![]() Adding greatly to challenges with the film’s reception was the fact that viewers were devastated by Lombard’s death in a plane crash on her way back home to Hollywood after selling war bonds the film was “impossible to promote”. ![]() ![]() However, Peary points out that “it’s interesting to note that critics were lenient to those World War II comedies that made no attempt to impress upon viewers the grim realities of Nazi aggression and occupation in Europe, while they jumped on Lubitsch’s film for daring to be both a comedy and topical” in truth, “the opposite should have been the case”. He notes that Bosley Crowther of the New York Times was especially offended by the film Crowther wrote, “To say is callous and macabre is understating the case”. In Cult Movies 2, Peary states that “Cult movies are often born in controversy”, and describes in greater detail the reception this film had in 1942, just “three years after Germany invaded Poland” and “three months after the United States entered World War II”. He points out that the “continuous deception and disguises are staples of French farce, as is the bedroom intrigue”, and they “are typical of Lubitsch” - as are “the moments of screwball comedy (the infighting between Benny and Lombard), the sexual innuendo and downright naughtiness, and the flights into burlesque, slapstick, and outrageous spoof.” He reminds us that “the film was roundly criticized for being funny when it’s about a serious subject - but Lubitsch strongly attacks both Hitler and his followers, never letting his humorous treatment of them make us forget they are ruthless murderers”. Peary writes that the “title of Ernst Lubitsch’s comedy-propaganda masterpiece” - with a script by Edwin Justus Mayer that is “brimming with clever twists and sparkling dialogue” - actually “refers to the existence of Poland”, noting that the film is Lubitsch’s attempt to present “Poles whom we would want to support: they are brave, resourceful, and have an indomitable spirit”. Meanwhile, a spy (Stanley Ridges) infiltrates the Polish Resistance movement, and it’s up to the acting troupe to prevent a bumbling Gestapo chief (Sig Ruman) from learning the names of underground members. Benny is distressed when a handsome fighter pilot (Robert Stack) gets up from the audience at the start of his “To be or not to be…” soliloquy, not knowing his wife is engaging in an innocent flirtation with this starstruck fan. “So they call me ‘Concentration Camp Ehrhardt’?”Īs Hitler ravages Europe, a famous Polish actor (Jack Benny) and his wife (Carole Lombard) are forced to switch their troupe’s play from a Nazi-satire to “Hamlet”.
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