'To Be or Not to Be' (1942) - Movie Review

The movie begins in 1939 with a Polish theatre troupe rehearsing a comedy about Nazis in Warsaw. The German invasion shuts them down, but some fast footwork by the team puts them in a position to cause the Nazis some problems (they've already got the uniforms for that play they were rehearsing ...).

The movie is primarily a comedy, secondarily an anti-Nazi propaganda piece (the movie was made in 1942), and only in third place do we have "drama." Not a great combination. There were four or five very funny jokes, but I thought the movie was uneven and wasn't in the end a particular fan.

The lead actor of the troupe (Jack Benny) is accused of being a "ham," and keeps asking people if they remember "the great actor Josef Tura" (which is him). Most say no, but finally a German says yes, but then "What he did to Shakespeare we are now doing to Poland." Not exactly what Tura wanted to hear, but it gave me a good laugh. Unfortunately, there weren't enough of these.