Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, with special guest Carl Sweeney, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.
This time, a crossover with The Movie Palace, Ernst Lubitsch’s To Be Or Not To Be.
War rages across Europe. Hitler is on the march. In Poland, a troupe of actors find themselves cast as the most unlikely heroes in a daring mission to prevent vital intelligence from making its way to the Nazi authorities. Saving the day will require courage, guile and the ability to hit their marks.
At time of recording, it was ranked 199th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Show Notes:
- Recorded 1st May 2021.
- Note: Due to the COVID-19 situation, this episode was recorded remotely. We suspect, going forward that a lot of our episodes will be until the crisis resolves.
- A special podcast episode recorded with Carl. He was a very gracious host.
- Listen to The Movie Palace Podcast on We Made This.
- Follow The Movie Palace Podcast on Twitter.
- Join The Movie Palace Podcast on Facebook.
- Subscribe to The Movie Palace Podcast on iTunes.
- Listen to Darren’s appearance on The Movie Palace Podcast, discussing Gilda.
- Follow Carl on Twitter.
- To Be Or Not To Be on the Internet Movie Database.
- The IMDB Top 250 as it appeared at time of recording.
- Vincent Canby at The New York Times reviews Mel Brooks’ To Be Or Not To Be, December 1983.
- Cynthia Littleton at Variety takes a look back at the life and death of Carole Lombard, May 2020.
- Karina Longworth reflects on the lives and loves of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard on You Must Remember This, January 2015.
- Erica Lies at Vulture offers an introduction to the films of Ernst Lubitsch, July 2018.
- Justine Smith at Fandor looks back at how Ernst Lubitsch invented and shaped the modern romantic comedy, February 2018.
- Darren Richman at The Independent celebrates the success and influence of Ernst Lubitsch’s The Shop Around the Corner, February 2018.
- Donald Clarke at The Irish Times discusses the importance of The Shop Around the Corner in defining one of Hollywood’s classic genres, April 2015.
- John Lingan at Slate compares and contrasts The Shop Around the Corner and You’ve Got Mail, March 2011.
- Philipp Stiasny talks to Duetsch Welle about the influence and the importance of Weimar Cinema, October 2018.
- J. Hoberman at The New York Times discusses the importance of Ernst Lubitsch’s collaboration with Mary Pickford on Rosita, May 2018.
- The Museum of Modern Art offers a look at the care and craft in restoring Ernst Lubitsch’s Rosita, May 2018.
- Simon Louvish at The Guardian offers a brief overview of the life and career of Ernst Lubitsch, November 2001.
- Gerd Gemünden places the work of Ernst Lubitsch in the context of Nazism in New German Critique, Spring/Summer 2003.
- Geoffrey O’Brien at Criterion discusses the political and historical context of Ernst Lubitsch’s To Be Or Not To Be, August 2013.
- Douglas W. Churchil at The New York Times reports on Ernst Lubitsch signing on with Fox with the right to choose his own stories, March 1941.
- Robert Matzen at RobertMatzen.com reports on Ernst Lubitsch’s manipulation of the studio in the lead-up to the release of To Be Or Not To Be, November 2014.
- Billy Wilder discusses “the Lubitsch Touch” with the American Film Institute, September 2009.
- Phillip Lopate at The New York Review of Books looks at Ernst Lubitsch’s navigation of the Hollywood system, June 2018.
- Richard Wallace at Off|Screen dissects “the Lubitsch touch”, March 2008.
- A.O. Scott at The New York Times discusses Ernst Lubitsch’s skill for getting inferences past the Production Code, June 2003.
- Joseph McBride talks to Mass Live about Ernst Lubitsch’s legacy as an overlooked director, July 2018.
- David Lehman at The American Scholar takes a look back at To Be Or Not To Be, January 2021.
- K. Austin Collins at Vanity Fair compares JoJo Rabbit to To Be Or Not To Be, September 2019.
- Professor Kristin Thompson at Criterion discusses the art of lighting To Be Or Not To Be, October 2019.
- “The Best of the RAF Pilots”, The Armstrong and Miller Show, December 2017.
- Tom Brook at The BBC looks at the complicated relationship between American studios and the Nazi party, October 2014.
