this film and see for yourself.
Given the trajectory of the war, both for Poles, Jews, and even for many Germans, this film was prescient and really is one of a kind.
Movie Review: Humor at its best
Summary: 5 Stars
I discovered Lubitsch's oeuvre as a teenager and since then he has remained one of my favourite movie directors. Great plans, suggested sexual innuendo in the perfect European way with lots of (not obvious) puns, a quality of photography that makes the light around the actors shine like a halo, integrating Shakespeare's texts in the plot of the 1939 invasion of Poland is a coup de maitre! The movie was made during the war itself and as such, is a strong denunciation of the enemy, probably stronger than the more "in-your-face/full-of-blood" classic war movies. Lubitsch must have been a great optimist and even his earlier and rarely seen or acknowledged "Broken Lullaby" (about World War 1), which is maybe his only "tragedy" movie, keeps the hope alive.
My children, age 11 and 17, who had never ever watched a Black and White movie (how prehistoric!) loved To Be or Not To Be. I am hopeful that they will show this classic to their own children too.