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. To Be or Not to Be 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.

STARS...........: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack DIRECTOR........: Ernst Lubitsch WRITERS.........: Edwin Justus Mayer GENRE...........: Comedy, War IMDB............: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035446 RUNTIME.........: 1h 56mn SIZE............: 5.75 GB VIDEO CODEC.....: HEVC (Main10@L4) BITRATE.........: 8000 Kbps (2-pass) RESOLUTION......: 1480x1080 ASPECT RATIO....: 1.37:1 FRAMERATE.......: 23.976 fps AUDIO1..........: English AAC 1.0 192kbps AUDIO2..........: Commentary with film historian David Kalat SUBTITLES.......: ENG SOURCE..........: Criterion Blu-ray ENCODE DATE.....: 2020-05-07

Extras

• Pinkus’s Shoe Palace

• Lubitsch le patron

• Two episodes of The Screen Guild Theater