

































While Ernst Lubitsch’s Nazi satire To Be or Not to Be (1942) was not well-received at the time of its release, scholars 
and critics have embraced the !lm in the decades since its release for its erudite deconstruction of the performativity 
of fascism. "is essay departs from the previous literature by examining how the death of star Carole Lombard 
shortly before the !lm’s release may have impacted the !lm’s reception. Evidence from archival documents, including 
fan magazine articles and the !lm’s pressbook, illuminates how advertisements for To Be obscured the !lm’s overt 
politicization in favor of an “apolitical” patriotism that Lombard exempli!ed through her participation in state-
sponsored defense bond rallies. "e incongruence between advertisements for To Be and the !lm’s content itself only 
serves to illuminate the !lm’s questions of what political entertainment should be, a debate that Hollywood industry 
executives hoped to suppress. 

Aisthesis      Volume 14,  202385

!e Martyrdom of Carole Lombard and the Release of To 
Be or Not to Be (1942)

by Sophia Podolsky

 A woman walks into the Gestapo headquarters 
from stage right, dressed in a white gown with her 
hair beautifully coi#ed. As the men around her 
argue, she makes herself known to the director, a 
Mr. Dobosh, by strutting into his line of sight. A$er 
a beat, Dobosh realizes that something is amiss, for 
this elegantly dressed woman was supposed to be 
a concentration camp detainee. "e woman insists 
that her out!t makes for “tremendous contrast,” 
primed to provoke visceral reactions from the 
audience. In response, Dobosh laments how the 
great actress Maria Tura (portrayed by the renowned 
Carole Lombard in her !nal !lm role) could be so 
“inartistic.” A$er all, Gestapo is supposed to be a 
“document of Nazi Germany,” and this out!t would 
have no place there. 
 "is scene takes place at the beginning of Ernst 
Lubitsch’s World-War-II-era Nazi satire To Be or Not 
to Be (1942), released just a$er three months following 
the o%cial entry of the United States into World War 
II. A war e#ort the United States supported from afar 
took on greater signi!cance as American soldiers 
entered combat overseas. As both the Americans 
and the Nazis bolstered their cinematic propaganda 
apparatuses, public debate raged in Hollywood’s 
guilds on the best way to handle the Nazi threat 
in cinema (Webb 751). Coinciding with increased 
United States engagement with the Second World 
War, “an emerging patriotic decorum” enforced by 
both government censorship and within-industry 

censuring—by non-governmental regulators (the 
Production Code Administration, or PCA,) studios, 
and !lmmakers themselves—provided a hostile 
environment for To Be’s release (Webb 754). 
 "e !lm’s sharp satire—Lubitsch’s Nazis are 
incompetent, blundering bureaucrats who prove 
to be no match for a group of unlikely heroes in a 
Warsaw-based theater troupe—was not well received 
by many critics (Crowther 1; Martin 15). Even in a 
favorable review of the !lm, Howard Barnes of the 
New York Herald Tribune notes that the sociopolitical 
context of To Be or Not to Be’s release makes the 
humor set in Nazi-occupied Warsaw harder to digest 
than in Lubitsch’s preceding Ninotchka (1939), which 
was set in an at-the-time free Paris (8). 
 In Brandon Webb’s analysis of the PCA’s 
treatment of anti-Nazi parody !lms during World 
War II, he notes that the PCA did not attempt to 
censor (or explicitly condone) To Be’s lampooning of 
Hitler (754). "e timing of the PCA’s review of To Be 
(dated October 10, 1941) is signi!cant considering 
it predates the United States’ entry into World War 
II (Webb 766n26). On the other hand, the !lm was 
“retroactively” criticized at the Hollywood Writers 
Mobilization’s 1943 Writers’ Congress “for failing 
to take Nazism seriously” (Webb 754). Conversely, 
the PCA attempted to block the release of the realist 
drama Confessions of a Nazi Spy (dir. Anatole Litvak, 
1939; Lewis 11), while the 1943 Writers’ Congress 
hailed the !lm “as a model of anti-fascist !lmmaking” 



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Aisthesis      Volume 14,  202386

