Ed, Elizabeth, and Frank spent January 20 celebrating one of funniest and most groundbreaking comedies ever made.
Two Cents is a Cinapse original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team curates the series and contribute their “two cents” using a maximum of 200-400 words. Guest contributors and comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future picks. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion. Would you like to be a guest contributor or programmer for an upcoming Two Cents entry? Simply watch along with us and/or send your pitches or 200-400 word reviews to [email protected].
The Pick: To Be or Not to Be (1942)
It feels right that Two Cents should have chosen Ernst Lubitsch’s classic To Be or Not to Be for the penultimate selection in this month’s classic screwball comedy series. Given the darkness of this January 20th, a comedy about Hitler invading Poland during WWII feels more than appropriate. It’s understandable that the premise of such a movie could turn people off, especially with the state of things today being what they are (only three of us contributed to this week’s column). Still, Lubitsch’s 1942 masterpiece remains exactly the kind of tonic that is so very much needed in times like 2025. Starring Carole Lombard (in her final role) and Jack Benny, the movie features the pair as the husband and wife heads of a Polish theater troupe in Nazi-occupied Warsaw who hatch a scheme to infiltrate the Gestapo and thwart their plans using a wide assortment of cloak-and-dagger antics that lead to hilarious results.
– Frank Calvillo
The Team:
What I’m perhaps the most surprised by with the screwball comedies I have been exposed to by my programming teammates thus far is the almost heist film level complexity of plotting that they seem to have, with To Be or Not to Be being no different. Ernst Lubitsch writes/directs Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, and Robert Stack (primarily known to me as the Unsolved Mysteries guy, so this was a bit of a shocker) in a harrowing exercise: trying to make a comedy in and around Hitler’s invasion of Poland. It was easy for this modern viewer to forget the setting since no attempt was made to even use differing accents much less languages. Everyone blasts into the rapid fire dialog in “of the time” English, which I assume no studio in the 1940s would have even conceived of doing differently. But language quibbles aside, To Be or Not to Be does have many twists and turns more akin to something like an Ocean’s 11 type film than any kind of sweeping romance or classical drama.
The funniest element that speaks the loudest today is how our heroes, trying to root out a Nazi plot and escape with their lives in a spy game of double crosses executed by professional hams, err, actors, can repeatedly rely on every Nazi’s simpering need to kiss up to their Führer and appear as blindly loyal to him as possible, damn the evidence. No Nazi in the film can have a sense of humor, tell a story, or slip in the slightest with regards to their loyalty before one of our heroes can exploit their misstep. The sycophancy is off the charts, here played for laughs at the expense of the invaders, but telling to modern audiences that a race to the bottom of the boot licking barrel is the stuff of derisive comedy, not the building blocks upon which to found a life or a society. To Be or Not to Be is twisty, turny, filled with gags and smart writing and humorous quagmires our heroes must rely on their skills to escape from. But it’s also clearly poking fun at Hitler and his gestapo and their countless failings as ring kissers par excellence. Let’s learn a lesson or two from Lombard and gang and not blindly follow our leadership until we’re no more than history’s villainous punchline.
I assumed I had seen this film before, but as I watched To Be or Not to Be this weekend, it seemed new to me and not what I remembered (maybe I saw the Mel Brooks remake as a kid). The 1942 B&W comedy pairs Carole Lombard (My Man Godfrey) with radio/TV’s Jack Benny as a couple of famous Warsaw actors, the Turas. A younger Polish airman (baby-faced Robert Stack) serves as a romantic distraction for Ms. Tura from her marriage to a man who doesn’t think she’s as talented as he is. But after the Germans invade Poland, priorities shift and both Turas become involved in an espionage plot.
I’m more familiar with Benny through clips of his old TV show, so it’s fun to see him play this kind of character. Most of the scenes involving Benny have the beats of a Marx Brothers film; the jokes come quick, and you might still be laughing when the next one is made. Lombard is more understated in her role, although she still gets her own laughs.
The Lubitsch film has screwball elements – characters pretending to be someone they’re not, recurring gags, moments of slapstick – but the reality of war permeates the work. The threat of death makes this a black comedy more similar in theme to something like Elaine May’s A New Leaf (next week’s film under our Screwball 101 theme) than the previous two films we’ve discussed this month. For instance, the Shylock monologue Jewish actor Greenberg (Felix Bressart) recites gains more emotional heft in the differing context of each recitation: first, to show he knows it and feels unappreciated in his current theatrical role; secondly, as a response to the German invasion of Poland; and lastly, to distract German officials while the rest of his troupe performs a getaway. Lubitsch’s film may be thematically heavy, but never maudlin.
It’s hard to remember when I first saw To Be or Not to Be. In many ways the movie feels like one of those titles that has always been a part of my cinematic foundation. As I said before, this is a film that could give folks some pause what with the fact that it treats a very real human tragedy as fodder for a slapstick comedy romp. But the comedy in Lubitsch’s film is so well executed that it easily sweeps the audience away with its various innuendos, moments of befuddlement, and overall farcical nature. The gags here are plentiful and potent with every actor showing great comedic timing and playing off their counterparts superbly. Disguises and improvisation between Benny’s egocentric actor and the German officials he’s trying to fool prove a true comedy engine while Lombard’s ability to slide into the role of a lovestruck fake Nazi sympathizer is the perfect showcase of her comedy skills. Almost none of the jokes fail to deliver whether they be Benny’s character’s reference to himself as “that great, great actor” or the way Sig Ruman’s Nazi Colonel remains hopelessly and sidesplittingly confused throughout.
But the brilliance of To Be or Not to Be lies not just in its laughs, but in its daringness. Understandably, the film’s aim and execution comes across as somewhat surreal. The horrors inflicted by the very figures Lubistch’s movie was sending up were incredibly real, and for some, there was no comedy to be found in making anyone on that side out to be fools who could be easily manipulated. But the film cleverly takes the incredibly terrifying reality of the day and attempts to break down its frightening power through laughter. As a comedy, the beats and the timing would be stellar even if it wasn’t tackling such a dark subject at hand. The fact that it takes on the threat of Nazi Germany through laughter not only makes the film even funnier, but it allowed audiences the chance to strip away the power so many had given to that side. It’s remarkable that a high-profile studio film with two top stars leading the way should be as bold as this one was while also taking great care not to shortchange the very real danger of what the world was facing. It’s no wonder that To Be or Not to Be made it into the National Library of Congress and was remade by Mel Brooks in the early 80s to great effect. Perhaps now more than ever, Lubitsch’s film remains one of most important ever made.
A JANUARY OF VINTAGE LAUGHS!
In an effort to combat the January blues (not to mention other devastating events taking place that month), the Two Cents crew here at Cinapse have decided to dive into the world of classic screwball comedies. The likes of Carole Lombard, Ernst Lubitsch, Barbara Stanwyck, Jack Benny, and Elaine May are all on deck to chase away those winter blues with a collection of movies that range from the romantic, to the scandalous. Spend the month with us and some side-splitting laughs from the masters who made the genre the riotous (and slightly subversive) staple that it remains to this day.
Join us by contacting our team or emailing [email protected]!
1/27- A New Leaf
