To Be or Not to Be (1942 film)


To Be or Not to Be is a 1942 American comedy directed by Ernst Lubitsch, about a troupe of actors in Nazioccupied 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.

Before the 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the stars of a theater company in Warsaw are the ham Josef Tura Jack Benny and his beautiful wife, Maria Carole Lombard. As part of the companys rehearsal of 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 Shakespeares 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 reveals that it has always been his dream to perform Shylock in Merchant of Venice, especially the famous Hath not a Jew eyes?... speech. ........

Source: Wikipedia


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