Summary - Really Great 4.5

Although “To Be Or Not To Be” is considered to be one of the great film comedies, both its public and critical reception was mixed when it came out.

Benny and Lombard play a bickering but loving couple who run a theater in Warsaw when the Nazis invade Poland in 1939. What follows is an unlikely but totally infectious screwball comedy with some very serious implications.

“To Be or Not to Be” is significant in several ways. It was Lombard’s last film. And although Benny was a huge radio star at the time and would continue that run on TV, this is was one of the few movies of his that really show his comic gift except for “Charley’s Aunt”

It’s also one of director Ernst Lubitch’s better movies.

Acting - Really Great 4.5

Both Benny and Lombard give iconic comedic performances. One wonders why Benny didn’t make more movies but Lombard would have made more if she had not died that year in a tragic plane accident on her way back home to California from a war bond rally in her home state of Indiana. But they are ably assisted but a wonderful supporting cast including Felix Bressart who gives Shylock’s speech from “Merchant of Venice” a resonance it never had before or has since.

Film - Really Great 4.5

There is very little wrong with this movie. Although some film scholars have said Lubitsch had lost his famous “touch” by the time he got to Hollywood it still retai to ns its magic and historical importance.

Edge - Risqué 1.6

Although tame by today’s standards(okay, I say that a lot) the sight of Jack Benny in a Nazi uniform(as part of a ruse to trick the Nazis) actually offended Benny’s father to the point he walked out on the movie and wouldn’t set foot in a theater for months But he finally saw the whole movie and ended up seeing it more than 40 more times.

Some sexual innuendo for 1942. Again for 1942, Nazis. Keep in mind this was before D Day.

Reality - Natural 1.0

1 Comment

• Wick Mar 20, 2013 11:44PM

  Regarding BrettHarrison’s Review
  Wow. I gotta see this movie.

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