To Be or Not To Be

**Kane Knight** · 05-04-2008, 03:06 PM

Probably not the primary audience for the movie, but this should really be considered a classic comedy. It's about a group of Polish performers just as they are invaded by Germany in 1939. Jack Benny is Joeseph Tura, a hammish actor. His wife, Maria ends up involved with a pilot in the RAF, who meets up with her during her husband's performance of Hamelt (The signal is the famous line, "To be or not to be," hence the title of the movie).

It's a more subdued role for Benny than a lot of the stuff I am familiar with, but it's still incredibly funny. One stick-out line is "Oh, yes I saw him [Tura] in 'Hamlet' once. What he did to Shakespeare we are now doing to Poland". Fortunately, I found it on Wikipedia.

Sobinski, Maria's pilot "lover," discovers a plot to eliminate the families of the Polish underground in Warsaw, and ends up entangling the Turas in an attempt to stop the Nazi spy from delivering his list to the Gestapo headquarters.

The movie is very touching, brilliantly written, and hilarious. There's also a remake by Mel Brooks, which is fine, but I prefer the direction of the original film.

Anyone seen it?

05-04-2008, 03:06 PM	#1
Kane Knight Ron Paul 4 EVA Posts: 152,467	To Be or Not To Be Probably not the primary audience for the movie, but this should really be considered a classic comedy. It's about a group of Polish performers just as they are invaded by Germany in 1939. Jack Benny is Joeseph Tura, a hammish actor. His wife, Maria ends up involved with a pilot in the RAF, who meets up with her during her husband's performance of Hamelt (The signal is the famous line, "To be or not to be," hence the title of the movie). It's a more subdued role for Benny than a lot of the stuff I am familiar with, but it's still incredibly funny. One stick-out line is "Oh, yes I saw him [Tura] in 'Hamlet' once. What he did to Shakespeare we are now doing to Poland". Fortunately, I found it on Wikipedia. Sobinski, Maria's pilot "lover," discovers a plot to eliminate the families of the Polish underground in Warsaw, and ends up entangling the Turas in an attempt to stop the Nazi spy from delivering his list to the Gestapo headquarters. The movie is very touching, brilliantly written, and hilarious. There's also a remake by Mel Brooks, which is fine, but I prefer the direction of the original film. Anyone seen it? �There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old�s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.� --John Rogers