To Be or Not to Be
The Picture Everyone Wants to See
Country
Production
Budget
$1 200 000
Box office
$1 500 000
Director
Actors
Scenario
Producer
Camera operator
Composer
Werner R. Heymann
Artist
Vincent Korda, J. McMillan Johnson
Audition
Editing
Dorothy Spencer
Whole Team (19)
Whole Team (19)
Short description
During the Nazi occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.
What's left behind the scenes
- In 1983, Alan Johnson remade Lubitsch's film starring Mel Brooks and Ann Bancroft in the lead roles. At the same time, he replaced Tura's surname with Bronsky, which belonged to another character—the actor playing Hitler.
- In the film, Maria says the line: "What could possibly happen on an airplane?" After the tragic death of the actress in a plane crash, the line was removed.
- The role of Maria Tura was the last in the career of 33-year-old Carole Lombard, who died in a plane crash two months before the film's release.
- Immediately after the film's release, the director was accused not only of complete ignorance of the Polish occupation realities of the time, but also of making fun of a military tragedy and portraying Poles at the level of Goebbels' propaganda. It was only twenty years later that Ernst Lubitsch's film appeared in Polish distribution, and it is preceded by a corresponding commentary by Kazimierz Rudski.
- Jack Benny's father was so deeply disturbed by the sight of his son in an SS uniform during a screening that he wanted to leave immediately.
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Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
