Rated: NR

There's good taste, and there's this fabulously funny and original wartime comedy from director Ernst Lubitsch, which transcends taste. Witty and cleverly satirical by turns, this movie avoids giving offence by its magnificent casting, with Jack Benny as "that great, great actor Joseph Tura and the wonderful comedian Carole Lombard, in her final film. There's poignancy, too, and a terrific running joke involving Lombard's admirer, played by the young Robert Stack.

Mel 'the Ego has Landed' Brooks starred in an audacious remake of this story, but the immutable style of this classic original proved impossible to re-create.