To Be or Not to Be
A daring Warsaw theater troupe uses its mastery of disguise and performance to outwit Nazi occupiers, turning the stage into a battlefield of subterfuge where every act could mean life or death.
“The Picture Everyone Wants to See”
Synopsis
During the Nazi occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to resist the occupation.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
A crew of 59+ credited
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Dorothy SpencerShot by Rudolph MateScored by Werner R HeymannDesigned by Vincent Korda
Box Office
1942 · Box office
⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 1.3× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$1.5M
Also known as
- Sein oder Nichtseinde
- Ser o no seres
- Jeux dangereuxfr
- Vogliamo vivere!it
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Cast & Crew
59 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Carole Lombard
as Maria Tura
Jack Benny
as Joseph Tura
Robert Stack
as Lieutenant Stanislav Sobinski
Felix Bressart
as Greenberg
Lionel Atwill
as Rawitch
Stanley Ridges
as Professor Siletsky
Sig Ruman
as Colonel Ehrhardt
Tom Dugan
as Bronski
Charles Halton
as Producer Jan Dobosz
George Lynn
as Actor-Adjutant
Henry Victor
as Capt. Schultz
Maude Eburne
as Anna
Supporting cast
39Halliwell Hobbes
as Gen. Armstrong
Miles Mander
as Major Cunningham
Rudolph Anders
as Gestapo Sergeant at Desk at Top of Hotel Stairs (uncredited)
Paul Barrett
as Polish RAF Pilot (uncredited)
Sven Hugo Borg
as German Soldier (uncredited)
Danny Borzage
as Member of Audience at Performance of Hamlet (uncredited)
Buster Brodie
as Townsman (uncredited)
Peter Caldwell
as Wilhelm Kunze (uncredited)
Alec Craig
as Scottish Farmer Without Mustache (uncredited)
Helmut Dantine
as Co-Pilot (uncredited)
Jack Deery
as Member of Audience at Performance of Hamlet (uncredited)
Leslie Denison
as Captain (uncredited)
James Finlayson
as Scottish Farmer with Mustache (uncredited)
James Gillette
as Polish RAF Pilot (uncredited)
Stuart Hall
as Member of Audience at Performance of Hamlet (uncredited)
Leyland Hodgson
as Second Reporter (uncredited)
Shep Houghton
as German Soldier (uncredited)
Olaf Hytten
as Polonius in Warsaw (uncredited)
Charles Irwin
as Reporter (uncredited)
Tiny Jones
as Townswoman (uncredited)
John Kellogg
as Polish RAF Flyer (uncredited)
Adolf E Licho
as Prompter (uncredited)
Wilbur Mack
as Member of Audience at Performance of Hamlet (uncredited)
John Meredith
as English Wireless Operator (uncredited)
Maurice Murphy
as Polish RAF Pilot (uncredited)
Richard Neill
as Warsaw Bystander (uncredited)
Russ Powell
as Warsaw Bystander (uncredited)
Frank Reicher
as Polish Official (uncredited)
Otto Reichow
as Co-Pilot (uncredited)
Gene Rizzi
as Polish RAF Pilot (uncredited)
John Roy
as Member of Audience at Performance of Hamlet (uncredited)
Hans Schumm
as Special Investigations Squad (uncredited)
Stephen Soldi
as Warsaw Bystander (uncredited)
Count Stefenelli
as Member of Audience at Performance of Hamlet (uncredited)
Roland Varno
as Pilot (uncredited)
Erno Verebes
as Stage Manager (uncredited)
Dorothy Vernon
as Member of Audience at Performance of Hamlet (uncredited)
Armand Curly Wright
as Makeup Man (uncredited)
Wolfgang Zilzer
as Man in Bookstore (uncredited)
Directors
1Writers
2Producers
1Other crew
5Parents Guide
AI Personalities
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