Get the MovieNight app
Add it to your home screen — faster & full screen
Get the MovieNight app
Add it to your home screen — faster & full screen
Not part of a collection.
The Picture Everyone Wants to See
During the Nazi occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.
CinemaSerf
Jan 11, 2026 · via TMDB
So, a Polish acting company are busy putting on “Hamlet” whilst the Nazis are preparing something altogether more menacing across the border. “Joseph” (Jack Benny) and wife “Maria” (Carole Lombard) are the stars of the show, and she has no shortage of admirers including an air force officer “Sobieski” (Robert Stack) who bravely decamps to the UK following the invasion to join the RAF. Rather foolishly, as it turns out, the enthusiastic young “Sobieski” confides some highly confidential information about the resistance to fellow citizen “Prof. Siletski” (Stanley Ridges) who is about to return home to Poland. No sooner has he left than they discover he is really a Gestapo spy and is now equipped with a list of those resistance fighters working in Warsaw. The only way they can think of to retrieve the list (and it’s duplicate) is for him to return and for the troupe to capture the unsuspecting traitor by pretending to be just about everyone from his handler to the Austrian corporal himself. Can they obtain the document and get themselves back to Blighty or are they all going to end up against a wall? This is an entertainingly paced drama, laced with comedy and even a little from the bard himself as Benny plays multiple roles and Lombard has a go at stabilising the plot as the glamorous counter-spy. Along the way this pokes fun at the eccentricities of the espionage industry, suggests an amiable degree of stupid pomposity amongst the conquerors - especially Sig Ruman’s goose-stepping “Col. Ehrhardt” and you have to keep your wits about you else you might lose track of just who’s beard is real or stick-on. I can imagine this sailed quite close to the wind in 1942, but for me it’s the kind of black humour that ridicules successfully their nemesis whilst simultaneously and comedically exposing their brutal excesses. Ernst Lubitsch, like the theatrical characters themselves, offers us a frequently quite wittily written and engaging ensemble effort that both Benny and Lombard hold together well, it has some precision timing and it’s well worth a gander.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
Amazon Video
Apple TV Store
Google Play Movies
YouTube
Fandango At Home
HBO Max Amazon Channel
YouTube TV
Criterion Channel
HBO Max
Amazon Video
Apple TV Store
Google Play Movies
YouTube
Fandango At Home
Carole Lombard
Maria Tura
Jack Benny
Joseph Tura
Robert Stack
Lieut. Stanislav Sobinski
Felix Bressart
Greenberg
Lionel Atwill
Rawitch
Stanley Ridges
Professor Alexander Siletsky
Sig Ruman
Col. Ehrhardt
Tom Dugan
Bronski
Charles Halton
Producer Dobosh
George Lynn
Actor-Adjutant
Henry Victor
Capt. Schultz
Maude Eburne
Anna
Halliwell Hobbes
Gen. Armstrong
Miles Mander
Major Cunningham
Rudolph Anders
Gestapo Sergeant at Desk at Top of Hotel Stairs (uncredited)
Sven Hugo Borg
German Soldier (uncredited)
Buster Brodie
Townsman (uncredited)
Alec Craig
Scottish Farmer Without Mustache (uncredited)
Helmut Dantine
Co-Pilot (uncredited)
James Finlayson
Scottish Farmer with Mustache (uncredited)
Leyland Hodgson
Second Reporter (uncredited)
Shep Houghton
German Soldier (uncredited)
Olaf Hytten
Polonius in Warsaw (uncredited)
John Kellogg
Polish RAF Flyer (uncredited)
Adolf E. Licho
Prompter (uncredited)
Wilbur Mack
Member of Audience at Performance of Hamlet (uncredited)
Maurice Murphy
Polish RAF Pilot (uncredited)
