To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Watching Gentlemen Prefer Blondes the other week made me want to revisit some excellent classic comedy movies, and so we watched To Be or Not to Be, a 1942 comedy that is set in German-occupied Poland and features people dressed as Nazis and Hitler for comedic effect. Now at this point the war was still raging, so the timing of the film is surprising and potentially shocking. And indeed, the film was heavily criticised on release as being too soon, too crude. I think if I was watching in 1942 I might feel the same, but from the comfort of 2011 the movie can be seen as the comedy masterpiece it really is. 

Featuring Carole Lombard and Jack Benny as a husband and wife acting couple, the film involves espionage and intrigue and Benny's actor dressing up as various Nazi sympathisers. Aside from being uproariously funny in places, the movie is also surprisingly dramatic and does not take the mickey out of the war or belittle the lives lost, rather it is a comedy that, in a similar way to the musical Springtime for Hitler in The Producers, spears the ridiculousness of Hitler and the cult around him. 

Packed with great one liners, such as an actor dressed as Adolf entering a room to say 'Heil myself', and funny performances all round, To Be or Not to Be is a bona fide masterpiece.