(Webb 751). A$er 1939, once the distribution of 
American !lms under Axis regimes was banned 
(Webb 752), within-industry support for “realistic” 
portrayals of Nazis increased, given these !lms need 
not appeal to Nazi-allied markets. Yet, satirical !lms 
like To Be did not enjoy these same bene!ts. To Be 
may have passed through industry censors, but that 
did little to curb the negative reactions of critics and 
Lubitsch’s industry compatriots. "e critical dialogue 
surrounding To Be mirrors conversations (including 
the one described previously) that occur throughout 
the !lm, which take on questions of what political 
entertainment is and should be. Within the !lm’s 
comedy lurks an astute and timely examination 
of how fascism derives its power from spectacle 
(Melehy 27). 
 However, audiences looking at advertisements 
for To Be (which have thus far been little examined 
in the literature) would be prepared for patriotic 
entertainment in a di#erent vein. Complicating the 
!lm’s advertising campaign was the death of star 
Carole Lombard just before the !lm’s March 1942 
release. On January 16, 1942, Carole Lombard and 
21 others died in a plane crash on their way back to 
Los Angeles from a War Bond drive in Indianapolis 
(Motion Picture Herald 327). "ough she did not 
serve in a combat role, Lombard’s star persona 
nevertheless became synonymous with service in 
the months preceding her death as a !xture of state-
sponsored entertainment supporting the war e#ort 
(“Lombard’s Tragic End” 2). "e rallies and shows 
that stars like Lombard highlighted during World 
War II were expected to be apolitical events, in the 
sense that these events avoided discussing speci!cs 
of the war in favor of boosting morale around a more 
general American “war e#ort.” As I will demonstrate 
in this essay, attempts to memorialize Lombard 
within press materials for To Be present the !lm as 
thematically analogous to these “apolitical” shows, 
in the process suppressing the !lm’s (perhaps 
controversial) arguments.
 Lombard’s publicized activities preceding To Be 
were in service of a purely pro-American (rather 
than an explicitly anti-Nazi or anti-Fascist) ideology. 
Hailed for her eager volunteerism and love of 
country, she headlined rallies that raised millions 
of dollars in defense bonds and stamps (“Lombard’s 
Tragic End” 2). Some of the last photographs taken 
of Lombard before her death depict her active on the 

home front: participating in a publicity campaign 
for stamp sales (Carruthers 26) and leading a 
crowd in the National Anthem (Romayne 32). 
"e outpouring of grief over the death of Carole 
Lombard in fan magazines framed her as something 
unprecedented for an entertainer on the home front: 
a war hero (“"e Movies Go…” 14). In the April 
1942 edition of Photoplay, writer William French, 
who, by his account, had an established relationship 
with Lombard (357), states that it was “Lombard’s 
Greatest Wish” to die in service of her country. 
Multiple industry !gures, including Motion Picture 
Producers and Distributors of America chairman 
Will Hays, referred to Lombard as Hollywood’s 
!rst active-duty casualty (“Hays Hails Patriotism” 
38; “Lombard’s Tragic End” 2). President Roosevelt 
himself celebrated Lombard’s service (“Roosevelt 
Lauds Carole…” 15). As such, expectations for To Be, 
as Lombard’s last !lm, were remarkably high. 
 "e !lm’s pressbook leans into the intrigue of the 
!lm being Carole Lombard's last as an aspect of why 
To Be was ""e Picture Everyone Wants to See" (2). 
Lombard receives !rst billing for the picture, above 
co-star Jack Benny (who arguably has a bigger role 
in the !lm) and the title of the !lm itself (Studio 
Press Book 1). Headlines for some reviews of the 
!lm do not mention the !lm’s title at all, focusing 
purely on Lombard’s involvement (i.e., Mildred 
Martin’s “Last Lombard Picture Opens on Stanley 
Screen”). "e byline-less Life review characterizes 
Lombard as “play-acting part of the world disaster 
which cost her life” (“Carole Lombard’s Last…” 63). 
"ough the text of the review itself is quite brief, the 
captions of the pictures are particularly interesting, 
referring to Benny and Lombard by their names 
rather than the names of their characters. "e result 
includes statements like, “Carole is nabbed by Nazi 
soldiers” (64), seemingly positioning this !lm as part 
of Lombard’s wartime service. Yet, for an audience 
who loved Lombard for her role boosting troop 
morale and raising money for an amorphous “war 
e#ort,” the physical scope of which did not include 
the American mainland, her participation in an 
overtly anti-Nazi !lm like To Be could be somewhat 
unexpected. 
 To Be, regardless of its faith to the source text 
of Hamlet invoked by its title, promotes the ethos 
of one of Shakespeare’s most memorable quotes: 
“the world’s a stage” (Gemünden, "Space out of 



