Top 50 Actresses, #25 - Carole Lombard: "To Be or Not to Be" (1942)

Movie Stats:
Released 1942 (USA)
American, in English
Director - Ernst Lubitsch
Stars - Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack

Plot Summary:
In WWII Poland, an acting troupe tries to help a fighter pilot stop a Nazi spy before he brings down the entire Polish resistance network. The wrench in the works? The fighter pilot has had an affair with the lead actress, who is married. Lombard stars as the acting troupe’s female lead, Maria Tura; Benny as the troupe’s male lead & Maria’s husband, Joseph Tura; and Stack as the fighter pilot, Lt. Stanislav Sobinski.

Warnings:
Violence; minor gore.

Bad Stuff:
No one makes any attempt at an accent, so I spent an embarrassingly long portion of the film thinking that the acting troupe were Americans working in Poland, until I realized everyone in the film was supposed to be either Polish or German.

It got too complicated/zany for my taste.

I didn’t care for its lackadaisical attitude toward adultery. It’s never clear that Maria and Stanislav consummate the affair, but I don’t like emotional affairs any better than I like physical ones. Also, that particular storyline felt superfluous. The film was interesting enough without it.

Good Stuff:
It’s genuinely funny. There are a lot of great jokes/one liners.

Loved Sig Ruman as Col. Ehrhardt. Even all these decades later, it’s difficult to laugh about the Nazis, so I enjoy a good portrayal of one as a bumbling, obsequious, buck-passing sycophant.

The make-up work is great. When Joseph impersonated Professor Siletsky, I began to think that Benny had played both characters all along, but it turns out Siletsky was portrayed by Stanley Ridges! Also, Tom Dugan, who actually played the actor Bronski but was made up through part of the film to look like Hitler, looked startlingly like the Fuehrer.

About the Performance:
I’ve never seen Lombard in anything else, so I’m finding it a little hard to judge. I thought she was fine. I wasn’t blown away by her performance, but I didn’t think she was bad either. I didn’t really care for her character, because I have a very dim view of adultery, and I’m having a hard time separating the character from the performance. I would definitely like to see something else of hers. I think I’ll add her to the “second chance” movie project I’m planning.

Other performances of Lombard’s I’ve reviewed: none.

The Verdict:
When I realized that this was a comedy, I have to admit I was a little worried. I’m not sure why; I guess because comedy is so subjective. I needn’t have been concerned. This movie is genuinely funny, with lots of great verbal and visual gags. I appreciate what it was trying to do, bringing a sense of humor to a situation (WWII) that wasn’t remotely funny, because sometimes you just need to laugh, even when things are terrible. I thought all of the performances were fine to good; no one was bad. My biggest complaint is that it veered too far into “screwball” territory, where it not only became unbelievable, but also where I lost patience with it & just wanted it to end. On the whole, however, it was a really fun film.

I give it 4 stars.