CATCH A CLASSIC

To Be or Not to Be

TCM, 8:45 a.m.

Ernst Lubitsch’s classic 1942 dark comedy is a bold combination of political satire, romance, slapstick and wartime espionage that began production before the United States entered World War II and hit theaters about two months after America had joined the conflict, bringing audiences a timely artistic attack on the fascist powers the nation was now at war with. Jack Benny and Carole Lombard (in her final film role; she perished at age 33 in a plane crash about a month before this film’s release) are terrific as husband-andwife actors in Nazi-occupied Warsaw who, with their acting troupe, become embroiled in a spy plot using their skills at dressing up and posing as other people. Lubitsch’s film successfully walks the fine line of being a hilarious satire of Nazi ideology that also does not minimize its threat, a fact that wasn’t necessarily recognized when the film was first released but that viewers have come to appreciate in the ensuing decades.

EVERETT COLLECTION