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Joint" 64). Much of the previous literature on the 
!lm addresses the opening scene (before Lombard’s 
entrance), in which Hitler seemingly gets caught 
wandering the streets of Warsaw pre-invasion. "is 
man is not Hitler but Bronski, who is to portray 
Hitler in the play Gestapo at the Teatr Polski. "e 
audience learns of Bronski’s true identity through a 
&ashback to “the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin,” 
where a cascade of Heil Hitlers leads to Bronski 
exclaiming: “Heil, myself!” "is statement catalyzes 
a debate between the play’s director, Dobosh, and his 
actors, over the merits of comedy versus “realistic 
drama” for depicting the Nazis, one that pre-empts 
the contemporary critical debates surrounding the 
!lm. "is scene not only serves as an introduction to 
the dysfunctional theater troupe who are to be our 
heroes but also establishes the !lm’s interrogation of 
the performativity of fascism (and the best way to 
deconstruct it). 
 "e exodus of one of Gestapo’s actors onto the 
streets of Warsaw subsumes these streets into the 
play’s set. "ough the voiceover narration situates 
the action in Warsaw, the establishing shots are on 
cookie-cutter sets di#erentiated only by names with 
the su%x -ski. Placing a stage actor onto this set 
emphasizes the purpose-built nature of the location; 
this is Poland through Hollywood’s machinations 
(Melehy 25). Adding to the spatial disorientation 
are the accents of the !lm’s “Poles,” which are 
indistinguishable from those of Americans apart 
from Greenberg, whose German accent indexes his 
“foreign” nature (McCormick 288). By establishing 
the un-reality of the !lm from the outset, Lubitsch 
emphasizes that the world is indeed a stage, laying 
the groundwork for his examinations of political 
performance (see Gemünden, "Space out of Joint" 
65). In other words, farce reveals farce.
 Gerd Gemünden, a scholar of German exile 
cinema, views To Be as an “essential” text of the 
movement for how it encapsulates the liminality of the 
exile experience (Performing Resistance 81). Lubitsch 
was one of Hollywood’s !rst émigré directors and 
Hitler’s “Archetypal Jew,” “un-German” in Germany 
but “too German” for America (Gemünden, "Space 
out of Joint" 61-62). Lubitsch’s exile status informs 
his aesthetic decisions, including his use of “double 
encoding,” a practice enacted by Jews in the Weimar 
Republic (McCormick 297). For German Jews, 
the !$een-year period of the Weimar Republic 

was a time of great uncertainty and psychological 
instability borne from simmering antisemitism, 
leading Jewish !lmmakers like Lubitsch to suppress 
signi!ers of Jewish identity in their !lms behind 
general symbols of the “other” (ibid). According to 
McCormick, before To Be, Lubitsch’s last !lm with 
an “overtly Jewish” character was released in 1919, 
before Lubitsch le$ for America in the 1920s (ibid). 
Operating within a framework of “anticipatory 
self-censorship” of Jewish identity to ensure widest 
possible distribution and commercial success for 
his !lms (Rosenberg 204), Lubitsch’s Americanized 
Poland allows him to covertly comment on the 
plight of the Jews without alienating distributors 
(see Melehy 24). "is setting makes the emergence of 
Greenberg, the !lm’s sole “overtly Jewish” character 
(McCormick 295), as the hero of the !lm even more 
striking, as I will address later in this essay.
 Preceding the United States’ o%cial entry into 
World War II, a series of hearings in the United States 
Senate during Fall 1941 convened by Sens. Burton 
Wheeler and Gerald Nye attacked seventeen !lms the 
pair deemed “war-mongering… propaganda” (Lewis 
10-11), including !e Great Dictator (dir. Charlie 
Chaplin, 1940). "ough not explicitly mentioning 
Lubitsch, Senator Nye argued the problematic 
!lms catered to “the agenda… of foreign-born 
Jews” (Lewis 11), whom he alienated from the 
general American public. Ultimately, no sanctions 
resulted from these hearings, and the United States 
government did not overtly &ex its power over the 
!lm industry again until a$er the war (see Lewis). 
However, these hearings— and the political climate 
that enabled them—elucidate the !lm industry’s 
willingness to censor politicized messages in anti-
Nazi !lms. Lubitsch’s status as a foreign-born Jew 
within Hollywood’s upper echelons arguably made 
To Be a likely target for government scrutiny, only 
strengthening the rationale for the !lm’s sanitized 
press campaign. 
 Accordingly, the pressbook sketches the !lm’s 
plot in vague terms (“An exciting, romantic comedy, 
keyed to an ever-mounting tempo of suspense”—
Studio Press Book 1) and emphasizes Lombard’s 
involvement above all else. “"e America which 
was moved with deep pride at her last magni!cently 
performed assignment for her country’s Defense 
Bond Drive” is the target audience for the !lm 
(Studio Press Book 2). "e pressbook argues that a 



