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To Be or Not to Be (1942 film)

1942 film by Ernst Lubitsch

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ704972 ↗
Source-derived summary

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."

Plot

In 1939, the well-known stars of a Warsaw theater company, including "ham" Joseph Tura and wife Maria, are rehearsing Gestapo, a play satirizing the Nazi regime. During the company's production of Hamlet that night, with Joseph in the title role, Maria receives a bouquet of flowers from Lieutenant Stanislav Sobinski. After Maria arranges a secret meeting with Sobinski in her dressing room, he walks out as Joseph begins Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy. Soon, the government issues orders to cancel Gestapo in order to avoid worsening relations with Germany. The following night, Sobinski again walks out on Hamlet's soliloquy to meet Maria, infuriating Joseph. Sobinski confesses his love for Maria, but as Germany invades Poland, he leaves to join the Royal Air Force's Polish squadron.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “To Be or Not to Be (1942 film)” as 1942 film by Ernst Lubitsch. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around film, Ernst and Lubitsch.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1942, 1996, 1939—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1942-02-15, 1960-08-12, 1942-02-19, 1942-03-06—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with film, Ernst and Lubitsch providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “To Be or Not to Be (1942 film)”, the useful work is to connect “1942 film by Ernst Lubitsch” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q704972. VIAF identifies the subject as 316751913. The Library of Congress control number is no2006057048. 7 of 8 selected statements include explicit references; 4 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1942, 1996 and 1939.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “To Be or Not to Be (1942 film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow To Be or Not to Be (1942 film) primary sources, To Be or Not to Be (1942 film) archive and film research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “To Be or Not to Be (1942 film)”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “To Be or Not to Be (1942 film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.