Reelin' In the Years -- To Be or Not to Be (1942), directed by Ernst Lubitsch

The Trailer

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The Appropriate Tune: "Polish Girl", by Neon Indian

       They often say that sequels can never hope to match the original, but then along came World War II. In terms of culture destroyed, of lives lost, of atrocities inflicted upon human beings WWII surpasses the ‘Great’ War in just about every way, not to mention the helmets looked a lot better. It was also the only war the United States has ever participated in that was morally justifiable, besides the one it had with itself to keep people from owning human beings as cattle, which is why it loves to bring it up so much. In literature, comic books, video games, music, theater, movies popular culture is brimming with stories taking place at or around World War II, both European and Pacific Theaters. The U.S. loves talking about how great they are for winning World War II that one wonders why it took them until several years after the war had begun before joining in. Maybe it had something to do with those American business tycoons that had to be stopped by law from collaborating with Nazis, a situation that I’m sure would never come up again in the future. Just spitballing here.

       There were films related to the war in one way or another since the war started, Chaplin’s The Great Dictator for example. However I didn’t want this block of movies completely centered around World War II, nor did I want to gloss over such a monumental event in history. So after many revisions, every year on this list has been changed at least once, I decided that 1942 would be as good a year as any. Potential inductees for this year included Hitchcock’s Saboteur, Orson Welles’ infamously butchered masterpiece The Magnificent Ambersons, Disney classic Bambi, and the Lou Gehrig biopic The Pride of the Yankees. When it came to films related to the war though, there were three possible choices: Casablanca, William Wyler’s drama Mrs. Miniver, and something a little more light-hearted. I wonder which one I picked?

       Released in 1942 through United Artists, To Be or Not to Be was directed by Ernst Lubitsch and written by Melchior Lengyel and Edwin Justus Mayer. It’s 1939, and Adolf Hitler is walking the streets of Warsaw, Poland! Well not really, it’s just an actor from the Theater Polski acting troupe trying to prove a point. Yes, that Theater Polski, home to that famous actress Maria Tura (Carole Lombard), and her husband Joseph (Jack Benny) too I guess. A truer love you have never seen, but that doesn’t stop Maria from entertaining gentlemen callers like pilot Stanislav Sobinski (an incredibly young Robert Stack). Especially when it’s right in the middle of Joe’s big soliloquy in Hamlet. You know the one, ‘To Be or Not to Be’. 

     Before Sobinski can reveal the good news to Joseph however (to Maria’s chagrin), Germany decides some of Europe just isn’t enough and invades Poland, bombing Warsaw to the ground and placing Colonel Ehrhardt in control of the occupation. Some time later, Sobinski is a member of the Polish Squadron of the RAF when he uncovers a plot by Nazi spy Professor Siletsky to transfer military secrets to the Gestapo in Warsaw that could threaten the underground resistance movement in Poland and the entirety of Europe. Sobinski parachutes into occupied Warsaw in an attempt to stop Selitsky, but when the Turas get involved, suddenly things become far, far more complicated. Not to mention madcap.

       While largely unknown these days outside of the professional cinema fan, at one point in time Ernst Lubitsch was one of the biggest names in Hollywood. At a time when film discourse centered primarily around studios, Lubitsch was one of the people to establish the director as a unique creative voice in the filmmaking process. There was even a term coined for it, “The Lubitsch Touch”, in reference to the visual elegance he imparted to his films, in case you’re too lazy to check wikipedia. When Andrew Sarris was positing his Auteur Theory in regards to film, it was directors like Ernst Lubitsch that formed the basis for that theory.

       That ‘Lubitsch Touch’ is in full swing in To Be or Not to Be. You may not notice it at first, but the more you watch the more you realize the film looks good, in terms of set design and shot composition. Like you’ll have a scene outside and the piles of snow will be lit in just the right way, and the tree branches will bunch up just enough to provide the feeling of cover without obscuring the character, and the soldiers marching past on the right will coincide perfectly with the resistance fighter moving away on the left and the music rises and falls with what’s running through their mind and so on and on, Lubitsch’s visual language is so on point. Even the scenes showing Warsaw in ruins look beautiful, as if they were as lovingly crafted as the buildings they came from. It’s a film built around the theater, where fantasy and reality mix in unpredictable ways, and it seems to me like Lubitsch has taken that to its Shakespearean conclusion and made the world a stage for his characters to act upon. A reality that is purposefully not natural, it reminds me a bit of what Wes Anderson seeks to achieve in his films.

       Elegance visually is aided by a tight script and excellent performances by the cast. These people hit their lines so smooth you’d think they’ve been taking this show on the road in between takes. Stylistically I’d probably compare it to what Mel Brooks did decades later, although Brooks tended to be more broad, more about highlighting the gags rather than telling a story, whereas To Be gets most of its humor out through dialogue. Just about every member of the cast has a chance to throw out a handful of zingers or do a couple of skits, and they land much more often than they miss. Of all the comedy films we’ve covered up to this point I think this might be the one where the comedy has held up the best, it’s surprisingly fresh for the modern palate.

        In particular I’ve gotta give it up to Carole Lombard as Maria Tura. While Jack Benny is definitely the most direct comic actor in the film, Lombard indirectly is his equal.There are several times in the film where she’ll quickly slip in a line or use an certain inflection and it won’t even hit you until a second later just how good it was. Unfortunately her career was stunted by being typecast as a comedic actor, cemented by her tragic death (she died the year this movie released), but based on her performance here she deserves some respect on her name. After watching this film, she’s definitely one of those actors, like Grace Kelly, where I can 100% see where folks were coming from with that ‘Hollywood starlet’ label.

       If there were any criticism to be had, I suppose one could question the ‘cheeziness’ of the film, or the act of making jokes about the war during the war, and yeah there’s no way you’re going to confuse Jack Benny any of these folk as Polish, but honestly that cheeze is part of this film’s charm. The combination of this simple, storybook kind of sentimentality set against the often macabre is one I haven’t seen often, certainly not in the era of the absurdist post-war comedies of Catch-22 and Kurt Vonnegut. To Be mocks the Nazis, paints them as clowns, but it never fails to recognize that those who oppose Nazis are right and those who support them are wrong, and it never downplays the necessity of fighting them. Even Joseph Tura, who throughout the film is painted as something of a bumbler and a primadonna, steps up immediately to thwart Siletsky’s aims, and he refuses to rat out his friends even under the threat of death. They may back bite each other, they may toss a bit of gallows humor in from time to time, but there’s a optimistic core, a straight-forward morality that helps lift it up to something truly enjoyable, and if that’s considered ‘cheezy’ or sentimental then sign me up for more, because this world where everyone is mired in shit is dull as hell.

       This might be one of those cases where it seems like I’m blowing smoke up a movie’s ass, but I came into To Be or Not to Be with little to no expectations and I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed it. Maybe the stress of current events was affecting me more than I realized and watching this took a load off my mind or something to that effect. Either way it’s strongly recommended, and it’s gotten me interested in seeing more films that have the “Lubitsch Touch” in the future. Next stop on our tour we’re continuing our trip through the 1940s, and someone will finally be stepping out of the shadows and getting the attention they deserve.