TO BE OR NOT TO BE

US, 1983, 102 minutes, Colour.
Mel Brooks, Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning, Tim Matheson, Jose Ferrer, Christopher Lloyd.
Directed by Alan Johnson.

To Be Or Not To Be is a delightfully funny remake of Ernst Lubitsch's 1942 classic with Jack Benny and Carole Lombard. Mel Brooks is excellent in the Benny role, much more restrained than in some of his other films Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, History of the World Part I. He is joined by his wife Anne Bancroft (who appeared as a guest in Silent Movie) and they make an enjoyable comedy, song and dance pair. Tim Matheson is very good in the role of the earnest young lieutenant. Charles Durning received an Oscar nomination for his performance as Colonel Erhart. Jose Ferrer enjoys himself as the spy.

There are song and dance routines (especially a skit on the Nazis which is reminiscent of the Springtime for Hitler routine in Brooks' The Producers). The film is an entertaining backstage story, is very funny in its send-up of desperately serious situations, and makes pleas for the Jews and for homosexuals (in the vein of La Cage Aux Folles).

1. An entertaining remake? The impact of the original in the '40s? Spoofing World War II and Hitler? Laughter as a way of coping with the deadly serious events of the war? The point of a remake in the '80s? Universal themes?

2. The quality of the comedy? Hollywood production style? Mel Brooks and his comic style? The teaming with Anne Bancroft? Visual humour, verbal humour? The blending of farcical and serious? Sentiment, comedy, message?

3. The artificial style of the theatre, the city? Contrived sets, decor? Appropriate for this kind of comedy? Action sequences? especially the ending? The reliance on past film styles of comedy, musical?

4. The film as a backstage story: the traditions of musical comedy, vaudeville, the show must go on? The Polish rendition of Sweet Georgie Brown, the Hitler spoof? The glamour musical routine for Ladies? (And Sasha's disguise in this musical number.) The comedy of Hitler wanting peace, a piece of each European country? The songs contributing to the plot? The background score?

5. Reality and unreality? The film as a fable working at both levels?

6. The world of the theatre: theatrical presence, artists, skill, vanity, temperament? The work of the troupe? Clashes, unity? The show going on? The irony of a show for Hitler? The title, the use of the Hamlet Soliloquy ? for comic touches? The final curtain with the credits to each of the cast? A tribute to the stage? A spoof of theatre?

7. Bronsky and his abilities on stage? The importance of acting and his performance in real life? The interrelationship of stage and life and qualities of acting, performance, illusion?

8. Mel Brooks as Bronsky? The posters during the credits? The opening song, the Polish background, his putting his wife's name in parenthesis? Their bickering? Applause, vanity? His relationship with Anna? Her bordering on being ridiculous? especially with Sasha, the lieutenant? The impact of the closing of the theatre? The visits to the War office, censorship? Their losing their house? Going to live with Sasha? and a comedown in the world? Bronsky and his ability to ignore the war, except for spoofs? Self-centred, self-preoccupied, and the war changing this?

9. Bronsky as serious and funny? The soliloquy, the lieutenant leaving during it? The return of the lieutenant and finding him in bed? The build-up to his impersonation of Erhart? and the comic reprise of the conversation with the real Erhart? His impersonating the professor? The discovery of the professor's corpse and the shaving routine? His considering he gave a great performance? Its quality, restraint? The blend of the nervous and the confident? The impersonation of Hitler? The timing of the escape? The encounter with the German soldiers? The comic touch with his arriving, looking like Hitler, in the London pub? His final acclaim?

10. The troupe: Sasha and the satire on the homosexual camp mannerisms? The importance of Sasha in helping Anna? The pink triangle ? clashing with his clothes? The arrest, the torture? The troupe helping him to escape by the performance of Ladies? The point being made about discrimination against homosexuals? The parallels with the Jews and the yellow triangle? The various actors, and their styles, performances e.g. the King and Polonius in Hamlet? Their variety of roles? Their impersonating Nazi officers in real life? Their taking initiatives? The relatives hidden in the theatre and their being disguised as clowns, the escape during the song and dance routine? The terrified mother and their mimicking the mocking of the Jews to the soldiers' laughter, effecting their escape?

11. The lieutenant and his hero-worship, love for Anna, the exit during the soliloquy? His devotion to Anna? Going to London, the comradeship and songs with the professor, his going to the Foreign Office? Parachuting into Poland, his mission? Asleep in Bronsky's bed? The ambiguities of his relationship with Anna - and the professor telling Bronsky (as Erhart) about the lieutenant? The chase in the theatre and the death of the professor? The escape and his piloting the plane?

12. Jose Ferrer as the professor, enjoying his performance, fellowship with the Polish airman in London, getting the information? His attempt to seduce Anna? and her continually singing her songs? His response to the false Erhart? The discovery of the impersonation? The chase and his death? The melodramatics of his onstage death? His being a corpse and the routine with shaving?

13. The satire on the Nazi officer with concentration camp 'Erhart'? His assistant with no thought of his own, yet being blamed for everything? Erhart as pompous, brutal, his continuous mistakes? His jokes about Hitler? The send-up of the Nazi?

14. The reality of the Nazis, the invasion of Poland, the background explanation of their taking over Europe? The atmosphere of the war? The bombardment of Warsaw? The appropriateness of joking about the Nazis?

15. The persecution of the Jews, the homosexuals and the pathos?

16. The action sequences, especially the final escape, the dog jumping onto the plane (to audience applause), the lifting of the plane over the electric wires etc.?

17. The delight of the comedy? The sense of humanity pervading the film?