To Be or Not to Be

This is a brilliant war-time comedy by Ernst Lubitsch. It is full of lightning-fast dialogues, bristling with sharp wit, which to fully grasp requires more than one viewing (and for Czech audiences well-translated subtitles). For 1942, being unconventionally topical, and containing very black humor must have caught the audience off guard, with jokes about Gestapo practices, executions, and concentration camps. Today, we can only appreciate the bold humor and call To Be or Not To Be one of the best comedies of the 1940s. The well-put-together cast, featuring Jack Benny and Carole Lombard, is very entertaining, and when the theater company’s whole adventure is at an end, you feel like watching their hardships for another hours more. (05/08/2019)

Excellent comedy about war, with incredible moments that will take your breath away to such an extent that you might not even laugh. Yet, these are funny moments, but it is wonderful to see how much the creators dared to do. This could not have been a film that Hitler would have liked, and that is a good thing. Similar comedies are unfortunately not made anymore today because creators do not know where the limit is and how to poke fun in a way that hurts. (09/11/2014)