| To Be or Not to Be | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Alan Johnson |
| Produced by | Mel Brooks |
| Written by | Ronny Graham Melchior Lengyel (story) Ernst Lubitsch (story) Edwin Justus Mayer (1942 screenplay) Thomas Meehan |
| Narrated by | Scott Beach |
| Starring | Mel Brooks Anne Bancroft Charles Durning |
| Music by | John Morris |
| Cinematography | Gerald Hirschfeld |
| Editing by | Alan Balsam |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | December 16, 1983 |
| Running time | 107 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
To Be or Not to Be is a 1983 20th Century Fox comedy-drama film directed by Alan Johnson, produced by Mel Brooks with Howard Jeffrey as executive producer and Irene Walzer as associate producer. The screenplay was written by Ronny Graham and Thomas Meehan, based on the original story by Melchior Lengyel, Ernst Lubitsch and Edwin Justus Mayer. It is a remake of the 1942 film of the same title.[1]
The film starred Mel Brooks alongside his wife Anne Bancroft; Tim Matheson, Charles Durning, Christopher Lloyd, and José Ferrer also had starring roles.
This remake was one of the first major American films to acknowledge that homosexuals were persecuted by the Third Reich, along with other Holocaust victims. Homosexuality aside, this version was extremely faithful to the 1942 film on which it was based, and in many cases dialogue was taken verbatim from the earlier film. The character of the treacherous Professor Siletsky (here spelled Siletski) was, however, made into more of a comic figure, and even into somewhat of a buffoon, whereas in the original he was the one completely serious character in the film. Siletski, played by Stanley Ridges in the 1942 film, was here played by José Ferrer.
For his humorous performance as Colonel Erhardt, Charles Durning was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. Erhardt was played by Sig Ruman in the original film.
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The film was favorably reviewed by Vincent Canby in the New York Times, who called it "smashingly funny." [2]
However, the film was not a great commercial success, grossing only $13,000,000.[3]
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