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To Be or Not to Be poster

Movies that feel likeTo Be or Not to Be (1942)

During the Nazi occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.

If you loved To Be or Not to Be, the closest films we have are The General (1926), Mediterraneo (1991) and Duck Soup (1933). All three share To Be or Not to Be's witty and playful feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Palm Beach Story (1942).

🍅 96% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.1 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Ernst Lubitschwittyplayfulbleakromantic
6 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Kino Film Collection

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If To Be or Not to Be hit the spot, these will too

The General poster
The General
1926 · dir. Clyde Bruckman
🍅 92%★ 8.1comedy · war · romancePrime Video

Witty where it counts, playful underneath

During America’s Civil War, Union spies steal engineer Johnny Gray's beloved locomotive, 'The General'—with Johnnie's lady love aboard an attached boxcar—and he single-handedly must do all in his power to both get The General back and to rescue Annabelle.

Mediterraneo poster
Mediterraneo
1991 · dir. Gabriele Salvatores
🍅 80%★ 7.4comedy · romance · war

Both keep coming back to the same thing: world war ii

The difference: Made in the 1990s, in a different era of the craft

Greek Sea, World War II. An Italian ship leaves a handful of soldiers in a little island; their mission is to spot enemy ships and to hold the island in case of attack. The village of the island seems abandoned and there isn't a single enemy in sight, so the soldiers begin to relax a little. Things change when their ship is hit and destroyed by the enemy, and the soldiers find themselves abandoned there.

Duck Soup poster
Duck Soup
1933 · dir. Leo McCarey
🍅 91%★ 7.7comedy · war

Bleak comedy, and it commits to that

The difference: Easier on the romance than To Be or Not to Be

Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale.

Stalag 17 poster
Stalag 17
1953 · dir. Billy Wilder
🍅 91%★ 7.9comedy · drama · war

Common ground: world war ii

The difference: Takes it somewhere less romantic than To Be or Not to Be does

After two American prisoners are killed by guards in the act of escaping from a German POW camp in World War II, barracks black marketeer J.J. Sefton is suspected of being an informer.

Trouble in Paradise poster
Trouble in Paradise
1932 · dir. Ernst Lubitsch
🍅 90%★ 7.9comedy · crime · romance

Ernst Lubitsch working the same nerve twice

The difference: Sits closer to crime than To Be or Not to Be does

Thief Gaston Monescu and pickpocket Lily are partners in crime and love. Working for perfume company executive Mariette Colet, the two crooks decide to combine their criminal talents to rob their employer. Under the alias of Monsieur Laval, Gaston uses his position as Mariette's personal secretary to become closer to her. However, he takes things too far when he actually falls in love with Mariette, and has to choose between her and Lily.

The Shop Around the Corner poster
The Shop Around the Corner
1940 · dir. Ernst Lubitsch
🍅 99%★ 8comedy · drama · romance

Ernst Lubitsch directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realising that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.

Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! poster
★ 7.8comedy · war

War with a pulse of wit, in both cases

During World War II, two French civilians and a downed British Bomber Crew set out from Paris to cross the demarcation line between Nazi-occupied Northern France and the South. From there they will be able to escape to England. First, they must avoid German troops – and the consequences of their own blunders.

Ninotchka poster
Ninotchka
1939 · dir. Ernst Lubitsch
🍅 95%★ 7.8comedy · romance

Both lean on romance more than on romance

A stern Russian woman sent to Paris on official business finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest.

The Palm Beach Story poster
The Palm Beach Story
1942 · dir. Preston Sturges
🍅 94%★ 7.5comedy · romance

Playful comedy in both cases

A New York inventor, Tom Jeffers, needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife, Gerry, decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire, J. D. Hackensacker III.

The Philadelphia Story poster
The Philadelphia Story
1940 · dir. George Cukor
🍅 100%★ 7.8comedy · romance

Romance built on romance, twice over

When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.

Ashes and Diamonds poster
Ashes and Diamonds
1958 · dir. Andrzej Wajda
🍅 96%★ 7.7drama · war · romanceMax

Both are built on the same subject: polish resistance

A young academy soldier, Maciek Chelmicki, is ordered to shoot the secretary of the KW PPR. A coincidence causes him to kill someone else. Meeting face to face with his victim, he gets a shock. He faces the necessity of repeating the assassination. He meets Krystyna, a girl working as a barmaid in the restaurant of the "Monopol" hotel. His affection for her makes him even more aware of the senselessness of killing at the end of the war. Loyalty to the oath he took, and thus the obligation to obey the order, tips the scales.

The Awful Truth poster
The Awful Truth
1937 · dir. Leo McCarey
🍅 94%★ 7.6comedy · romance

War built on wit, twice over

Unfounded suspicions lead a married couple to begin divorce proceedings, whereupon they start undermining each other's attempts to find new romance.

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The best-reviewed films that share To Be or Not to Be’s defining feeling.