To Be Or Not To Be

When writing about Gene Wilder a couple of weeks back, it got me thinking about some of the forgotten gems of Mel Brooks. I thought I would take a look at some of those over the next couple of posts. First up is 1983's To Be Or Not To Be.

Now he didn't write or direct this remake of the 1942 classic, but he produces and stars in it. And it feels like a Brooks film. It really seems to borrow more from the Brooks classic The Producers than from the original source.

In it, Brooks and his real life wife, the late, great Anne Bancroft, star as stage performers in Poland during World War II. The Nazi's are about to invade and the couple needs to figure out a way to sneak their theater troupe out of the country. Lucky for them, Brooks bares a striking resemblance to a high ranking official in the Hitler army.

Even though there is a lot of physical gags, this is one of those that has some really funny dialogue as well. Brooks and Bancroft are terrific and it makes me wish that they had appeared in more films together. Even their bickering puts a smile on my face. The supporting cast, that includes Tim Matheson, Charles Durning, Christopher Lloyd, and Jose Ferrer, are top notch.

Brooks had his choreographer from some of his earlier films, Alan Johnson, direct. There's some terrific musical numbers in this, but Johnson handles the humor with ease as well.

This is a terrific, overlooked picture.

It's available on dvd and blu ray.