Comedy

Romance

To Be or Not to Be

Romaine Film Corporation

United States of America

Deutsch

Français

English

Carole Lombard

Jack Benny

Robert Stack

Felix Bressart

Lionel Atwill

Stanley Ridges

Sig Ruman

Tom Dugan

Charles Halton

George Lynn

Henry Victor

Maude Eburne

Halliwell Hobbes

Miles Mander

Rudolph Anders

Paul Barrett

Sven Hugo Borg

Danny Borzage

Buster Brodie

Peter Caldwell

Alec Craig

Helmut Dantine

Jack Deery

Leslie Denison

James Finlayson

James Gillette

Stuart Hall

Leyland Hodgson

Shep Houghton

Olaf Hytten

Charles Irwin

Tiny Jones

John Kellogg

Adolf E. Licho

Wilbur Mack

John Meredith

Maurice Murphy

Richard Neill

Russ Powell

Frank Reicher

Otto Reichow

Gene Rizzi

John Roy

Hans Schumm

Stephen Soldi

Count Stefenelli

Roland Varno

Ernö Verebes

Dorothy Vernon

Armand 'Curly' Wright

Wolfgang Zilzer

Ernst Lubitsch

Rudolph Maté

Werner R. Heymann

Julia Heron

Melchior Lengyel

Irene

Dorothy Spencer

William Tummel

Gordon Bau

Vincent Korda

Walter Mayo

Frank Maher

William McGarry

Lawrence W. Butler

Ryszard Ordyński

Edwin Justus Mayer

Victor Sutker

J. McMillan Johnson

Alexander Korda

CinemaSerf

So, a Polish acting company are busy putting on “Hamlet” whilst the Nazis are preparing something altogether more menacing across the border. “Joseph” (Jack Benny) and wife “Maria” (Carole Lombard) are the stars of the show, and she has no shortage of admirers including an air force officer “Sobieski” (Robert Stack) who bravely decamps to the UK following the invasion to join the RAF. Rather foolishly, as it turns out, the enthusiastic young “Sobieski” confides some highly confidential information about the resistance to fellow citizen “Prof. Siletski” (Stanley Ridges) who is about to return home to Poland. No sooner has he left than they discover he is really a Gestapo spy and is now equipped with a list of those resistance fighters working in Warsaw. The only way they can think of to retrieve the list (and it’s duplicate) is for him to return and for the troupe to capture the unsuspecting traitor by pretending to be just about everyone from his handler to the Austrian corporal himself. Can they obtain the document and get themselves back to Blighty or are they all going to end up against a wall? This is an entertainingly paced drama, laced with comedy and even a little from the bard himself as Benny plays multiple roles and Lombard has a go at stabilising the plot as the glamorous counter-spy. Along the way this pokes fun at the eccentricities of the espionage industry, suggests an amiable degree of stupid pomposity amongst the conquerors - especially Sig Ruman’s goose-stepping “Col. Ehrhardt” and you have to keep your wits about you else you might lose track of just who’s beard is real or stick-on. I can imagine this sailed quite close to the wind in 1942, but for me it’s the kind of black humour that ridicules successfully their nemesis whilst simultaneously and comedically exposing their brutal excesses. Ernst Lubitsch, like the theatrical characters themselves, offers us a frequently quite wittily written and engaging ensemble effort that both Benny and Lombard hold together well, it has some precision timing and it’s well worth a gander.

To Be or Not To Be (1942) «Tráiler Original» Ernst Lubitsch

Three Reasons: To Be or Not to Be

Joe Dante on TO BE OR NOT TO BE

Best Movies

To Be or Not to Be

Cast & Crew

Videos

Cast

Carole Lombard

Jack Benny

Robert Stack

Felix Bressart

Lionel Atwill

Stanley Ridges

Sig Ruman

Tom Dugan

Charles Halton

George Lynn

Box office

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