Richard Neill
Warsaw Bystander (uncredited)
Russ Powell
Warsaw Bystander (uncredited)
Frank Reicher
Polish Official (uncredited)
Otto Reichow
Co-Pilot (uncredited)
Gene Rizzi
Polish RAF Pilot (uncredited)
Hans Schumm
Special Investigations Squad (uncredited)
Stephen Soldi
Warsaw Bystander (uncredited)
Roland Varno
Pilot (uncredited)
Ernö Verebes
Stage Manager (uncredited)
Dorothy Vernon
Member of Audience at Performance of Hamlet (uncredited)
Wolfgang Zilzer
Man in Bookstore (uncredited)
Rudolph Maté
Director of Photography
Irene
Costume Design
Alexander Korda
Presenter
Ernst Lubitsch
Director
Dorothy Spencer
Editor
Ernst Lubitsch
Producer
Edwin Justus Mayer
Screenplay
Tableau d'honneur
Ensemble
A Wedding Day
The Unknown Past
Vindicta
Renewing Mikael
OK/NOTOK
Salò: The Republic of Silence
Killer Bellboy
Schindler's List
Pulp Fiction
Forrest Gump
Life Is Beautiful
A Brighter Summer Day
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Children of Paradise
Japan's War in Colour
I Wish I Were a Pigeon
Thundering Tenors
One Hundred and One
Banat bahari
House-Rent Party
Mimic
Before Sunrise
La Jetée
Young Frankenstein
Sanjuro
The Battle of Algiers
A Trip to the Moon
Downfall
A Beautiful Mind
On the Waterfront
Ratatouille
Fail Safe
It Happened One Night
Before Sunset
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
Tampopo
Take Me to Tarzana
The Blues Brothers
The Bridges of Madison County
The Princess Bride
Manhattan
The Young Girls of Rochefort
Underground
Stalag 17
Harvey
Make Mine a Million
Brazil
Memoirs of a Geisha
Atonement
All About My Mother
Billy Elliot
The Dirty Dozen
Orpheus
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Irena's Vow
Ed Wood
Beauty and the Beast
The Neutron Bomb
The Thin Red Line
Mon Oncle
The Time Machine
His Girl Friday
Last Year at Marienbad
Spellbound
The Elementary School
Braindead
Clerks
Give Us Wings
Bem-Vinda a Quixeramobim
Heathers
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Pierrot le Fou
Duck Soup
Top Hat
The Lady Eve
Just a Question of Love
Torch Song Trilogy
Notting Hill
Europa Europa
A Fish Called Wanda
Short Cuts
West Side Story
Nashville
The Awful Truth
The Grim Adventures of the Kids Next Door
The Enemy Below
Out of Africa
Paddington
Murder at the Gallop
The English Patient
Love Actually
Murder Most Foul
The Soft Skin
Law of Desire
Top Secret!
Another Thin Man
Soldier of Orange
Murder Ahoy
The Tin Drum
Monsieur Batignole
Shadow of the Thin Man
The Enemy General
Das Tal der sieben Monde
Rubber Duckie
Thorns and Orange Blossoms
V hodine dvanástej
Revolutionary Road
Just Like Heaven
M*A*S*H
Pearl Harbor
Death at a Funeral
Nobody 2
Dark Blue World
Paradise Now
Earth
The Tóth Family
Er kann's nicht lassen
The Great Muppet Caper
Why We Fight: The Battle of Russia
Value for Money
Moonstruck
The Assault
Vanilla Sky
Closer
La Cage aux Folles
All the Way Boys
Aimée & Jaguar
The Hairdresser's Husband
Fire
Jack & Sarah
The Black Parachute
Jakob the Liar
The Nasty Girl
The Bridge at Remagen
A Wife Confesses
Second to None
Days of Glory
Infinity
Good Neighbor Sam
The Final Countdown
Peter's Friends
The Bloody Battle of Taierzhuang
Hitch
Young and Innocent
Air Force
Tears of the Black Tiger
The Cardinal
Whale Music
The Greatest Hits
The Whole Nine Yards
What Women Want
Bride of Re-Animator
Mars Attacks!
Dil Ka Kya Kasoor
Bend It Like Beckham
Tell Me Softly
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Victors
Visitor Q
The Shaggy Dog
Up Periscope
Nobody Loves Me
Jamon Jamon
Guitar Men: The Darkest Secret of Rock 'n Roll
Eat the Rich
The Little Thief
The Trip
Force 10 from Navarone
Rita, Sue and Bob Too
Undercurrent
Everybody's Talking About Jamie
Get Duked!
