02 Apr To Be or Not To Be
To Be or Not To Be, WWII Movie starring Carole Lombard and Jack Benny
(1942) This is a favorite of mine on many levels. First of all, it was beautiful Carole Lombard’s last film before she died in a plane crash flying back from a wartime rally. In fact, the film was released right after her death.
Second, Jack Benny was magnificent. The movie is a comedy, but it’s not all laughs. There is a serious message, daring for the times, being told to the audience in the early days of the war against Hitler. I would compare it to Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, made two years earlier. The director was a German who came to the U.S. in the 1920’s … renowned Ernst Lubitsch, son of a Jewish tailor.
The setting is Nazi-occupied Poland. A troupe of actors is caught up in some espionage antics. I laughed out loud several times. However, when this movie was released just months after our country went to war with Germany, neither critics nor audiences thought making fun of the Nazis was a laughing matter.
As the years have passed, the movie has been recognized anew for its satire and significance.
To Be or Not to Be at amazon.com
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