Wednesday, January 28, 2009
FARCE
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Ernst Lubitch's
The unlikely premise of this comedy is that a small Polish repertory company can get involved in the occupation of Poland and somehow confound the Nazis and do it with a lot of laughs.
It succeeds!
I have seen this before and it bore re-viewing.
Stars are Jack Benny (as a Shakespearean actor) and Carol Lombard as his wife. Benny cools off but does not omit his comic personna. One is not affected by this. He keeps it in bounds so that it works.
There is a wonderful cast including the lifetime comic german Sig Ruman.
Farce is very hard to carry off. And to carry it off around something as serious as the occupation of Poland, which had only happened three years before, is even more astounding. The Second World War was in progress.
But, I remember, as a kid that there was a lot of Hitler/Nazi humor. Jokes, songs, all that.
That said, the film stands on its own as a perfectly paced piece with great ensemble acting. You wouldn't have to know any of the history to enjoy this.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5 because I have seen it before and would be happy to see it again. Even sometime soon.
Labels: best films
