As nervy as it is hilarious, this screwball masterpiece from Ernst Lubitsch stars Jack Benny and, in her final screen appearance, Carole Lombard as husband-and-wife thespians in Nazi-occupied Warsaw who become caught up in a dangerous spy plot.Ā To Be or Not to BeĀ is a Hollywood film of the boldest black humor, which went into production right before the U.S. entered World War II. Lubitsch manages to brilliantly balance political satire, romance, slapstick, and wartime suspense in a comic high-wire act that has never been equaled.
- Restored 2K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Audio commentary from 2013 featuring film historian David Kalat
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Pinkusās Shoe Palace,Ā a 1916 German silent short directed by and starring Ernst Lubitsch, with a piano score by Donald Sosin
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Lubitsch le patron,Ā a 2010 French documentary on the directorās career
- Two episodes ofĀ The Screen Guild Theater,Ā a radio anthology series:Ā VarietyĀ (1940), starring Jack Benny, Claudette Colbert, and Lubitsch, andĀ To Be or Not to BeĀ (1942), an adaptation of the film, starring William Powell, Diana Lewis, and Sig Ruman
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey OāBrien and, for the Blu-ray edition, a 1942Ā New York TimesĀ op-ed by Lubitsch
Cover by Caitlin Kuhwald