To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Ernst Lubitsch makes a memorable opening tracking shot of To Be or Not to Be (1942) by having Hitler walking down the streets of Warsaw.  Onlookers can only gape.  Then we are let in on the joke.  This is an actor on break from a production and he is recognized by a young girl and asked for his autograph.  What could be a very silly movie has its own tense moments and the real tension you feel is cut with some classic cuts by one of the main characters played by Jack Benny. Carole Lombard gives a wonderfully understated performance that shows what a truly great actor she was. She makes an initially silly leading lady into a brave resistance fighter.  Her love interest is a young Robert Stack, whose voice and performance on Unsolved Mysteries scared the crap out of me as a child.   A little unsettling to see him playing the young brave pilot off to war.

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