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With: Jack Benny, Carole Lombard, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Lionel Atwill, Stanley Ridges, Sig Ruman
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Written by: Written by Edwin Justus Mayer, based on a story by Ernst Lubitsch, Melchior Lengyel
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Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
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Running Time: 99
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Date: 15/02/1942
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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.
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