---
title: 'To Be or Not to Be (1942)'
type: 'film'
director: 'Ernst Lubitsch'
released: '1942-02-19'
runtime_minutes: 93
genres:
  - 'War'
  - 'Comedy'
countries:
  - 'United States'
canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/movies/to-be-or-not-to-be-1942'
review_count: 0
imdb: 'https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035446/'
publisher: 'CinePixo'
---

# To Be or Not to Be (1942)

1942 · 93 min · War, Comedy · United States


## Synopsis

To Be or Not to Be is a 1942 American black comedy film produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Carole Lombard and Jack Benny, and featuring Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Lionel Atwill, Stanley Ridges, and Sig Ruman. The plot concerns a troupe of actors in Nazi-occupied Warsaw who use their abilities at disguise and acting to fool the occupying troops. It was adapted by Lubitsch (uncredited) and Edwin Justus Mayer from the story by Melchior Lengyel. To Be or Not to Be was released one month after Lombard was killed in an airplane crash. In 1996, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

## Credits

- **Director:** [Ernst Lubitsch](https://cinepixo.com/people/ernst-lubitsch)
- **Producer:** [Ernst Lubitsch](https://cinepixo.com/people/ernst-lubitsch)
- **Screenplay:** [Edwin Justus Mayer](https://cinepixo.com/people/edwin-justus-mayer)
- **Original Music Composer:** [Werner R. Heymann](https://cinepixo.com/people/werner-r-heymann)
- **Director of Photography:** [Rudolph Maté](https://cinepixo.com/people/rudolph-mate)
- **Editor:** [Dorothy Spencer](https://cinepixo.com/people/dorothy-spencer)

## Cast

- [Frank Reicher](https://cinepixo.com/people/frank-reicher)
- [Sig Ruman](https://cinepixo.com/people/sig-ruman)
- [Charles Halton](https://cinepixo.com/people/charles-halton)
- [Stanley Ridges](https://cinepixo.com/people/stanley-ridges)
- [Henry Victor](https://cinepixo.com/people/henry-victor)
- [Jimmy Finlayson](https://cinepixo.com/people/jimmy-finlayson)
- [John Kellogg](https://cinepixo.com/people/john-kellogg)
- [Lionel Atwill](https://cinepixo.com/people/lionel-atwill)
- [George Lynn](https://cinepixo.com/people/george-lynn)
- [Alec Craig](https://cinepixo.com/people/alec-craig)
- [Rudolph Anders](https://cinepixo.com/people/rudolph-anders)
- [Maude Eburne](https://cinepixo.com/people/maude-eburne)
- [Halliwell Hobbes](https://cinepixo.com/people/halliwell-hobbes)
- [Helmut Dantine](https://cinepixo.com/people/helmut-dantine)
- [Carole Lombard](https://cinepixo.com/people/carole-lombard)

## Criticism on CinePixo

No reviews published yet.

Source: https://cinepixo.com/movies/to-be-or-not-to-be-1942
Film facts: Wikidata (Q704972); synopsis from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Reviews, themes and notes are the work of this site's members.