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Aisthesis      Volume 14,  202388

screening of To Be would be as natural as Lombard 
at a defense bond rally (6). Naturally, organizers 
of these events could honor Lombard and help 
ful!ll her “un!nished business” in the war e#ort by 
celebrating her !nal performance in a patriotic !lm 
(French 406). However, the “apolitical” government 
wartime entertainment apparatus, which disavowed 
the joke “the Russian Army has the Germans by the 
Balkans” at a USO Camp Show (Lebovic 272), would 
not dare to circulate a !lm in which a Nazi colonel 
asserts, “What [Joseph Tura] did to Shakespeare we 
are doing now to Poland.” 
 "e pressbook boasts a unique and timely tie-
in for To Be: a recording of a song called "Bless 'Em 
All" as sung by RAF's Polish squadron in the !lm 
(4). "e song itself is a variant of a soldiers’ song 
that emerged during World War I called “Fuck ‘Em 
All” (Cleveland 82), a sordid title that would lead to 
immediate exclusion from a Camp Show. "e song 
as performed in the !lm echoes the !lm’s overt anti-
Nazi politics, including lines like: “"ere’s one [a 
bomb] for old Hitler… [and] an especially big one 
for old Hermann G” and “We’ll never be seated till 
Hitler’s defeated.” In the !lm, this song serves to 
introduce the Polish squadron, shown gathered 
around the piano, laughing even in the shadow of 
unspeakable evil. 
 "e pressbook volunteers three previous 
recordings of the song for advertisers to use in a 
promotional campaign for To Be, including one by 
Barry Wood and the Four King Sisters (4). However, 
the lyrics in this version (recorded in 1941) talk not 
about Hitler’s defeat, but about missing the comforts 
of home (more speci!cally, the comforts of women) 
as a soldier at camp. Rather than blessing the bombs 
on their way to Germany, this version “bless[es] all 
the Blondies and all the Brunettes” and chides “no 
ice cream or cookies for &at-footed rookies.” Where 
the version sung in To Be or Not to Be has a darkly 
humorous bite, this version has a jovial innocence 
(complete with cutesy complaining) untouched by 
the horrors of war. Highlighting this latter version 
of the song rather than distributing the version from 
the !lm bolsters the pressbook’s positioning of the 
!lm within the mainstream wartime entertainment 
Lombard was a key participant in, hiding the !lm’s 
subversive qualities behind palatable advertising. 
However, this incongruence between !lm content 
and press copy reinforces the signi!cance of the 

