To Be Or Not To Be (1942) starring Jack Benny, Robert Stack, Carole Lombard, Sig Ruman, Stanley Ridges, directed by Ernst Lubitsch
To Be Or Not To Be. Set during World War II, the Nazis put a Polish theater group out business. Until they become involved in espionage. And then their skills face the ultimate test. Can they fool the Nazis?
Review of To Be or Not to Be
To Be or Not to Be is many things. It’s a hilarious comedy, with a vain Polish actor, played by Jack Benny, forced to put on the performance of his life. He has to impersonate a deceased Nazi, to buy the Polish underground time. It’s also a romantic drama, as he’s having marital issues with his lovely wife (Carole Lombard). Which becomes a romantic triangle, when a young pilot thinks he can woo her away from her husband.
Product Description
When Stanislav is eventually dispatched for war, he implicates Maria with Professor Siletsky (Stanley Ridges), who has a secret plan to destroy the Warsaw resistance. The Polish theater troupe is then forced to use their theatrical skills to ensure their survival. Eventually, they turn to impersonating Nazi officers – and even Hitler himself – in order to outwit the enemy and keep the resistance safe from spies. To Be or Not to Be opened to a controversial release in 1942, when the U.S. was still very much involved in WWII. It was remade in 1983 starring Mel Brooks and real-life wife Anne Bancroft.
Cast of characters
- Maria Tura (Carole Lombard, My Man Godfrey). Polish actress, who becomes the hub of the story. An attractive woman & good actress, she has married:
- Joseph Tura (Jack Benny, The Jack Benny Show). Maria’s husband, also an actor. An insecure ham, in fact. But someone who can be a great actor — when his life depends on it. And, a man who truly loves his wife.
- Lieutenant Stanislav Sobinski (Robert Stack, Airplane!). The love-struck young pilot, who thinks that Maria returns his love. And, will abandon both the stage & her husband to run away with him.
- Felix Bressart (Ninotchka) … Greenberg, a Jewish actor who plays bit parts and dreams of playing Shylock.
- Lionel Atwill (Man Made Monster, Son of Frankenstein) … Rawitch, a ham actor.
- Stanley Ridges (Sergeant York) … Professor Siletsky. The turncoat, who pretends to be fighting against the Nazis, but who’s planning on giving all of the Polish underground contacts to them. After his death, Tura impersonates him.
- Sig Ruman (A Night in Casablanca, A Night at the Opera) … Colonel Ehrhardt. Hilariously funny in his role as the pompous Nazi, who blames everything on “Schultz!”
- Tom Dugan (The Monster and the Girl) … Bronski, a minor actor who impersonates Hitler.
- Charles Halton (Stranger on the Third Floor) … Producer Jan Dobosz
- George Lynn (The Great Dictator) … Actor-Adjutant – an actor who masquerades as Col. Ehrhardt’s adjutant.
- Henry Victor (Sherlock Holmes and The Secret Weapon) … Captain Schultz. The poor underling that Ehrhardt blames everything on. Especially when he’s just following Ehrhardt’s orders!
- Maude Eburne (The Vampire Bat) … Anna, Maria’s maid.
- Halliwell Hobbes (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1931) … General Armstrong, a British intelligence officer.
- Miles Mander (The Return of the Vampire) … Major Cunningham, British intelligence officer.
Trivia
- When Jack Benny’s father went to see this movie, he was outraged at the sight of his son in a Nazi uniform in the first scene and even stormed out of the theater. Jack convinced his father that it was satire, and he agreed to sit through all of it. His father ended up loving the film so much he saw it forty-six times.
- This was Carole Lombard’s final film before her death on January 16, 1942.
- When war breaks out in Poland, there’s a scene where grave stones are destroyed by the bombing by the German forces. One of the grave stones that is shattered has the name “Benjamin Kubelsky” — Jack Benny’s birth name.
- The biggest problem early in the shoot was Jack Benny’s insecurity about acting the central role in such an important production by a major filmmaker. He seemed dumbfounded that Ernst Lubitsch had not only cast him but was building the film around him. Finally Lubitsch set him straight: “You think you are a comedian. You are not even a clown. You are fooling the public for 30 years. You are fooling even yourself. A clown – he is a performer what is doing funny things. A comedian – he is a performer what is saying funny things. But you, Jack, you are an actor, you are an actor playing the part of a comedian and this you are doing very well. But do not worry, I keep your secret to myself.”
- Laurel and Hardy regular James Finlayson has an uncredited appearance as a Scottish farmer.