To Be or Not to Be (1942) YTS - Download Yify Movie

Reviewed by CinemaSerf 7 / 10

So, a Polish acting company are busy putting

So, a Polish acting company are busy putting on “Hamlet” whilst the Nazis are preparing something altogether more menacing across the border. “Joseph” (Jack Benny) and wife “Maria” (Carole Lombard) are the stars of the show, and she has no shortage of admirers including an air force officer “Sobieski” (Robert Stack) who bravely decamps to the UK following the invasion to join the RAF. Rather foolishly, as it turns out, the enthusiastic young “Sobieski” confides some highly confidential information about the resistance to fellow citizen “Prof. Siletski” (Stanley Ridges) who is about to return home to Poland. No sooner has he left than they discover he is really a Gestapo spy and is now equipped with a list of those resistance fighters working in Warsaw. The only way they can think of to retrieve the list (and it’s duplicate) is for him to return and for the troupe to capture the unsuspecting traitor by pretending to be just about everyone from his handler to the Austrian corporal himself. Can they obtain the document and get themselves back to Blighty or are they all going to end up against a wall? This is an entertainingly paced drama, laced with comedy and even a little from the bard himself as Benny plays multiple roles and Lombard has a go at stabilising the plot as the glamorous counter-spy. Along the way this pokes fun at the eccentricities of the espionage industry, suggests an amiable degree of stupid pomposity amongst the conquerors - especially Sig Ruman’s goose-stepping “Col. Ehrhardt” and you have to keep your wits about you else you might lose track of just who’s beard is real or stick-on. I can imagine this sailed quite close to the wind in 1942, but for me it’s the kind of black humour that ridicules successfully their nemesis whilst simultaneously and comedically exposing their brutal excesses. Ernst Lubitsch, like the theatrical characters themselves, offers us a frequently quite wittily written and engaging ensemble effort that both Benny and Lombard hold together well, it has some precision timing and it’s well worth a gander.

Reviewed by AlsExGal 8 / 10

A smart intimate comedy

The opening scene in Ernst Lubitsch's "To Be or Not to Be" is one of the great fakeouts in cinema. It starts with Hitler randomly showing up in Poland despite the two countries still being at peace. As it turns out, what we're actually watching is an actor dressed as Hitler doing a bit of publicity for his theatrical troupe's production of a satire of the Nazis.Maria Tura and Joseph Tura (Carole Lombard and Jack Benny) are a married couple in the same theater troupe. Stanislav Sobinski, a young Lieutenant (Robert Stack) in the Polish air force, is an ardent admirer of Maria's. They have arranged to meet whenever Joseph Tura launches into his "To Be or Not to Be" soliloquy. Yes, Joseph notices this, but not for the right reason. He's so egotistical about his acting that he resents the fact that Sobinski doesn't find his performance too enthralling to walk out of. He suspects nothing else.The Germans attack and quickly conquer Poland, with Sobinski going to England to offer his services as a pilot there and Maria and her husband become unwillingly entangled with the Nazis. To get out of the situation alive, they'll both have to use their acting skills to put on the performance of a lifetime. This situation happens after the young Lieutenant unwittingly hands over Maria's name to a professor friend of his, Siletsky (Stanley Ridges), who turns out to be a German spy.Lubitsch casting Carole Lombard opposite Jack Benny was pretty bold. For one thing, Jack Benny was not known for having much success at the box office versus his great timing on radio and later on TV.Most of Lubitsch's films take place in Lubitschland, but this film decidedly takes place in 1939 Poland. Some have called this a cross between The Marx Bros. And Mel Brooks, and in fact Mel Brooks remade this film in 1983.

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To Be or Not to Be

1942

Action / Comedy / Romance / War

To Be or Not to Be

1942

Action / Comedy / Romance / War

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So, a Polish acting company are busy putting

A smart intimate comedy

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