To Be or Not to Be (film)

• Release Date: 1942
• Director(s): Ernst Lubitsch
• Writer(s): Edwin Justus Mayer
• Principal Actors and Roles: Jack Benny (Joseph Tura); Carole Lombard (Maria Tura); Lionel Atwill (Rawitch); Felix Bressart (Greenberg); Tom Duggan (Bronski); Maude Eburne (Anna); Charles Halton (Dobosh); Stanley Ridges (Professor Siletsky); Robert Stack (Lieutenant Stanislav Sobinski)

To Be or Not to Be is a classic 1942 film starring Jack Benny and Carole Lombard as Joseph and Maria Tura, a husband and wife who lead a troupe of actors in Warsaw during World War II. When the film was released, many viewers were puzzled and offended by the way that Lubitsch used humor in depicting Nazism and wartime Poland. In more recent years, however, viewers have come to appreciate the film’s distinctive mixture of comedy, suspense, and intrigue, and today the film is regarded as a masterpiece.

Plot

The film opens with a sequence in which a member of the acting troupe, Bronski, impersonates Hitler on the streets of Warsaw. His impersonation is successful until a girl recognizes him.

Although Joseph and Maria are married, she carries on an affair with Lt. Sobinski, a handsome fighter pilot. While fighting Hitler, Sobinski and a group of his fellow pilots encounter a leader of the Polish resistance named Professor Siletsky. Sobinski and the others give Siletsky messages to bring to their relatives in Warsaw, not realizing that he is actually a German spy. When they realize their mistake, and that Siletsky could potentially use the information against them, Sobinski hurries to Warsaw where he warns Maria to be on her guard. Siletsky invites Maria to dinner, hoping to seduce her and also find out the meaning behind the message that Sobinski had given Siletsky to bring to her. When Maria and Sobinski had begun their affair, the acting troupe had been performing Hamlet. Joseph had been on-stage delivering the famous "to be or not to be" soliloquy and that had been Sobinski’s cue to leave the audience and visit Maria in her dressing room. Thus, in writing the same words in the message that he gave to Siletsky he had been alluding to their affair, but Siletsky mistakenly believes Sobinski had been speaking in code and referring to the war.

Maria agrees to have dinner with Siletsky. Meanwhile, Joseph returns home to find Sobinski in his bed, waiting for Maria. She arrives there as well, and Joseph’s suspicion that Maria and Sobinski are having an affair is put on hold over the more immediate problem, namely what to do about the German spy. Summoning his courage, Joseph vows his intention to kill Siletsky.

When Maria meets Siletsky, she and a member of the acting troupe lure him to the theater, telling him that it is Gestapo headquarters. The actors had been preparing a play about the Gestapo and Siletsky is initially fooled by the ruse. Joseph pretends to be Col. Ehrhardt, the leader of the Gestapo, and Siletsky gives him a list containing the names of the pilots’ relatives. Siletsky also tells Joseph about Maria’s message to Sobinski, "to be or not to be." Confronted again with evidence of his wife’s infidelity, Joseph becomes agitated, thereby raising Siletsky’s suspicions that he is being duped. He draws his pistol but before he can fire it he is shot and killed by Sobinski.

To recover more information, Joseph goes to Siletsky’s hotel disguised as the dead man. The real Col. Ehrhardt’s adjutant summons him to see the Gestapo leader. Drawing upon his acting skills, Joseph successfully continues his impersonation of the German spy.

When Hitler visits Warsaw, the members of the acting troupe impersonate his entourage. Bronski also continues his impersonation of Hitler. Together, the acting company leaves Warsaw on Hitler’s plane. They arrive in England where they perform Hamlet. During the performance Joseph begins the famous "to be or not to be" soliloquy again. A handsome soldier leaves the audience for Maria’s dressing room, indicating that Joseph is again being cuckolded and she is beginning another affair.

Significance

Ernst Lubitsch was born in Berlin. He rose to fame as a director of sophisticated, witty comedies in the 1930s and 1940s. Along with To Be or Not to Be, his other famous films include The Merry Widow (1934), Ninotchka (1939), The Shop on Main Street (1940), and Heaven Can Wait (1943). For decades, critics have used the term "the Lubitsch touch" to describe the unique quality that he brought to his films. The exact meaning of the term is elusive and therefore appropriate as it is meant to convey something that is difficult to define in words. However, the critic Richard Christiansen refers to it as "a brief description that embraces a long list of virtues: sophistication, style, subtlety, wit, charm, elegance, suavity, polished nonchalance, and audacious sexual nuance" (para. 1).

Jack Benny was one of the greatest comic performers of the twentieth century. His career encompassed not only film, but also vaudeville, radio, and television. Carole Lombard was a leading Hollywood actress of the late 1930s and early 1940s. She was known for her performances in so-called "screwball" comedies such as My Man Godfrey (1936) and Nothing Sacred (1937). Tragically, she was killed in a plane crash on January 16, 1942 at the age of 33. To Be or Not to Be was her final film; it was released only two months after her death.

Initially, audiences were bewildered and infuriated by Lubitsch’s portrayal of Nazism during wartime Poland, but over time they have come to appreciate the unique way Lubitsch balances his difficult subject matter. The consensus is that he combines humor, suspense and intrigue—of both the romantic and espionage varieties—in a way that is impossible to duplicate. Currently, the film has a 98 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the website that is a compendium of film reviews.

In 1983 Mel Brooks and his wife Anne Bancroft co-starred in a remake of To Be or Not to Be. The film was directed by Alan Johnson. Brooks was one of Hollywood’s most successful comedy directors. Like Lubitsch, he had the audacity—some would say the appalling bad taste—to employ humor in portraying Nazism, especially in The Producers (1967), which served as the basis for the highly successful Broadway musical. Brooks obviously identified with Lubitsch’s willingness to use humor to offend the public’s taste. However, Brooks had a more ribald sense of humor than Lubitsch, shaped, perhaps, by the more restrictive times in which Lubitsch worked. Lubitsch also had a more subtle directing style. His gifts are amply on display in the original To Be or Not to Be, a film so groundbreaking that it required decades before it was fully appreciated.

Awards and nominations

Nominated

• Academy Award (1942) Best Score ()

Bibliography

Barnes, Peter. To Be or Not to Be (BFI Film Classics). Southbank: British Film Institute, 2008. Print.

Christiansen, Richard. "A Touch of Genius from a Master of the Movies." Chicago Tribune. Chicago Tribune, 12 Oct. 1997. Web. 8 Feb. 2016. <http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-10-12/news/9710120376‗1‗lubitsch-touch-ernst-lubitsch-love-parade>.

Eyman, Scott. Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise. New York: Simon, 2015. Print.

Gehring, Wes G. Carole Lombard, the Hoosier Tornado. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 2003. Print.

Gonzalez, Ed. "Review of To Be or Not to Be." Slant Magazine. SlantMagazine.com, 23 Feb. 2005. Web. 8 Feb. 2016. <http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/to-be-or-not-to-be>.

Harvey, James. Romantic Comedy in Hollywood: From Lubitsch to Sturges. Boston: De Capo, 1998. Print.

Leannah, Michael. Well! Reflections on the Life & Career of Jack Benny. Albany: BearManor, 2007. Print.

Novak, Ivana, Mladen Dolar, and Jela Krecic, eds. Lubitsch Can’t Wait: A Collection of Ten Philosophical Discussions on Ernst Lubitsch’s Film Comedy. Ljubljana: Slovenia Cinematique, 2014. Print.

Turan, Kenneth. Not to Be Missed: Fifty-four Favorites from a Lifetime of Film. New York: Public Affairs, 2014. Print.