political statements Lubitsch makes through To Be, 
ultimately serving to illuminate rather than obscure 
the !lm’s comparatively radical nature. 
 "e characters of Maria Tura (as portrayed 
by Lombard) and Lombard herself share many 
similarities: both line the pages of fan magazines, are 
married to famous actors (Joseph Tura—portrayed 
by Jack Benny—and Clark Gable, respectively), and 
are widely regaled for their feminine wit and charm. 
In the eyes of the public, Carole Lombard could do 
no wrong. In the fan magazine Screenland, Romayne, 
director Wesley Ruggles’ secretary, memorialized 
Lombard as the kind, hard-working, and generous 
standard of comparison for any other actress and 
a devoted wife (86). She worked the !elds and 
“hunt[ed] like a man” (Carruthers 490). Maria Tura’s 
introduction, on the other hand, establishes her 
as vain and appearance-obsessed; why else would 
she insist on wearing an elegant gown to play the 
role of a concentration camp detainee in Gestapo? 
Fans of Lombard &ocking to theaters to see their 
idol in all her glory for the !nal time would likely 
be unsatis!ed by the character of Maria Tura. Yet, 
her &awed character provides a crucial vehicle for 
Lubitsch’s deconstruction of patriotic entertainment.
 "rough the character of Maria Tura, Lombard 
enacts a parody of the conception of the secret-
country-girl starlet, implicating Lombard’s real-
life public persona. As she entertains the &irtation 
of the handsome young pilot Lieutenant Sobinski, 
he infers that she must want to run away to live a 
simple life with him. A$er all, the fan magazines that 
he has read at length talk about how Tura is a farm 
girl at heart. However, when Sobinski vocalizes what 
he sees as Tura’s desires to her, she seems confused 
and even a bit amused, though news of Hitler’s 
invasion of Poland cuts her o# before she can react. 
"e pressbook does not let on that To Be is not a 
memorial to Lombard’s outstanding character.
 "rough Sobinski’s relationship with Maria 
Tura, as facilitated through fan magazines, Lubitsch 
draws attention to the role that stars play in the 
construction of national identity, especially pertinent 
during wartime. "ough there is no physical 
evidence of a print campaign within the !lm hailing 
Maria Tura’s patriotic bona !des like there was for 
Lombard, Tura’s star persona nevertheless bolsters 
the war e#ort (though unbeknownst to her). As the 
Polish Squadron pilots give messages for home to 



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Professor Siletsky, presumably a friend of the Warsaw 
Underground, Sobinski passes a note with “to be or 
not to be” on it. To Sobinski’s shock, Siletsky expresses 
a lack of familiarity with Maria Tura, which Sobinski 
reasons would be unfathomable for any true Pole. As 
such, Tura’s connection with Polish national identity 
identi!es Siletsky as an outsider, prompting Sobinski 
to return to Poland to thwart Siletsky and setting o# 
a chain of events leading to Siletsky’s death. 
 Key to the mythmaking surrounding Lombard 
a$er her death were the dynamics of her relationship 
with her husband Clark Gable, a massive star himself. 
In the fan magazine Modern Screen (April 1942), a 
memorial to Lombard functions as her biography 
through the lens of her relationship with Gable. 
Lombard pre-Gable was a typical starlet (closer to 
Maria Tura), who frequented all the best parties 
and enjoyed the trappings of stardom (Carruthers 
441). Gable is represented as a paternalistic !gure 
in Lombard’s life; by multiple accounts she called 
him “pappy” (Carruthers 490; Romayne 86). Under 
Gable’s tutelage, she learned the joys of a modest 
country life, and “overnight, the lusty, swearing, 
striding, arrogant girl became a woman” (489). 
 In contrast, much of the humor of To Be stems 
from Joseph’s inability to control his wife’s antics. 
"is man is not Clark Gable reproduced in narrative 
form, a man capable of bringing his wife down to 
Earth from the high of stardom. "ough Sobinski 
references Maria’s interviews with fan magazines 
that demonstrate a desire for a simple life, Joseph is 
not the type of man who can hold her accountable 
like a Gable-esque !gure could. Even war cannot 
humble Maria; the end of the !lm illustrates a return 
to the status quo (albeit in a new locale), as Maria 
invites a new man into her dressing room while 
Joseph attempts in vain to complete his “To Be or 
Not to Be” monologue uninterrupted. As characters, 
neither Joseph nor Maria Tura meet the viewing 
publics’ expectations for how stars of the period 
should act, those standards established by Clark 
Gable and Carole Lombard, that is. "e vain Joseph 
and the disloyal Maria remain morally ambiguous 
to the end (Webb 755). "e characterization of 
the Turas bolsters the radical nature of the !lm; 
To Be or Not to Be bucked convention by making 
its protagonists &awed (ibid). While this decision 
enhances the !lm’s narrative complexity, it further 
undermines the pressbook’s positioning of the !lm 
as an uncomplicated morale-booster.

