86
Metascore
13 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The DissolveKeith PhippsThe DissolveKeith PhippsTo Be Or Not To Be works as both comedy and thriller, ratcheting up the tension and humor as the actors’ scheme threatens to fall apart, and the gags build on one another.
- One of Hollywood’s funniest, and most poignant, classics.
- 100Chicago ReaderDave KehrChicago ReaderDave KehrIt could be [Lubitsch's] finest achievement, and it's certainly one of the most profound, emotionally complex comedies ever made, covering a range of tones from satire to slapstick to shocking black humor.
- 100To Be or Not to Be, co-starring Carole Lombard and Jack Benny, under expert guidance of Ernst Lubitsch, is absorbing drama with farcical trimmings. It's an acting triumph for Lombard, who delivers an effortless and highly effective performance that provides memorable finale to her brilliant screen career.
- 100Slant MagazineEd GonzalezSlant MagazineEd GonzalezMany of the film’s pleasures, then, derive from watching these characters successfully use the tools of the stage (improvisation, sense memory, prosthetics) to successfully subvert the Nazis.
- 88New York Daily NewsKate CameronNew York Daily NewsKate CameronThe picture, produced by Alexander Korda, under Lubitsch's direction, has some deliciously funny moments and every now and then a serious sequence is injected that startles the audience into an attitude of taut suspense. But it seems to me that the background of the Melchior Lenggel story is a bit too grim for joking.
- 83The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloThe A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloBecause the second half of To Be Or Not To Be, once Benny starts impersonating Nazis, is so outlandishly hilarious, it’s easy to forgive the film’s comparatively sluggish first half, which is mostly setup for gags to come.
- 50The New YorkerPauline KaelThe New YorkerPauline KaelErnst Lubitsch, who directed, starts off on the wrong foot and never gets his balance; the performers yowl their lines, and the burlesque of the Nazis, who cower before their superior officers, is more crudely gleeful than funny.
- 30The New York TimesBosley CrowtherThe New York TimesBosley CrowtherIn a spirit of levity, contused by frequent doses of shock, Mr. Lubitsch has set his actors to performing a spy-thriller of fantastic design amid the ruins and frightful oppressions of Nazi-in-vaded Warsaw. To say it is callous and macabre is understating the case.