To Be or Not to Be (Criterion Collection) (1942)

Jack Benny is the greatest and most groundbreaking comedian certain readers have most likely never heard of. on radio in the '30s and '40s, Benny more than anyone else effectively invented the sitcom, and his series has been rewarded with a title of Greatest Old-Time Radio Comedy that still stands to this day.

radio (and, to a lesser extent, television) was Jack's true forte. his work in movies was nowhere hear as fullfulling. of the nearly 30 films he starred in, he would personally recommend only three, and was completely satisfied with only one of those. (guess which?)

as you might imagine from the title, Benny plays an actor. this neatly dovetails with one of his radio running-gags: a paragon of pomposity, Benny's radio counterpart considered himself a better actor than he in fact was, and he'd always get sulky when Acadamy Awards time rolled around.

the mastperiece of director Ernst Lubitch, this 1942 release tells the story of a Polish theatrical troupe who fight back when the Nazis invade in 1939. not that they defeat the Nazis, mind you. even if it could be rendered believeable that mere actors had manage to topple Der Furer himself, he'd of just turned up in the newspaper again the next morning. (this would've been particularly surreal given that the film was set three years in the past.) so they content themselves with foiling a plot to destroy the Polish Resistance, then getting the hell out of Nazi territory.

Jack's leading lady is the impeccable Carole Lombard. she's been called the first great comedic actress of the "talkies," and you'll get no argument from anyone who sees this film. she effortlessly exudes charm and pathos as well as her trademark humor in the roll of Jack's mostly devoted actress wife. "mostly" because she's not above letting herself be fawned over by a young admirer (a barely recognizable Robert Stack, looking more Dobie Gillis than Elliott Ness). Ms. Lombard is also, for all intents and purposes, the driving force of the film. it is her and her young friend, who turns out to be a pilot with the Polish army, who begin to suspect that a trusted ally may be a Nazi agent.

the humor here is not simply about Jack's pomosity. there's roughly equal parts political satire and intrigue. there's a certain poignancy to what Warsaw is reduced to over the course the film. an early scene depicts rehearsing actors reciting Shakespeare: "if you prick us, do we not bleed?" his repeat of the same line later, when Warsaw is officially "occupied," serves as as forceful an answer as the question will ever get.

simply put, everything about TO BE OR NOT TO BE works. it effortlessly walks the fine line between humorous comedy and suspenseful tension. it's should've been a spectacular hit, a shot in the arm to a nation (if not world) which was finally officially preparing for war. not only that, but it should've been a significant turning point in the career of Jack Benny, proof positive once and for all that, wonderful as Jack Benny's radio program was, it was hardly all he could do.

but alas, the film was tainted by tragedy less than a week before it's release, when Carole Lombard died in a plane crash. the irony, of course, is that the time would come when the death of a star, particularly with a new release on the way, is practically a Christmas present to the marketing department, because they can use it to drum up residual enthusiasm for past triumphs as well as curiosity about said new release. sometimes it even kicks off a mini-industry: teen angst posterboy James Dean, sex kitten Marilyn Monroe, martial arts innovator Bruce Lee, and Beatles founder John Lennon are only a few of the luminaries to come of whom it will be said, only half jokingly, that dying was the smartest career move they ever made. even Jack Benny got to reap a bit of that harvest, because his 1974 death coincided with a thriving new interest in the radio dramas of old.

but alas, in a world that doesn't see it quite like that just yet, Ms. Lombard's death can only stigmatize the film. many who might otherwise of seen TO BE OR NOT TO BE now found it's very existance a bit disconcerting if not downright eerie. those who did chance to see the film at the time tended to describe it as bittersweet at best.

but fortunately the stigma has long since faded. like CITIZEN KANE or The Marx Brothers' DUCK SOUP. the one film Jack Benny was actually proud of would receive a second chance when rediscovered by the televisions generation 20 years or so down the line. it's stature has held firm ever since, and you'll see why.

[WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! the film was remade in the early '80s, and like most remakes, all it really manages to do is fall flat on it's ass. what's especially dreary about this one, however, is that it is the work of another of my comedy heroes, Mel Brooks. if anyone should've know better, it's the genius behind BLAZING SADDLES and SPACEBALLS.

so, as with roughly 98% of all film remakes, this is a case of Stick With The Original.]

P.S.: I almost forgot, the other two films Jack felt were "okay" or "pretty good" are BUCK BENNY RIDES AGAIN and GEORGE WASHINGTON SLEPT HERE.

I hope this Blu Ray lives up to its potential, but I have ordered it regardless.

Here is the greatest psychological moment in cinema history (sez me).

spoiler alert. (You wouldn't have noticed it anyway, probably.)

It is 1939, just before Hitler's invasion of Poland. The scene is Warsaw. The movie was made in 1941, after the conquest of Poland and France, before America entered the War in December. Can you imagine a comedy about America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, while W was still our prezydent??

The opening titles play in front of the Heroic Polonaise of Chopin. Anyone who does not feel like bursting into tears doesn't know history.

Jack and Carole are a husband and wife stage acting team in Warsaw, like Hugh Cronin and Jessica Tandy, or Brad Pitt and whatser name. Jack's wife Carole Lombard is flirting with a stage door admirer, a naive young pilot in the Polish Air Force, played by Robert Stack. She invites him to leave the audience and come backstage when her husband playing Hamlet goes, To Be or Not To Be -what could be more wounding to her vain, infantile hubby, who cannot but see the lad's walk-out? Stack rises to the Oedipal bait, and after a few visits just as he is putting serious moves on Lombard, her dressing room door bursts open, and a maid announces Hitler has invaded Poland, Sept 1, 1939. Stack the pilot has to leave to go to war to defend Poland, and grow up in a hurry.

The amazing piece of psychology is that it is a RELIEF!!! Thank god, WWII happened just in time to prevent this illicit, quasi-incestuous hook-up from happening. Using my psychiatric license to dispense opinions, I offer the idea that it makes sense that War resolves certain emotional conflicts. Why else would we send our sons and daughters to die in war, and why else would they agree to go?

Buy To Be or Not to Be (Criterion Collection) (1942) Now

This original Fritz Lubitsch satire on Hitlerism no doubt inspired many followers including Mel Brooks, but Brooks' treatment of this same material lacks the Lubitsch touch, indeed. Probably Jack Benny's best film work--in which he doesn't play himself--is perfectly complementary to the incomparable Carole Lombard (in what I believe was her last film). One of Lubitsch's " touch" moves is his use of ensemble players and his ability to integrate a Benny or Lombard into the troupe (exception may be the wooden Robert Stack who in his early movies always seems to be auditioning to be Eliot Ness, but he serves as a perfect foil here). Anyone who has seen Brooks' ham-handed take will benefit greatly from this deft version.

Brooks does much better in his original satiric attack on Hitlerism in "The Producers" (film and stage versions) than he does in his remake of this film, which depends on someone else's comic vision.

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