Derek Winnert

Information

This article was written on 04 Mar 2016, and is filled under Reviews.

Current post is tagged

, , , , , ,

Heaven Can Wait ****½ (1943, Gene Tierney, Don Ameche, Charles Coburn, Laird Cregar) – Classic Movie Review 3450

MV5BNmNiMDFlODktNWI5ZC00YjRiLWJhM2QtMTFmN2QwODMyMzc0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTAwMzUyOTc@._V1__SX1155_SY591_

Producer-director Ernst Lubitsch brings his famed stylish and witty touch to this much-admired fantasy comedy tale of a 19th-century Casanova called Henry Van Cleve (Don Ameche), who catches the lovely Martha Strabel Van Cleve (Gene Tierney), but is an old roué with a wandering eye.

MV5BMjIyODgyOTYzN15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNDczNDQzNzE@._V1__SX1155_SY591_

Lubitsch’s elegant and charming 1943 classic starts with Ameche’s Van Cleve asking for membership to Hell, then we hear the story of his life and loves in flashback, and wait to hear whether the devilish His Excellency Satan (Laird Cregar) thinks that he has been wicked enough to be admitted to the Underworld.

MV5BMjMwOTcwODM3MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzczNDQzNzE@._V1__SX1155_SY591_

The performances are first rate, with Ameche at his delightful best, and Tierney is excellent as his fond wife, though she is still inevitably outclassed by such scene-stealers as Charles Coburn as Ameche’s meddling grand-pappy Hugo Van Cleve, and Marjorie Main and Eugene Pallette as Tierney’s Kansas beef tycoon parents, Mrs and Strabel.

MV5BMTg3MTgwNzczNV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwODczNDQzNzE@._V1__SX1155_SY591_

Other assets are the exceedingly handsome production, Edward Cronjager’s Technicolor cinematography and Samson Raphaelson’s hugely entertaining screenplay, based on Laszlo Bus-Fekete’s play Birthdays.

MV5BMTU3NjY2MDAyM15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzExMTkyMQ@@._V1_UY268_CR4,0,182,268_AL_

Also in the fine cast are Spring Byington, Allyn Joslyn, Signe Hasso, Louis Calhern, Aubrey Mather, Clarence Muse, Dickie Moore, Florence Bates and Clara Blandick, most of whom aren’t above doing a bit of scene-stealing themselves.

MV5BMTUzNDc2NTU4Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNjczNDQzNzE@._V1__SX1155_SY591_

Confusingly, Warren Beatty’s 1978 comedy Heaven Can Wait is no relation to the 1943 classic Ernst Lubitsch movie of the same name, but instead a highly amusing and popular remake of Here Comes Mr Jordan (1941).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3450

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/

MV5BOTc0NTg5MjQ5OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjAwODgxMQ@@._V1__SX1155_SY591_

MV5BMjIyODgyOTYzN15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNDczNDQzNzE@._V1__SX1155_SY591_

MV5BMjMwOTcwODM3MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzczNDQzNzE@._V1__SX1155_SY591_

MV5BMjE2MTEyNTg3Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNTczNDQzNzE@._V1__SX1155_SY591_

 

Comments are closed.

Recent articles

Recent comments