Episode 41: To Be or Not to Be (1942)

"The named a brandy after Napoleon, they made a herring out of Bismarck, and the Fuhrer is going to end up as a piece of cheese!" Ernst Lubitsch was one of Hollywood's biggest imports in the 1930's and 1940's, directing comedies starring Hollywood names like Ninotchka (1939) with Greta Garbo and The Shop Around the Corner (1940) with James Stewart.  He titillated the censors with films about sex...without scripts that hardly mentioned sex at all? As Europe became embroiled in World War II, Lubitsch made To Be or Not to Be (1942), a film that would poke fun at another taboo: Adolf Hitler.  Audiences and critics at the time hated it, but through the years it's become Lubitsch's most popular film, earning cult status with a script filled with innuendos and dark humor and fantastic performances by Jack Benny and Carole Lombard. Have a question or comment for the host?  Email Sean at [email protected], follow him on Twitter @1001MoviesPC, and look for the podcast's Facebook page.