To Be or Not to Be (1942 film)
| To Be or Not to Be | |
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theatrical release poster
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| 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 |
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Release date
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Running time
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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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Wikipedia