- Ben Urwand at The Hollywood Reporter looks at how Hollywood towed the line with Nazi demands, July 2013.
- Bernard Weinraub at The New York Times discusses how hard it can be to criticism anti-semitism in modern Hollywood, September 1992.
- Barclay Bram at Dazed Digital talks about how China keeps gay representation out of its media, April 2017.
- Ron McKay at The Herald discusses the complicated history and legacy of Lewis B. Mayer and how he worked with the Nazis to censor movies, April 2021.
- Lisa Leibman at Vanity Fair discusses how prestige television became so Jewish, March 2020.
- Hollywood’s Chosen People: The Jewish Experience in American Cinema, 2013.
- Karina Longworth discusses Charlie Chaplin’s activism during the Second World War in You Must Remember This, March 2015.
- Karina Longworth discusses Charlie Chaplin’s postwar trouble in You Must Remember This, March 2016.
- Merle Rubin at The Christian Science Monitor discusses the life and career of Sidney Hook, particularly his conflicts with McCarthyism, April 1987.
- Geoffrey R. Stone at The Chicago Tribune situates McCarthyism as a reaction against the “New Deal”, October 2004.
- Anil Ananthaswamy at Scientific American discusses the popularity of the simulation hypothesis, October 2020.
- Hassan Melehy at Film Criticism discusses the importance of simulation within To Be Or Not To Be, Winter 2001-2002.
- Kenneth Turan at The Los Angeles Times discusses the blurring and shifting of genres within To Be Or Not To Be, April 2001.
- A.O. Scott delves into the thorny questions about using comedy against fascism in The New York Times, October 2019.
- Noah Berlatsky at Foreign Policy discusses how comedic efforts to cut down fascism can often misfire, August 2020.
- Dan Brooks at The New York Times discusses Trump’s immunity to comedic criticism, October 2020.
- Bosley Crowther reviews To Be Or Not To Be in The New York Times, March 1943.
- Tom Beasley at Yahoo! Movies discusses the legacy and impact of Team America: World Police, October 2019.
- Quote Investigator examines the cliché that comedy is “tragedy plus time”, June 2013.
- Gilbert Gottfried talks to Vulture about his infamous “too soon” and 9/11 joke, February 2016.
- Michael Haneke talks to The Hollywood Reporter about his issues with Downfall and Schindler’s List, November 2012.
- John Kelly at The Washington Post looks at the Three Stooges taking on Hitler in You Nazty Spy!, May 2019.
- Dan Callahan at Criterion discusses the use of Jack Benny in To Be Or Not To Be, April 2019.
- Susannah Clapp at The Guardian reports on Sir Ian McKellen playing Hamlet, June 2020.
- Golden Age of Radio compares Jack Benny to Jerry Seinfeld, April 2017.
- Steven Rea at Entertainment Weekly compares Jerry Seinfeld to Jack Benny, March 1991.
- Bosley Crowther reviews The Horn Blows at Midnight for The New York Times, April 1945.
- Richard Brooks at The Times reports on Adolf Hitler’s obsession with capturing Clark Gable, November 2017.
- Roger Ebert looks back on My Man Godfrey for RogerEbert.com, May 2008.
- Dennis Drabelle at The Washington Post looks back on the life and career of Carole Lombard, January 1992.
- Beth Accomando at KPBS looks back on the history of the screwball comedy, April 2020.
- Cari Romm at The Atlantic looks back on the somewhat complicated legacy of Stanley Milgram’s experiments, January 2015.
- Maria Konnikova at The New Yorker discusses the real lesson from the Stanford Prison Experiment, June 2015.
- Norman L. Eisen at The Atlantic discusses The Grand Budapest Hotel as a mournful movie about the Jewish experience, February 2015.
- Rebecca Alter at Vulture discusses how Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood drew from Burt Reynolds’ relationship with his stunt double, August 2019.
- Julie Miller at Vanity Fair discusses the influence of Burt Reynolds and Hal Needham on Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, July 2019.
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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: american cinema, Billy Wilder, carl sweeney, carole lombard, comedy, ernst lubitsch, europe, fascism, film, genre, history, holocaust, imdb, jack benny, jewish, jewishness, Mel Brooks, Movies, Nazism, podcast, Poland, spoof, the movie palace, to be or not to be, tragedy, world war ii |
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