Welcome to the fourteenth episode of our ongoing series: Fascism On Film. Each episode of this series, the Holmes Brothers look and review a film that has to do with fascism. During the episodes, the brothers look and see how the aspects and portrayal of fascism shown in the film relate to current and/or past events.
On this Fascism on Film episode, the Holmes Brothers along with author and friend of the podcast Chris Geier discuss To Be Or Not To Be, a black comedy set in Nazi Occupied Poland directed by Ernst Lubitsch. A troupe of actors living in war torn Warsaw get caught up in an espionage plot. Robert Stack who plays Lt. Stanislav Sobinski, a Polish airman, suspects that Professor Alexander Siletsky is a Nazi spy pretending to be a Polish Resistance worker. Upon returning to Warsaw, Sobinski reunites with Maria Tura (Carole Lombard, in what sadly became her final onscreen role) a famous Polish actress that he is smitten with and her husband Joseph who is also an actor. Joseph and his talented group of actors put on a scheme to trick Siletsky and the Nazis. Hopefully it all goes to plan and they get out of Poland. You'll have to watch the film and see.
Chris is a former journalist and an author. His novella Silt is available to purchase and read. It can be found on his publisher's website Alternating Current Press. The plot of Silt is: \"Cincinnati, 1856. German immigrant Werner Bosenbach has a part-time job collecting shady debts and a full-time drinking habit. When he is hired by a wealthy widow to hunt down those responsible for her husband’s death, Werner is drawn deep into a city bursting with corruption, nativism, and long-simmering racial tension. From violent dock workers and crooked marshals, to operators of the underground railroad and the slave hunters they oppose, Werner must navigate the dangers and divisions of his adopted home to find some answers and, with any luck, some lager.\" Fans of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Cormac McCarthy should check it out.
We hope you enjoy this episode and stay tuned for more episodes of this Fascism On Film series.
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Anders's screenwriter work can also be seen at work in the horror, car chase thriller Delivery Run, co-written with & directed by Joey Palmroos. The film has been released digitally and also in select cinemas in the US and the UK. In Finland it was released on Apple TV after finishing its limited cinema run and was the Number 1 film for multiple weeks. You can read a review about it here on the Fangoria website. The film is now available to watch in the other Nordic territories like Sweden, Oslo and of course Denmark. If you live in Denmark, you can watch the movie here on Apple TV by clicking this link.
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