 One of the pressbook’s more astounding claims is 
that Jack Benny is “playing straight” in his portrayal 
of Joseph Tura. “No Zany Antics, No Slapstick For 
Hero In Lubitsch's ‘To Be Or Not To Be’” boasts the 
title of a publicity piece included in the pressbook 
(15). "is assertion does not ring true with some 
of Joseph Tura’s de!ning gags in the !lm; as critic 
Mildred Martin remarks, “Benny, though presumably 
playing straight, is still Benny” (15). Joseph’s reaction 
to the interruption of his monologuing as Hamlet by 
Lieutenant Sobinski on his way to Maria’s dressing 
room, Joseph discovering Lieutenant Sobinski 
curled up in bed, Joseph shaving the face of a Nazi 
spy to boost the credibility of his disguise: all these 
moments have an irreverent humor that depends on 
Jack Benny’s physicality. 
 To characterize Joseph Tura as the “hero” of To 
Be also ignores how his delusions of grandeur seem 
to prevent him from fully digesting the gravity of 
his situation. As Sobinski and Maria discuss the 
implications of Nazi spy Professor Siletsky giving up 
RAF pilots' family members, Joseph cannot look past 
his jealousy of Sobinski and reframes the discussion 
in the context of their domestic con&ict. When 
preparing to impersonate Siletsky, Joseph remarks 
to his wife that the scene "has a lot of dynamite.” 
Earlier in the !lm, as Siletsky sees through Joseph's 
Gestapo o%cer facade and starts shooting in the 
theater, Joseph grabs his back as if he has been shot 
on stage. Melehy argues that Jack Benny, under 
Lubitsch’s direction, perfectly embodies his role of a 
“ham” actor whose exaggerated a#ect blurs onstage 
and o#stage divides (23). In this sense, he asserts that 
the character of Joseph Tura “calls attention to the 
fact that one is viewing a simulation” (ibid). As such, 
Benny’s performance provides another mechanism 
for Lubitsch to challenge his audience to consider 
power as performance, which is accordingly ignored 
by the !lm’s press materials. 
 For someone who many scholars argue is one 
of To Be’s key !gures (see Bronfen, Gemünden, 
McCormick), Greenberg, portrayed by German 
Jewish character actor Felix Bressart, receives 
little attention in the pressbook, with publicity on 
Bressart instead spotlighting his proli!c cheese-
eating and lack of mustache (14-5). Greenberg 
occupies many roles throughout the !lm: a bit-part 
actor (like Lubitsch himself at the beginning of his 
career—Oya 100), a stand-in for Lubitsch, both in 



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Aisthesis      Volume 14,  202390

terms of biographical similarities and in his repeated 
insistence of the importance of a “good laugh,” and 
an unexpected hero. "roughout the !lm, Greenberg 
declares his a%nity with Shylock, the Jewish villain 
of !e Merchant of Venice, and recites one of the 
character’s monologues at three separate points. "e 
last time he recites this monologue is to a parade 
of Nazis; the troupe’s escape from the occupied 
Teatr Polski depends on their ability to disrupt the 
Nazis’ order by both blending in and standing out. 
Greenberg’s recitation of the monologue, his “coming 
out” as a Jew (McCormick 299), allows for the rest 
of the troupe to carry out their roles in facilitating 
their plot. He is taken away by two “Nazis,” a$er 
which “Hitler” (Bronski) has an excuse to leave 
the unsecure building. Ironically, !e Merchant 
of Venice, where this monologue originates, was 
removed from the Camp Show circuit that provided 
entertainment to soldiers abroad “for fear it would 
insult Jews” (Lebovic 278). "e reappropriation 
of this play within To Be by Lubitsch as enacted by 
Felix Bressart, the collective act of two German Jews 
(McCormick 297), thus contributes to the !lm’s overt 
(and arguably radical) politicization.
 "e last time Greenberg appears on screen is 
when he is detained; he is not shown with the rest 
of the troupe upon their arrival in Scotland. All 
the credit for the troupe’s escape goes to Joseph 
Tura, who is lauded by reporters as “the real hero 
in this amazing play” and thanks his colleagues 
for what “little” they did. "is dialogue counters 
what viewers saw just minutes before, a disjunction 
between words and images that draws attention 
to how powerful entities (in this case, the troupe’s 
leading man) manipulate images and narratives 
to best suit their purposes. We, as viewers, know 
not to trust Tura’s words based on the evidence of 
Greenberg’s contribution, as this !lm has taught us 
to see through constructions including Maria Tura’s 
public image and the might of fascism. However, this 
sequence, in the shadow of Carole Lombard’s death, 
also suggests questions of who gets memorialized 
for their sacri!ce, and why? Someone with big star 
power with legions of fans, a Joseph Tura or a Carole 
Lombard, will naturally garner larger tributes than 
a bit actor of marginalized identity like Greenberg. 
Yet, how can we reconcile this reality with the fact 
that Greenberg’s contributions were arguably larger 
than Joseph Tura’s, but Tura was allowed to take sole 
credit?

