Main Cast: Don Ameche, Gene Tierney, Charles Coburn, Marjorie Main, Laird Cregar
Release Year: 1943
Country: US
Run Time: 112 minutes
Plot
On the day of his death in 1943, the spirit of Henry Van Cleave (Don Ameche) obligingly heads for the place where so many people had previously told him to go. The immaculately dressed septuagenarian arrives at the outer offices of Hades, where he is greeted by His Excellency (Laird Cregar), the most courteous and gentlemanly Satan in screen history. His Excellency doubts that Van Cleave has sinned enough to qualify for entrance into Hades, but Henry insists that he's led the most wicked of lives, and proceeds to tell his story. Each milestone of Henry's life, it seems, has occurred on one of his birthdays. Upon reaching 15, Henry (played as a teenager by Dickie Moore) naively permits himself to get drunk with and be seduced by his family's French maid (Signe Hasso). At 21, Henry elopes with lovely Martha Strabel (Gene Tierney) stealing her away from her stuffy fiance Albert Van Cleve (Allyn Joslyn), Henry's cousin. At 31, Henry nearly loses Martha when, weary of his harmless extracurricular flirtations, she goes home to her boorish parents (Eugene Pallette and Marjorie Main). Henry's grandpa (Charles Coburn) orders the errant husband not to let so wonderful a girl as Martha get away from him. Henry once more declares his love to Martha, and she can't help but be touched by his boyish sincerity. Twenty years later, Henry, now a faithful and proper husband and father, attempts to charm a beautiful musical-comedy entertainer (Helen Walker) so that she'll forsake his young and impressionable son. But Henry's gay-90s romantic approach is out of touch with the Roaring 20s, and he ends up paying the entertainer a tidy sum to rescue his son--a fact that amuses Henry's understanding wife Martha, who now knows that her husband is hers and hers alone. Ten more years pass: Henry dances a last waltz with Martha, whose loving smile hides the fact that she knows she hasn't much longer to live. Five years later, it is "foxy grandpa" Henry who must be kept in check by his conservative son Jack (Michael Ames). Finally, it is 1943: as he quietly drinks in the loveliness of his night nurse (Doris Merrick), the bedridden Henry contentedly breathes his last. His story told, Henry once again asks to be permitted to enter Hades. But His Excellency, realizing that the only "sin" Henry has truly committed is attempting to live life to the fullest, quietly replies "If you'll forgive me, Mr. Van Cleave, we just don't want your kind down here." While he allows that Henry may have some trouble getting past the Pearly Gates, the wait will be worth it, since his loving wife Martha will be waiting for him. His Excellency cordially escorts Henry to the elevator, giving the operator a one-word instruction: "Up." A charming delight from first frame to last, Heaven Can Wait is another winner from director Ernst Lubitsch, and his first in Technicolor. Samson Raphaelson's screenplay was based on Birthdays, a play by Laslo Bus-Fekete. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Heaven Can Wait was Ernst Lubitsch's last great movie. The enduring classic came at the end of two decades of excellent work, which included such Hollywood masterpieces as Trouble in Paradise, Ninotchka, The Shop Around the Corner and To Be or Not to Be. In this era, the "Lubitsch Touch" became a marketable moniker which characterized his impact on the early sound days of Hollywood. Heaven is typical of the "Touch": it's a perfect blend of sophistication, romance, wit and bittersweet sentiment. The benevolent story reveals Don Ameche's life to be as average as any man's, but Lubitsch's genuine tenderness elevates the tale to the majestic. Ameche and Gene Tierney deliver mature, convincing performances, appropriate to the subject matter. Unfortunately, the film has a low-quality look, common to early Technicolor productions; it would be Lubitsch's first and last film shot entirely in color. Heaven was nominated for Oscars for Best Picture, Director, and Cinematography, and was a significant influence on director Frank Capra's beloved It's a Wonderful Life. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
James Basevi - Art Director, Rene Hubert - Art Director, Thomas K. Little - Art Director, Walter Scott - Art Director, Leland Fuller - Art Director, Rene Hubert - Costume Designer, Ernst Lubitsch - Director, Dorothy Spencer - Editor, Alfred Newman - Composer (Music Score), Guy Pearce - Makeup, Edward J. Cronjager - Cinematographer, Ernst Lubitsch - Producer, Thomas K. Little - Set Designer, Walter Scott - Set Designer, Fred Sersen - Special Effects, Eugene Grossman - Sound/Sound Designer, Roger Heman - Sound/Sound Designer, Samson Raphaelson - Screenwriter, Leslie Bush-Fekete - Play Author
An aged Henry van Cleve (Ameche) enters the opulent reception area of Hell, to be personally greeted by "His Excellency" (Cregar). Henry petitions to be admitted (fully aware of the kind of life he had led), but there is some doubt as to his qualifications. To prove his worthiness (or rather unworthiness), he begins to tell the story of his dissolute life.
