To Be or Not to Be [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Ernst Lubitsch Ernst Lubitsch

Overview

"Ernst Lubitsch directs the 1942 political satire classic To Be or Not to Be, which marked the final screen appearance of comedienne Carole Lombard. In Warsaw at the beginning of WWII, Maria Tura (Lombard) and husband Joseph (Jack Benny) perform anti-Nazi plays with their theater troupe until they are forced to switch to Shakespeare's +Hamlet. Lt. Stanislav Sobinski (Robert Stack) falls for Maria and meets up with her during Joseph's famous ""To Be or Not to Be"" speech as Hamlet. 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."

Product Details

Release Date:	08/27/2013
UPC:	0715515108911
Original Release:	1942
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:39:00
Sales rank:	9,212

Special Features

New audio commentary featuring film historian David Kalat; Pinkus's Shoe Palace, a 1916 German silent short directed by and starring Ernst Lubitsch, with a new piano score by Donald Sosin; Lubitsch Le Patron, a 2010 French documentary on the director's career; Two episodes of The Screen Guild Theater, a radio anthology series: Variety (1940), starring Jack Benny, Claudette Colbert, and Lubitsch, and To Be Or Not To Be (1942), an adaptation of the film, starring William Powell, Diana Lewis, and Sig Ruman

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jack Benny	Joseph Tura
Carole Lombard	Maria Tura
Robert Stack	Lt. Stanislav Sobinski
Felix Bressart	Greenberg
Lionel Atwill	Rawitch
Stanley Ridges	Prof. Alexander Siletsky
Sig Rumann	Col. Ehrhardt
Tom Dugan	Bronski
Charles Halton	Dobosh
Peter Caldwell	Wilhelm Kunze
Helmut Dantine	Copilot
Otto Reichow	Copilot
Miles Mander	Maj. Cunningham
George Lynn	Actor Playing Adjutant
Henry Victor	Capt. Schultz
Maude Eburne	Anna, the Maid
Armand 'Curly' Wright	Makeup Man
Erno Verebes	Stage Manager,Stage Manager
Halliwell Hobbes	Gen. Armstrong
Leslie Denison	Captain
Frank Reicher	Polish Official
Wolfgang Zilzer	Man in Bookstore
Olaf Hytten	Polonius in Warsaw
Charles Irwin	Reporter
Leyland Hodgson	Reporter
Edgar Licho	Prompter
Rudolph Anders	Gestapo Sergeant
Roland Varno	Pilot
Maurice Murphy	R.A.F. Flyer
Gene Rizzi	R.A.F. Flyer
Paul Barrett	R.A.F. Flyer
John Kellogg	R.A.F. Flyer
Sven Hugo Borg	German Soldier
Alec Craig	Scottish Farmer
James Finlayson	Scottish Farmer
Danny Borzage	Actor
Buster Brodie	Actor
Jack Deery	Actor
James Gillette	Polish R.A.F. pilot
Russ Powell	Bystander
Hans Schumm	Special Investigations Squad
Phil Abrams	Joseph Tura
John Meredith	English wireless operator
Werner R. Heymann	Composer,Composer
Miklós Rózsa	Composer

Technical Credits

Edwin Justus Mayer

Melchior Lengyel

Ernst Lubitsch	Director,Producer
Edwin Justus Mayer	Screenwriter
Lawrence Butler	Special Effects
Frank Maher	Sound Effects,Sound/Sound Designer
Melchior Lengyel	Screenwriter
Alexander Korda	Producer

Editorial Reviews

When you take two of the screen’s most skillful comic actors, give them a superb script, and get a legendarily gifted filmmaker to direct them, the result is generally outstanding. Certainly that was the case with this brilliant 1942 black comedy, which managed to find humor in Poland’s occupation by the Nazis and the determined efforts of a ramshackle theatrical troupe to outwit them. Jack Benny and Carole Lombard play a ham actor and his tart-tongued wife, respectively, with Robert Stack as a gallant young patriot who falls for Lombard. The gimmick is that Benny assists the Polish underground while diverting the attention of deadly but dim-witted Nazi soldiers. Director Ernst Lubitsch, the undisputed king of sly farce, develops humorous situations with a sure hand, but he also sustains a tense dramatic pace and makes his improbable premise seem logical. Benny is nothing short of hysterical as the egotistical star, and his reactions to audience members walking out on him are alone worth the time it’ll take you to watch the movie. Sadly, this was the last film to feature Lombard, who died in a plane crash just before it was released. Her breezy, assured performance made a triumphant finale to an illustrious career.