Budapest Classic Film Marathon: To Be or Not to Be

Director: Ernst Lubitsch

Written by Melchior Lengyel (Lengyel Menyhért)
Screenplay by Edwin Justus Mayer
Director of photography: Rudolph Maté (Máté Rudolf)
Music by Werner R. Heymann
Cast: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack

Story variations for absurdist voices / Films recommended by Gyula Gazdag

Introduction: Péter Muszatics, film historian

Supporting film: One Week
(American comedy, bw, 1920, dir: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline, silent, Intertitles: English, Subtitles: Hungarian, 25’)

A love triangle in Nazi occupied Warsaw between theatre star Joseph Tura (Jack Benny), playing Hamlet and being full of his own acting skills, his cunning astute wife, great actress Maria Tura (Carol Lombard) and straight-shooter, determined air force officer Stanislav Sobinski (Robert Stack), amid hilariously absurd stages of a life-or-death battle with a lethal Nazi spy named Professor Siletsky (Stanley Ridges). Ernst Lubitsch directed and co-wrote with Menyhért Lengyel and Edwin Justus Mayer this never equaled combination of romance, political satire, slapstick, and wartime suspense, that has not aged a minute since 1942, shot by Rudolph Máté, production design by Vincent Korda.

More information about the Budapest Classic Film Marathon's program in Uránia >>