In late nineteenth century New York, Henry is the spoiled only child of stuffy, upper class parents Randolph (Calhern) and Bertha (Byington). His paternal grandparents are just as doting, though grandfather Hugo van Cleve (Coburn) is a free spirit, the only one in the hidebound family other than Henry. As a result, Henry grows up an idle young man, with a taste for attractive showgirls.
One day, Henry overhears a beautiful woman lying to her mother on a public telephone. Intrigued, he follows her into a bookstore and pretends to be an employee to get to know her better. Despite learning that she is engaged, he begins making advances, finally confessing he doesn't work there, whereupon she hastily departs.
Later, obnoxious cousin Albert (Joslyn) introduces the family to his fiancee, Martha (Tierney), and her feuding parents, the Strabels (Pallette, Main). Henry is shocked to find that his mystery woman and Martha are one and the same. It turns out that Albert was the first suitor both her parents approved of; previously, anyone her father liked, her mother couldn't stand, and vice versa. Fearful of spending the rest of her life as a spinster in Kansas, Martha agreed to marry him. Henry convinces her to elope with him instead. Everyone (except Grandpa van Cleve) is scandalized.
Eventually, they are received back into the family. They have a son, but on the eve of their tenth anniversary, Martha finds out about Henry's dalliance with another woman and goes back to her parents. Henry and Grandpa follow her there. Henry begs her forgiveness and talks her into "eloping" a second time, much to Grandpa's delight.
Their marriage is blissful from then onwards, until Martha passes away shortly after their twenty-fifth anniversary. Henry lives to a ripe old age, then dies (fittingly) while under the care of a gorgeous nurse. After hearing Henry's story, His Excellency denies him entry and suggests he try the "other place", where Martha is waiting for him, hinting that there might be "a small room vacant in the annex".
An unrelated 1978 film, also called Heaven Can Wait, is a remake of an entirely different film, the 1941Here Comes Mr. Jordan which was based on a 1938 stage play originally titled Heaven Can Wait, hence the confusion.
Fräulein Seifenschaum ·Aufs Eis Geführt ·Blindekuh ·Zucker Und Zimmt ·Der Erste Patient ·Der Letzte Anzug ·Der Kraftmeier ·Wo Ist Mein Schatz? ·Schuhpalast Pinkus ·Der Gemischte Frauenchor ·Das Schönste Geschenk ·Der G.m.b.H. Tenor ·Leutnant auf Befehl ·Seine Neue Nase ·Ossis Tagebuch ·Der Blusenkönig ·Wenn Vier Dasselbe Tun ·Das Fidele Gefängnis ·Prinz Sami ·Der Rodelkavalier ·Der Fall Rosentopf ·Ich Möchte Kein Mann Sein ·Das Mädel Vom Ballet ·Meyer Aus Berlin ·Das Schwabenmädel ·Kohlhiesels Töchter ·Romeo Und Julia Im Schnee ·If I Had A Million(segment "The Clerk")
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