To Be or Not to Be
During the Nazi occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.
Director(s)
Ernst Lubitsch
William McGarry
William Tummel
Cast & crew
Miles Mander
Major Cunningham
Danny Borzage
Member of Audience at Performance of Hamlet (uncredited)
John Roy
Member of Audience at Performance of Hamlet (uncredited)
Russ Powell
Warsaw Bystander (uncredited)
Frank Reicher
Polish Official (uncredited)
Jack Deery
Member of Audience at Performance of Hamlet (uncredited)
Stuart Hall
Member of Audience at Performance of Hamlet (uncredited)
Wilbur Mack
Member of Audience at Performance of Hamlet (uncredited)
Sven Hugo Borg
German Soldier (uncredited)
Henry Victor
Capt. Schultz
Maurice Murphy
Polish RAF Pilot (uncredited)
Dorothy Vernon
Member of Audience at Performance of Hamlet (uncredited)
Carole Lombard
Maria Tura
Jack Benny
Joseph Tura
Robert Stack
Lieut. Stanislav Sobinski
Felix Bressart
Greenberg
Lionel Atwill
Rawitch
Stanley Ridges
Professor Alexander Siletsky
Sig Ruman
Col. Ehrhardt
Tom Dugan
Bronski
Charles Halton
Producer Dobosh
George Lynn
Actor-Adjutant
Maude Eburne
Anna
Halliwell Hobbes
Gen. Armstrong
Rudolph Anders
Gestapo Sergeant at Desk at Top of Hotel Stairs (uncredited)
Paul Barrett
Polish RAF Pilot (uncredited)
Buster Brodie
Townsman (uncredited)
Peter Caldwell
Wilhelm Kunze (uncredited)
Alec Craig
Scottish Farmer Without Mustache (uncredited)
Helmut Dantine
Co-Pilot (uncredited)
Leslie Denison
Captain (uncredited)
James Finlayson
Scottish Farmer with Mustache (uncredited)
James Gillette
Polish RAF Pilot (uncredited)
Leyland Hodgson
Second Reporter (uncredited)
Shep Houghton
German Soldier (uncredited)
Olaf Hytten
Polonius in Warsaw (uncredited)
Charles Irwin
Reporter (uncredited)
Tiny Jones
Townswoman (uncredited)
John Kellogg
Polish RAF Flyer (uncredited)
Adolf E. Licho
Prompter (uncredited)
John Meredith
English Wireless Operator (uncredited)
Richard Neill
Warsaw Bystander (uncredited)
Otto Reichow
Co-Pilot (uncredited)
Gene Rizzi
Polish RAF Pilot (uncredited)
Hans Schumm
Special Investigations Squad (uncredited)
Stephen Soldi
Warsaw Bystander (uncredited)
Count Stefenelli
Member of Audience at Performance of Hamlet (uncredited)
Roland Varno
Pilot (uncredited)
Ernö Verebes
Stage Manager (uncredited)
Armand 'Curly' Wright
Makeup Man (uncredited)
Wolfgang Zilzer
Man in Bookstore (uncredited)
Ernst Lubitsch
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William McGarry
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William Tummel
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Details
Reviews
CinemaSerf
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.
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