To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Hammy Hamlet

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy To Be or Not to Be on DVD.

Ernst Lubitsch indulged in a bit of wartime duty with this classic, carefully mixing his usual brand of sophisticated humor with a bit of bittersweet. Jack Benny stars as Joseph Tura, a Polish actor playing the most unlikely Hamlet in the universe. While onstage, his "to be or not to be" speech cues a young soldier (Robert Stack) to visit Joseph's wife (Carole Lombard) in her dressing room. It's a great setup, but things fall apart when the Nazis attack Poland. The theater troupe finds itself in a deliriously sticky plot, which has Tura disguising himself and his wife playing into the hands of a Nazi sympathizer. That Lubitsch can balance all this with the same grace and fervor is only a small testament to his genius. Yet because of its upsetting subject matter, To Be or Not to Be is not usually the Lubitsch I reach for when I'm in the mood for a smart comedy. Chaplin did a slightly better job on a similar topic two years earlier with The Great Dictator.

DVD Details: Warner Home Video has released this classic, originally produced by Alexander Korda, on a new DVD. Their quality is superb; extras include two wartime shorts, one by MGM and one with Jack Benny, both with patriotic perspectives.

Starring: Jack Benny, Carole Lombard, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Lionel Atwill, Stanley Ridges, Sig Ruman
Written by: Written by Edwin Justus Mayer, based on a story by Ernst Lubitsch, Melchior Lengyel
Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 99 minutes
Date: July 24, 2005