To Be or Not to Be
1942
*****
Director: Ernst Lubitch
Cast: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Sig Ruman, Stanley Ridges
Like Chaplin's the Great Dictator, Ernst Lubitch's incredible satire was released in the middle of World War 2, but it makes fun of the Nazis and their atrocities without hesitation. It's a story of a group of actors in a Warsaw theater company who must put their acting chops to a test in order to fool the occupying German forces. This comedy is fearless, subversive and, most importantly, very funny. Mel Brooks remade the film in 1983.
