87/100

A proud, important joke mixed and matched for an hour and a half, but when its subject is so sinister and its execution so multifaceted in delivery and tone balances, it doesn't really matter that each comedic springboard is built off of the same root feelings of anger and frustration. Ernst Lubitsch is pissed off but entirely confident in his storytelling, never relenting from harsh realities but still sly enough to make a smile and a tear one and the same. If any one moment shifted towards the absurd, Lubitsch would dial it back for a more humane, grounded segment, and in a few sections, he even shook the two flavors and moods together for an unpredictable end result…

Film #9 of Project 40

”They named a brandy after Napoleon, they made a herring out of Bismarck, and the Fuhrer is going to end up as a piece of cheese!”

This is how it should be done. Every now and then you find a movie that you can watch over and over without getting tired or bored, for me To Be or Not To Be is one of those films. A charming and delightful little comedy from Ernst Lubitsch set in the Nazi occupied Warsaw which makes fun of Nazis better than any other satire, honors actors who are passionately working to bring us lively theaters and like other Lubitsch movies bombards us with polished, highly amusing and elegant…

Acting as an act of solidarity in resistance.

Ernst Lubitsch balances equal parts skewing comedy and suspenseful drama, never once undermining or trivializing just how horrific the events that these victims faced were. Lubitsch (a German by birth) is simultaneously reverent and uproarious, never once failing to find key moments to insert witty dialogue that feels as well-deserved as ever- and using every given opportunity to skew the Nazis as brutally as possible at the time.

Cinema has proven time and again to be as much a tool of resistance and outcry as it can be art itself, and To Be or Not to Be is certainly no exception. It's clear that Tarantino took heavy inspiration from here in making…

There isn't a frame in this tightly knitted, carefully structured, and brilliantly paced comedic tour-de-force romp that is out of place, every minute is perfectly built, and every joke hits like a firecracker; admittedly, I'm lacking on Ernst Lubitsch --having only seen this and the wonderful The Shop Around the Corner-- yet I feel I have the understanding of his signature "Lubitsch Touch" even with only dissecting To Be or Not to Be. The film tackles the seemingly untouchable subject of Nazism and the tide of Adolf Hitler and it's clear that although the setting, as stated, is in Warsaw, Poland, establishes the rising fears of Americans towards the Dictator in a swift manner; Benny, Lombard, and the other members…

I couldn’t be happier of getting rid of another blindspot. Lubitsch makes the fast-paced, crazy story of To Be or Not To Be seem effortless. The troupe of polish actors impersonating nazis in the middle of the invasion and getting involved in spy craft works just about in every level. Carol Lombard and Jack Benny lead, but there’s not a weak actor in the bunch. And the story is pretty creative, too.
Beyond the cast and the script, there’s something about the rhythm of the movie that makes it special. It’s a delight. It’s almost a Marx Brothers comedy less committed to spitting out jokes and more committed to making the audience like everyone involved in the movie. There’s even…