Heaven Can Wait

• TOP NOTCH (my top choices)
• HONORABLE MENTION (well worth watching)
• YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONSIDER (I like them but you might not)
• CLASSICS (Great movies up through the 1960s - many don't have any rating)

HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1943) - G - CLASSIC
Gene Tierney, Don Ameche, Charles Coburn    

Summary - Following his demise, the aristocratic Henry Van Cleve (Ameche), having no hope of Paradise, betakes himself "where all his life so many people had told him to go." Hell, or at least its antechamber. To establish his credentials for spending eternity there, Henry begins to narrate, to a very polite Satan, a life which, though lacking any notable crimes, "has been one continuous misdemeanor."

Cautions -Nothing

Commentary - This charming period piece has more depth in its cheerful depiction of death and breezy satire on social mores than might be expected from a film more than 70 years old. Sweet, witty, and tightly structured as a three act play, Heaven Can Wait was nominated for three Academy Awards including best picture and director.

Ameche and Gene Tierney--as Martha, the love of Henry's life--give performances far subtler than anything else in their careers, and there are sublime opportunities (although I would have even enjoyed more) for those peerless character actors Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, and Marjorie Main

Comments

Popular Posts