 "ough To Be or Not to Be was released on 
schedule in March 1942 despite rumors of delays a$er 
Carole Lombard’s death (“UA Scrapping Entire…” 2), 
the pressbook and associated advertising copy for To 
Be or Not to Be were reinvented (ibid). "e original 
“ad campaign was along humorous lines” while 
the extant pressbook and ads “eliminate all humor 
[and] are completely digni!ed” (ibid). "e mismatch 
between !lm and pressbook warrants the question: 
what would the publicity campaign for To Be look 
like had Lombard not died before the !lm’s release? 
Was the initial “humorous” campaign one that 
leaned into the !lm’s incendiary Nazi satire? Would 
the publicity team still err on the side of ino#ensive 
patriotism if they did not have to walk the !ne line of 
“tastefulness” in paying their respects to Lombard? 
Would they still pretend that Jack Benny plays Joseph 
Tura “straight?” Or would To Be be too radical for 
its circumstances even out of the shadow of the war-
attributed death of its star, a !lm whose only hope 
for box o%ce success would reside in the promises 
of an innocuous ad campaign? Even if, as Mildred 
Martin states, what “casts a pall” over the !lm is not 
Lombard’s death but the !lm’s subject matter itself 
(15), Lombard’s martyrdom and the advertisement 
for To Be or Not to Be remain inextricably linked.



!e Martyrdom of Carole Lombard and the Release of To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Aisthesis      Volume 14,  2023

Works Cited

“Airplane Crash Kills Lombard and 21 Others.” 
Motion Picture Herald. 24 January 1942, p. 55.

Barnes, Howard, "On "e Screen: "To Be or Not To 
Be,"—Rivolt Carole Lombard."'New York Herald 
Tribune, 7 March 1942, p. 8.' 

Barry Wood & "e King Sisters. “Bless ‘Em All.” Tell 
Me Pretty Maiden/Bless 'Em All, Victor, 1941.

Bronfen, Elisabeth. “Lubitsch’s War: Comedy as 
Political Ploy in To Be or Not to Be.” Lubitsch 
Can’t Wait: A !eoretical Examination, edited by 
Mladen Dolar et al., Columbia University Press, 
2014, pp. 131–50. 

“Carole Lombard’s Last Film: To Be or Not to Be.” 
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Carruthers, Daphne, “Good-Bye, Carole.” Modern 
Screen, April 1942, pp. 441-2, 489-91.

Cleveland, Les. "Soldiers' Songs: "e Folklore of the 
Powerless." New York Folklore, vol. 11, no. 1, 
1985, pp. 79-97.

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French, William, “Lombard’s Greatest Wish.” 
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Gemünden, Gerd. “Performing Resistance, Resisting 
Performance.” Continental Strangers: German 
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Gemünden, Gerd. “Space out of Joint: Ernst Lubitsch’s 
‘To Be or Not to Be.’” New German Critique, no. 
89, 2003, p. 59. 

“Hays Hails Patriotism: He Says Carole Lombard 
Gave Life in Service of America.” New York 
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Culture during World War II.” Journal of Social 
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Not to Be, 1942.” Sex, Politics, and Comedy: !e 
Transnational Cinema of Ernst Lubitsch, Indiana 
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Rosenberg, Joel. “"e Good, the Bad, and the Fatal: 
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!e Martyrdom of Carole Lombard and the Release of To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Aisthesis      Volume 14,  2023

To Be or Not to Be. Directed by Ernst 
Lubitsch, performances by Carole Lombard 
and Jack Benny, United Artists, 1942.

“UA Scrapping Entire Ad Campaign on ‘To Be’ in 
View of Lombard Tragedy.” Variety, 21 January 
1942, p. 2.

Webb, Brandon. “‘Hitler Must Be Laughed At!’: "e 
PCA, Propaganda and the Perils of Parody 
During Wartime.”' Historical Journal of Film, 
Radio, and Television, vol. 39, no. 4, 2019, pp. 
749–67.

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