INDIANAPOLIS — Film historian Eric Grayson will screen Carole Lombard’s last film, To Be or Not to Be, co-starring Jack Benny, at 7 p.m. on Sat., March 26, at the Garfield Park Arts Center, 2432 Conservatory Dr. Director Ernst Lubistch, himself a refugee from Germany, scores in this hilarious parody of the Nazis shot just after the U.S. entered World War II. In this 1942 film, Benny is a ham Shakespearean actor and Lombard is his wife. A 1983 remake of the film starred Mel Brooks and his wife Anne Bancroft.
Their troupe is stuck in Poland and is involved in a spy investigation. The actors must use their talents to keep the spy from being caught while they try to stay alive and employed during the war. “Sadly, this is Lombard’s last role,” said Grayson, “as her plane crashed in a severe storm after leaving Indianapolis on a war-bond drive.”
Grayson will introduce the film and handle a Q&A afterwards. He will also, as always, show a short or cartoon before the main feature. Admission is $5; concessions, $1. For more information, visit www.gpacarts.org or call 317-327-7135.