Film

To Be or Not to Be

Name: To Be or Not to Be
Genre: Comedy, War, Romance
Released: 1942
Cast: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Lionel Atwill

Under Nazi occupation, a vain Warsaw stage couple and their motley troupe turn backstage tricks—disguises, doubles, terrible impressions of Hitler—into a weapon against the Gestapo. Lubitsch made this uproarious wartime farce while the war was still raging, and it still crackles: fast, sly, and unexpectedly moving. For anyone who thinks comedy and courage aren't opposites.

TMDb rating

7.8

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Casablanca1943

Bogart and Bergman's smoldering romance in occupied territory shows this same wartime year's other register — identical stakes and cynicism, played dead straight instead of for laughs.

But No jokes, no farce — if you came for Lubitsch's antic wit, this is all mood and melancholy instead.

The Great Dictator1940

Chaplin took the same wild swing at Hitler around the same time, mixing pratfalls and mistaken identity with a finale that drops the comedy entirely for a direct plea to the audience.

But That closing speech breaks character completely — earnest where Lubitsch stayed sly, and some viewers find it preachy.

Some Like It Hot1959

Two men on the run in dresses, a gangster chase, and dialogue so sharp it's still quoted — disguise-as-survival comedy at its most gleeful and confident.

But Pure farce with zero political weight — if you wanted wartime tension, it's simply not on the menu here.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Inglourious Basterds2009

Both use theatre and performance as weapons against Nazi occupiers — a cinema premiere as the trap here, a stage farce there — but Tarantino swaps wit for blood-soaked wish fulfillment.

It takes the same core idea — performance as ambush, disguise as weapon against the Reich — and cranks it into a violent revenge fantasy with a cinema itself as the final trap.

But Extremely graphic violence and a much longer, meaner runtime — this is Lubitsch's wit rewritten in blood.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb1964

It takes the same dare — laugh at the thing that could kill everyone — and points it at nuclear war instead of occupation, with satirical nerve just as unhinged.

But Cold, cerebral and almost entirely male; the warmth and romance of Lubitsch's world isn't the point here.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb poster

The Producers1968

Mel Brooks weaponises show business against the Nazis just like Lubitsch did, except louder, cruder, and with an actual musical number called 'Springtime for Hitler.'

But Broad where Lubitsch is sly — this trades elegance for maximum chaos and deliberately bad taste.

MAS*H1970

Altman drops black comedy right inside an active war zone, proving irreverence and horror can share a scene — the same nerve Lubitsch had decades earlier, just filthier.

But Episodic and raunchy, more interested in gross-out gags than the elegant plotting Lubitsch built his farce on.

Notorious1946

Hitchcock runs the same disguise-and-double-identity engine, swapping Lubitsch's farce for nerve-shredding suspense while keeping the espionage stakes every bit as lethal.

But Barely a laugh in it — this is tension and heartbreak, not comedy, despite the shared bag of tricks.

Jojo Rabbit2019

A modern film willing to make Hitler ridiculous again, this time through a child's eyes, proving the joke Lubitsch started still has teeth eighty years on.

But The whimsical imaginary-friend conceit is divisive — some find it too cute for the subject it's built on.

Life Is Beautiful1997

Comedy curdles into devastation here exactly the way Lubitsch's film always threatens to but never quite does, showing where that dare leads if you follow it all the way.

But It will wreck you — this is a much heavier, more tearful watch than a farce prepares you for.

Der Fuehrer's Face1943no page yet

Made the same year, by the other side of the same wartime impulse: mocking Hitler as entertainment while the war was still being fought, just in seven animated minutes instead of ninety.

A genuine wartime Disney cartoon mocking Hitler with musical slapstick, made the very same year — proof the impulse to laugh at the Reich mid-conflict wasn't confined to one arthouse farce.

But It's a seven-minute novelty, not a film — a charming curiosity rather than a satisfying evening's entertainment.

Night and Fog1956

This is the reality Lubitsch's comedy dances right up to the edge of and refuses to show — a documentary confrontation with what occupation and the camps actually meant.

Watch this after, not before — it's the unflinching documentary reckoning with the exact horror Lubitsch's farce keeps just offscreen, and it changes how the comedy sits with you.

But Genuinely harrowing archival footage of the camps; this is not a companion piece for a light evening.