"So they call me Concentration Camp Ehrhardt, eh?"

to live or not to live this is the real question

"It's becoming ridiculous the way you grab attention. Whenever I start to tell a story, you finish it. If I go on a diet, you lose the weight. If I have a cold, you cough. And if we should ever have a baby, I'm not so sure I'd be the mother."

Catching up on Classics | List
Film #19: To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Ridiculously funny. A comedy that satirizes World War II ... and was produced and realized during WWII sounds like a daring prospect, right in line with Chaplin's The Great Dictator, and indeed, Ernst Lubitsch does not hold back on anything here.

To Be or Not to Be wears its humor on its sleeve with rapturous pleasure, and every single line of dialogue is a piece of pure comedic gold. Carole Lombard had such a striking sense of the perfect timing for each of her jokes.

1942 Ranked

one of the very few movies where EVERY SINGLE joke works! jojo rabbit only wishes it was of this quality! anti facism cinema just fucking rocks dude

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
(George Bernard Shaw)

"What have you to say for yourself now? Here is a man with a beard, and you didn't even pull it!"

More transgressive and surprising than Inglourious Basterds.

87

"Well, Colonel, all I can say is... you can't have your cake and shoot it, too."

Fast-talkie Nazi-madness, Lubitsch’s keen eye for the comedy amongst the tragedy resulting in a rip-roaring, screwball-style spree of laugh-out-loud moments. Unlike with some of his more sincere works (A Shop Around the Corner), the lack of respect for native casting or anything in the way of passable accents only adds to the implicit goofiness, even if it does have a tendency to curl the toes. This film is just teeming with influence, from the kooky, bizarre caricatures of gems like Dr. Strangelove, to the final, theatre set-piece of Inglorious Basterds. I haven’t laughed this hard all year, and, despite a few dated beats, a lot of it’s down to the flawless comedic timing of Jack Benny and Carole Lombard. The Great Dictator will always be the greatest takedown of Nazism for its time (and perhaps ever), but this is undoubtedly up there with it.

me from now on when someone points out something that is most definitely my fault: shifting the responsibility on me again?!?

This and Barb and Star are the hardest I’ve laughed in god knows how long, both from the insane batting average of the jokes and the sheer fact that they got made. That so subversive a comedy about Nazism could come out at the height of WWII kind of takes my breath away. And no that doesn’t mean I want to see your pandemic rom-coms!! 

—

#23/52 of my Criterion Challenge: watch a comedy.

Grandiose, zeitlose Komödie.

this was so good! it’s hilarious and exciting and really gutsy to make this movie in 1942. it’s a lot of fun

As a Jew, I get it

Such a funny movie. Because this has a second world war scenario, i thought this was going to be more dramatic and it’s filled with tension but also with comedy with these funny characters that find themselves in a series of situations that are created by their mistakes. The visual comedy that comes from the silent movies is so strong and delightfull but at the same time very disciplined and balanced. A movie that should be seen by every cinema lover.

This script is brilliantly witty, using snappy wordplay and repeated lines to elevate jokes throughout. I'm shocked that such a pointed satire could have been released right in the midst of WWII. Today, decades removed, this is sharp and hilarious. But to make and release this while Nazi Germany was threatening Europe and the world? Lubitsch was either being really ballsy or totally inappropriate.

But that's the power of comedy, isn't it? You can sheath your critiques in humor. Satire disarms us enough to pay attention, while still communicating something true and vital.

So many little running threads in this film, and the script is so whip-smart and so well-constructed that you never lose track of anything. It's a genuinely impressive production, and Jack Benny anchors things so damn well. His masquerade in the back half of the film is such a great little comedy of errors.

"Here's a man with a beard, and you didn't even pull it!?!"

What a script! 

Consequently, it helped me recognize a new favorite subgenre: Movies with egotistical, self-doubting actors who try desperately to prove they still got it. 

Tura here, Rick Dalton in OUTIH, Sandy Lyle in Along Came Polly, and of course, OF COURSE, Jack in Three Men and a Little Lady.

Very well done comedy about the nazi times in poland?? I'm all in. It reminded me of Chespirito👌.

Wild film. Lomdard is fantastic. Benny is fantastic. Great laughs. But like... It's Nazis. That's what makes it wild. We've gotten a lot more serious about Nazis in the 80 years since this came out. Making jokes about them while the war was going on seems... Wild.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.