During the German occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.During the German occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.During the German occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 2 wins & 2 nominations total
- Polish RAF Pilot
- (uncredited)
- German Soldier
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen Jack Benny's father went to see this movie, he was outraged at the sight of his son in a Nazi uniform in the first scene and even stormed out of the theater. Jack convinced his father that it was satire, and he agreed to sit through all of it. His father ended up loving the film so much he saw it forty-six times.
- GoofsAlthough having Maria Tura give the cue line "To be or not to be" to the men in the audience she wishes to meet in her dressing room is a very funny premise of the film, it actually would be highly impractical for Maria to think she would have time to meet backstage. Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy is only about 3-4 minutes long and Ophelia has the very next line in the play (in fact Hamlet announces her entrance at the end of his soliloquy), which would barely give Maria any time to meet men in her dressing room.
- Quotes
Joseph Tura: [disguised as Professor Siletsky - speaking about Maria Tura] Her husband is that great, great Polish actor, Josef Tura. You've probably heard of him.
Colonel Ehrhardt: Oh, yes. As a matter of fact I saw him on the stage when I was in Warsaw once before the war.
Joseph Tura: Really?
Colonel Ehrhardt: What he did to Shakespeare we are now doing to Poland.
- Alternate versionsIn Poland, a brief introduction was edited in. Polish actor Kazimierz Rudzki assured the audience that the movie was done with best intentions by their "American friends". At the time the movie screened in Poland, many people still lived in trauma from the events of World War II; few could find comedy in the German invasion of Poland, instead finding the movie in poor taste, offensive, or hard to swallow.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Showbiz Goes to War (1982)
- SoundtracksPolonaise in A major, Op. 40, No. 1, 'Military'
(1838) (uncredited)
Written by Frédéric Chopin
Orchestral arrangement by Aleksandr Glazunov
Heard during the opening and closing credits
This Hitler, however, turns out to be the actor Bronski (Tom Dugan), a bit-player impersonating the Fuhrer in a play being put on by a Polish theatrical group. Is Hitler "by any chance interested in Mr. Maslowski's delicatessen?" teases the narrator in the opening segment. "That's impossible—he's a vegetarian!" Responding to all the "Heil Hitler" salutes, Bronski asserts "Heil myself" as he walks through an open door. Bronski is playing a secondary role to the famous Polish actor Josef Tura, played by Jack Benny, then a radio star whose trademark straight face and deadpan humor marks the film.
Tura's wife Maria, also a popular Polish actress, is played by Carole Lombard who was to meet a shocking death in a plane crash in January, 1942 shortly after the film was completed. In the film, Maria is two-timing her actor husband by romancing a young flyer Lt. Sobinski (Robert Stack) who falls "head over heels" for the actress. The running gag in the film is that whenever Josef is playing Hamlet and delivers the line, "to be or not to be," it is a signal for Sobinski to get up from his seat in the theater and go backstage to meet Maria in her dressing room. It appears that Tura is more upset about his speech being interrupted than what happens behind the curtain.
The sudden Nazi invasion, however, puts all romantic trysts on the back burner and the mood shifts to solemn. The plot now becomes more involved with espionage and patriotism than acting when Sobinski, now a pilot for the Royal Air Force, discovers that respected Polish professor Siletski (Stanley Ridges) is a double-agent working for the Nazis. When the Lieutenant returns to Warsaw to eliminate the traitorous professor, Maria and Josef team up to help by launching an elaborate charade to trick the unsuspecting Nazis. While the film takes its name from the famous line in Hamlet, Shylock's monologue from the Merchant of Venice, spoken in front of Nazi swastikas, is recited by Jewish actor Felix Bressart, "Have we not eyes? Have we not hands, organs, senses, dimensions, attachments, passions?" he asks the Nazis, "If you poison us, do we not die?"
It is a noteworthy plea for tolerance in the days of rabid anti-Semitism even though the line "Hath not a Jew eyes?" is not spoken. According to Thomas Doherty writing in Tablet magazine, "the word "Jew" was seldom heard on the Hollywood screen, even in war-minded scenarios where the topic of anti-Semitism was front and center." He also quotes film historian Lester D. Friedman saying that "The studio bosses were always—even at this point—afraid of thrusting Jews into the spotlight." Whatever the reason, To Be or Not to Be is marked with the genius of one man, the great Jewish director Ernst Lubitsch who said, "What I have satirized in this picture are the Nazis and their ridiculous ideology," and that the tone and temper of the film "cannot leave any doubt in the spectator's mind what my point of view and attitude are toward these acts of horror."
While the film is a broad and biting satire, from the beginning of production in November 1941 to its completion on December 24th, however, events made sure that To Be or Not to Be, as well as Charles Chaplin's The Great Dictator, was no longer a laughing matter.
- howard.schumann
- Jun 3, 2017
- Permalink
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Sein oder Nichtsein
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $3,270,000
- Gross worldwide
- $4,578,000
- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1