The Rules of Attraction
The Perfect Man
Secret Agent
French Twist
South Pacific
13 Rue Madeleine
La Cage aux Folles II
The Other Side of the Bed
Kissing Jessica Stein
Riders in the Sky
Love Is All You Need
Quinto dos Infernos
IRMA
Intolerable Cruelty
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
Shake It All About
The Battle of the Damned
B. Monkey
It Happened at the World's Fair
Noise
Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead
Over the Moon
Anything's Possible
Sugar Orange
Cloud 9
Eating Out
Chef's Special
Vassalord.
Happy Endings
The Tender Hook
9 Songs
Angel
Forces of Nature
Leningrad
Bomb Scared
The Sport Parade
Rhapsody
Bromance
About Adam
Mes amis, mes amours
La Cage aux folles
Why Does God Hate Me?
Lesbian Vampire Killers
The Boat on the Grass
Transit
Something in Between
Waiting in the Wings: The Musical
Making of a Male Model
Noventa minutos
Unlearning to Sleep
The Blue Rose
Pride and Prejudice
Heavy Weight
My Mom's a Werewolf
Naked in New York
3 Playboy Galau
The Diary of Heong Yeong-dang
3 Wicked Witches
Through a Boy's Eyes
Intimate Parts
Great Great Great
The Last Drop
Dangerous Paradise
Enchanted
The Spy with a Cold Nose
Spooners
Hook Up
Swimming Pool
Best Friends Forever
Iron Cross: The Road to Normandy
The Big Gay Hangover
Reunion
Digging The Great Escape
A Company of Heroes
The Contract
The Consequence
I didn't... I wasn't... I amn't...
Apóstata
Me, My Wife and My Lover
Love Bite
X-Gen
Chowchilla
Salt City
Tease
New Not Normal Trilogy Supercut
Only a Dart
Slugger
My Name Is Max
21 Days
The Dilemmas of a Burning Train, by the Baker
The Way of Generations
P*ssy Wagon
Ghosted
First Date.
Jamaal
End of History
أصل وصورة
Couscous
A Brooklyn Love Story
Wraith
Mime
The End of the World
Examination Assassination
The Onager
Untitled "Grim Reaper Film"
De Bäcker a säi Radio
The Secret Battlefield
Party Crasher
The Great Dictator
The General
Trouble in Paradise
Duck Soup
Operation Petticoat
White Christmas
5 to 7
Block-Heads
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Shoulder Arms
How to Marry a Millionaire
To Be or Not to Be
The Wrong Paris
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Little Italy
Sex and the Single Girl
Oh! What a Lovely War
D.E.B.S.
The Grass Is Greener
Carry On Sergeant
I Love You to Death
A Good Woman
I ♥ Huckabees
The Woman in Red
Love Is in the Air
Yoh! Bestie
The Lonely Guy
This Means War
Keeping the Faith
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
What's Love Got to Do with It?
Cousins
She's Funny That Way
What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?
The Right Kind of Wrong
Saving Silverman
Feb 19, 1942
Los Angeles, California
Mar 6, 1942
© 2025-2026 MovieNight. All rights reserved.
Versus
Sign in to play →
Bicara Cinta
2020
The Pied Pipers of Harlow
1965
Sign in to vote
Battle your watched movies head-to-head
Community Top Movies
Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
The Dark Knight
2008 · 14 wins
Halloween
1978 · 13 wins
Final Destination
2000 · 12 wins
Halloween II
1981 · 11 wins
Trivia
Leaderboard →Playing as a guest — sign in to save your score and rank on the leaderboard.
Movie Trivia
Guess the movie from a clue — tagline, plot, cast and more. Pick from four posters.
What movie experience do you prefer?
What is your favorite movie genre?
Versus
Sign in to play →
Bicara Cinta
2020
The Pied Pipers of Harlow
1965
Sign in to vote
Battle your watched movies head-to-head
Community Top Movies
Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
The Dark Knight
2008 · 14 wins
Halloween
1978 · 13 wins
Final Destination
2000 · 12 wins
Halloween II
1981 · 11 wins
Trivia
Leaderboard →Playing as a guest — sign in to save your score and rank on the leaderboard.
Movie Trivia
Guess the movie from a clue — tagline, plot, cast and more. Pick from four posters.
What movie experience do you prefer?
What is your favorite movie genre?
We use essential cookies to run MovieNight, plus analytics (Google Analytics) and advertising (Google AdSense) cookies. By continuing to browse, you agree to this — or click No and we won't. See our Terms & Privacy Policy to learn more.