The Other Mel as Hamlet

While looking for a copy of Sam Peckinpah's film, Straw Dogs, at the local library, I noticed a film entitled To Be or Not To Be.  Maurice Hindle had mentioned it in his book, Studying Shakespeare on Film (see 11/9/14 post).  The DVD I found was not Ernst Lubitsch's original, but rather Mel Brooks' 1983 remake.  I figured to give it a try.  (As the librarian commented, "He's great, isn't he?"  She meant Mel Brooks.)

Set in WWII Germany, the film depicts a Polish actor, Frederick Bronski (Brooks), leading a scheme to escape the Nazis who have just overrun Poland.  As we discover, one of Bronski's trademark dramatic performances is a short work entitled "Highlights of Hamlet."  It begins with Act III, Scene 1, as one might suspect from the title of the film. We never get to see much of the performance, though.  Every time Bronski gets into the soliloquy, someone gets up and walks out of the theatre.  There are reasons for this, but to say any more would spoil the plot of the film.

Although this is by no means a full-blown Hamlet, I will still give it a mention in the blog.  Even the other characters realize that the on-stage treatment of Hamlet is painful.  As a Nazi officer describes it, "What he did to Hamlet, we are now doing to Poland."  (Ouch.)  The film is rather humorous, and it has given me incentive to find the original to compare.