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The Northern New York Section of the American Chemical Society will be offering Chemistry Olympiad examinations for high school students from Watertown to Plattsburgh in March and April. Highest scores in the national competition will be selected as participants to represent the USA in international events in Budapest, Hungary in July.

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Although I grew up a big fan of movies, I spent most of my years avoiding old films -- typically, if it was Black and White, I wasn't interested. An ignorant point of view, I know, but one that finally paid off. About two years back, I found myself less and less interested in the fare that Hollywood was producing today -- and started turning to the past for entertainment. And there's a whole wide world of great films out there that I'm enjoying for the first time ever.

TCM ran a film last night that was a real gem -- To Be Or Not To Be (1942) -- starring Jack Benny, Carole Lombard, and a very young Robert Stack.

TBONTB

A comedy set in Warsaw as the Nazis have occupied the city, Benny and Lombard star as a husband and wife team of actors who, along with their fellow actors, need to keep one step ahead of the Nazis to help save the underground resistance movement in Poland. Tricky material for a comedy, especially since it was set as the war was just underway. But there's a lot of laughs to be found here - and the entire cast is terrific.

TBONTB2

Jack Benny is hilarious -- not at all what I expected. My exposure to Jack Benny has been entirely through his old television show. Here, he uses some of the same delivery, and has some of the best lines of the movie. One running gag is that whenever he's on stage, and delivers the line "To Be Or Not to Be," it serves as a signal to the young flyer in love with his wife (Stack) to go backstage to meet her. And, as he delivers the line, he pauses -- offended -- and does a slow burn as the man in the audience walks out. Later, when confronting his wife about them, he asks her -- "How could you? How could you? How could you have him walk out in the middle of my soliloquy?"

Another great running gag -- the Gestapo is trying to recruit his wife to be a spy on the Polish Underground movement, and in a bid to rescue her, he has to impersonate a variety of German officers and spies. They keep bringing up his wife's name -- Maria Tura -- and mention that she's a famous actress. He keeps asking if they'd heard of her husband, the great actor Josef Tura, and looks disappointed each time they say no. Finally, when one German Colonel said that he had actually seen Josef Tura, Benny seems pleased, until the Colonel tells him -- "What that man did to Shakespeare, we are doing to Poland!" This is followed by a great Jack Benny deadpan -- great stuff.

But even though it's a screwball comedy, what the Nazi's have done to Poland is not ignored. The wreckage of Warsaw is clearly shown -- and with references to concentration camps, it's clear they are up against a bad enemy. Carole Lombard is great and, as it turned out, this was her last film. She was killed in a plane crash, along with her mother, weeks before this was released.

Although I was aware of the remake in the 80's (with Mel Brooks) I had no idea how funny this film would be. This is one I'll be looking for in the stores to add to my permanent collection as I suspect it would stand up to repeated viewings.  A clip from the opening scene: 

Final Rating: 4 Stars.

Something new we're trying -- a JCWB Group Blogging experiment.  If you're interested, join up and create a blog -- we'll get you set up as part of the JCWB Group Blog.  More details on this to follow.