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To Be or Not to Be (1942 film)

To Be or Not to Be
To Be or Not to Be 1942 poster.jpg
theatrical release poster
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Produced by Ernst Lubitsch
Written by Melchior Lengyel
Edwin Justus Mayer
Ernst Lubitsch (uncredited)
Starring Carole Lombard
Jack Benny
Robert Stack
Felix Bressart
Sig Ruman
Music by Werner R. Heymann
Uncredited:
Miklós Rózsa
Cinematography Rudolph Maté
Edited by Dorothy Spencer
Distributed by United Artists
Release date
  • February 19, 1942 (1942-02-19) (Los Angeles)
Running time
99 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $1.2 million
Box office $1.5 million (US rentals)

To Be or Not to Be is a 1942 American comedy directed by Ernst Lubitsch, about a troupe of actors in Nazi-occupied Warsaw who use their abilities at disguise and acting to fool the occupying troops. It was adapted by Lubitsch (uncredited) and Edwin Justus Mayer from the story by Melchior Lengyel. The film stars Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Lionel Atwill, Stanley Ridges and Sig Ruman. The film was released two months after actress Carole Lombard was killed in an airplane crash.

The title is a reference to the famous "To be, or not to be" soliloquy in William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Before the 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the stars of a theater company in Warsaw are the "" actor Josef Tura (Jack Benny) and his beautiful wife, Maria (Carole Lombard). As part of the company's rehearsal of "Gestapo", a play satirizing the Nazis, one of the actors, Bronski (Tom Dugan), takes to the street to prove that he looks like Hitler in his costume and makeup. People gawk at the appearance of the Nazi dictator in Warsaw, until a young girl asks for the autograph of "Mr. Bronski."

That night, when the company is performing Shakespeare's Hamlet, with Tura in the title role, Bronski commiserates with his friend and colleague, Greenberg (Felix Bressart), about being limited to being spear carriers. Greenberg, who is implicitly Jewish (although the words "Jew" or "Judaism" are never said in the film), reveals that it has always been his dream to perform Shylock in Merchant of Venice, especially the famous "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech.


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