Word: lombards
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Carole Lombard, Jack Benny; TIME, March...
...combination of the talents of Ernst Lubitsch, Carole Lombard and Jack Benny would certainly indicate that a highly palatable movie is in order. "To Be Or Not To Be" attempts to be a delightful and implausible tale of intrigue, spies, Gestapo and such, moulded about the tragic downfall of Poland in 1939. Like Charlie Chaplin's ill-fated "The Great Dictator" its humor is based on ridiculing Hitler and the overly efficient machinations of the Gestapo. Whether the current film is your dish or not depends upon your ability to laugh at situations founded on material which is essentially tragedy...
...prevent the consistency of tone present in such Lubitsch successes as "Ninotchka." For instance, take this case: a Gestapo agent, speaking of Jack Benny's acting, says, "What he did to Shakespeare, we are now doing to Poland." The basic plot is a natural for Benny and Miss Lombard, who are cast as Josef and Maria Tura, the leading actor and actress of Poland. He is an actor who revels in Hamlet; she is a devoted wife who enjoys an occasional flirtation. The swift destruction of Poland halts their theatre careers and they become enrolled in the underground movement. From...
Perhaps Jack Benny is no great shakes at Hamlet, but his Josef Tura is a beautiful piece of comic playing, especially when he impersonates the envoy and various Gestapo chiefs. Miss Lombard plays with consummate skill, warmth and humor. One forgets this is her last role, so compelling and captivating is her performance. The supporting cast is tops, particularly Felix Bressart, as a frustrated spear carrier, who dreams of playing Shylock; and Tom Dugan who turns in a wonderfully ludicrous impersonation of Hitler...
What the Polski company does to the Gestapo is first-rate entertainment- thanks to a score of good performances by the cast, fresh dialogue and plot (authored by Lubitsch and Melchior Lengyel) and the sure, saucy, suspenseful Lubitsch direction. Miss Lombard's natural, likable, vibrant performance is up to her standard. Mr. Benny, who plays his role straight, doesn't need his prop stogies to be funny...