Customer Reviews

To Be or Not to Be (BFI Film Classics)

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This is a very enjoyable discussion of a very good movie. I devoured it quite rapidly.

The book isn't perfect. Barnes makes some mistakes (I think he means to refer to Fields' "That Fatal Glass of Beer" and not "Face on the Barroom Floor.) He is also clearly writing for a British audience, since he seems to have no idea how Carole Lombard's death affected the initial American response to the film.

However, this are quibbles. While Barnes' approach to the film is not novel, his is the first examination of the film to delve so deeply into the performance of Sig Rumann as Erhardt, as well as the contributions of Lionel Atwill and the "spear carrier" who gets to play Hitler. He pays loving attention to the theatrical details of the movie to such a degree that it will be playing in your mind as you read him.

Also, he reprints the numbskull 1942 reviews of the movie, which provide a dark humor of their own.

In short, this book is a must for the fans of this film. (As a bonus, he doesn't even mention the Mel Brooks version of the film.)

This was a required book for my Film Class on Comedy....Comic Mode. The book was informative and an easy read allowing the user to be able to participate in class discussion even without a lot of Film knowledge or background.