MovieChat Forums > To Be or Not to Be (1942) Discussion > Has anyone noticed the appointment list?

Has anyone noticed the appointment list?

posted 17 years ago by jcabc3596
12 replies | jump to latest

I have seen scenes from this movie before, but have not watched it until yesterday. I was surprised by what I saw in one scene. Ms. Lombard, Tura, has a meeting with Col. Ehrhart. Just before her entrance the camera scans down an appointment list to her name. The next appoinment on the list is Schindler. I had to back up and double check. Was the director Lubitsh aware of Oscar Schindler in 1941 - 1942 when the movie was written and produced? A coincidence? I don't know.

[–] rexshard93 17 years ago

I am sure Lubitsch knew Oskar Schindler. Let me take an example. Felix Bressart played Greenberg in this film. Greenberg did famous shylock speech in front of Adolf Hitler (Bronski in Disguise). In reality, Felix Bressart was one of Hitler's favorite actors. But Hitler hated Felix Bressart when he found that Felix Bressart was a jew.

Ernst Lubitsch was a close friend of Felix Bressart. And he knew this. So he casted his friend Felix Bressart for the role "Greenberg."

[–] laxlon 17 years ago

Great story. I like Felix Bressart, but I'm curious how we know that Hitler liked him too.

[–] rexshard93 17 years ago

I remember reading about Felix Bressart in a book. I also read that Felix Bressart was one of Hitler's favorite actors. Felix Bressart was in many German films before he came to U.S.

[–] caffeinelake1 12 years ago

Felix Bressart was one of Hitler's favorite actors and Hitler was one of Bressart's favorite actors.

[–] ed_l_grey 10 years ago

Was it Bressart that said "Heil myself!"? As soon as I heard that line at the beginning, I knew I was in for a treat.

[–] beepstein 10 years ago

No. That was Tom Dugan playing Bronski playing Hitler.

[–] bengt_malma 9 years ago

I agree with Steamboy. I do not believe the name Schindler was there by accident but referring to "the" Schindler, but that he was then only known as a profiteer who used concentration camp prisoners in his factories.

[–] Steamboy 16 years ago

I think Schindler is a pretty common name so it might just be a coincidence. According to Wikipedia, Oskar Schindler had a factory in Kraków and was "a well-respected guest at Nazi SS elite parties". That might have been known by the writer and that's why he appears in the appointment list. But the fact he was helping Jews was surely unknown to the filmmakers and wouldn't be known until after the war, otherwise the Nazis would have arrested him.

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[–] stephen-morton 15 years ago

Yeah, I completely agree with Steamboy. This note was almost certainly not referring to the real Oskar Schindler. Even if it was, it was just because he was known as a prominent Nazi supporter/war profiteer at the time. But the fact is that he was not really all that rich, all that influential, or all that famous. He was probably completely unknown and unimportant in the US--who would really care about individual businessman who make money working with the Nazis (unless of course their name was something superfamous like Rockefeller)? It was just a common Germanic name.

[–] TheManInOil 14 years ago

It's just a name. There's more than one Schindler in the world.

"I'll book you. I'll book you on something. I'll find something in the book to book you on."

[–] Bellgrove 12 years ago

Do you have a list?

[–] dayvit78 8 years ago

I'm going to vote for just a regular Schindler, since most of the other names seem like random German names. If anyone can find historical reference to others then there's some likelihood they were chosen rather than being random. The morning schedule is:

Correspondence
Hase
Col. Walter
K. Weisse
Albert Schmidt
*Maria Tura*
Schindler
Staff Meeting
Capt. Sturmer
Lowe
Kaltbeck
Romer (??)