Heaven Can Wait poster & wallpaper

Gene Tierney, Don Ameche, Charles Coburn

The last masterwork by Ernst Lubitsch--whose other gems include Trouble in Paradise, Lady Windermere's Fan, Ninotchka, and The Shop Around the Corner--Heaven Can Wait...( read more  read more... )> was nominated for best picture and director Oscars in its day but largely neglected thereafter. Partly it's a matter of no one expecting a 1943 Fox movie featuring Don Ameche, the star of so many bland Technicolor musicals at that studio, to be a comedy of rare loveliness. Also, there's the confusion engendered by the existence of another film with the same title: the 1978 Warren Beatty movie that was the remake of a classic '40s comedy-fantasy--but Here Comes Mr. Jordan, not Heaven Can Wait. It's high time to get our priorities straight.

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, would appear to be a luxury hotel in neoclassical mode, and--this is a Lubitsch movie, after all--His Satanic Excellency (Laird Cregar) is a perfect gentleman and the most gracious of hosts. To establish his credentials for spending eternity there, Henry begins to narrate a life which, though lacking any notable crimes, "has been one continuous misdemeanor."

Centered in a Fifth Avenue mansion left over from 19th-century New York, the film is Lubitsch and writing partner Samson Raphaelson's valentine to "an age that has vanished, when it was possible to live for the charm of living." Spanning more than half a century, it chronicles the high points of Henry's life so delicately that--in a variation on the strategies of Lubitsch-Raphaelson's risque '30s classics--it leaves some of them entirely offscreen, their emotional impact measured by what the characters feel and say about them afterward. We'll leave it to you to find out what they are. Suffice it to say that Ameche and Gene Tierney--as Martha, the love of Henry's life--give performances far subtler than anything else in their Fox contract-player careers, and there are sublime opportunities for those peerless character actors Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, and Marjorie Main. --Richard T. Jameson

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Unrated, 1 hr. 52 min.

Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch

Release Date: August 11, 1943

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DVD Release Date: June 14, 2005

Stats: 144 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (144)

  • her69eyes
    August 18, 2009
    her69eyes
    "Heaven Can Wait", released in 1943, marks acclaimed director Ernst Lubitsch's first foray into color. It's origins come from a stage comedy by Laszlo Bus-Fekete by the name of "Birthdays", which the script by Samson Raphaelson was loosely adapted from. Raphaelson and Lubitsch we...( read more)re frequent collaborators, working together on nine films including "Trouble in Paradise" and "That Lady in Ermine".

    The film begins with an elderly man, Henry Van Cleve (Don Ameche), walking into an extravagant open room to confront whom he refers to as His Excellency. We begin to pick up that His Excellency is, in fact, Satan, and that Van Cleve is applying for admission to Hell after living a life he perceives to be without merit. As Van Cleve spins his biographical tales of love, Satan begins to realize that this is not the life on an evil man, but rather an eccentric who was a generous and loving dreamer.

    We flash back to the early 19th century and follow the journey of a young Van Cleve. Henry was born to an extraordinarily wealthy banking family, with parents, Bertha (Spring Byington) and Randolph (Louis Calhern), who spoiled him to no end. We flash-forward a few years later to Henry as a young romantic, who steals (quite literally) away the wife of his dull cousin Albert (Allyn Joslyn), Martha Strabel (Gene Tierney). Together they have a son, Jack (Tod Andrews), whom Henry also becomes guilty of spoiling.

    The marriage has it's ups and downs throughout the years, with episodes of philandering by Henry, but it is nonetheless a loving one. Martha passes away at the age of 70, but Henry continues to live a long life. His last memory, before he died during his sleep, was being under the care of a beautiful young nurse - a fitting end to a man who loved women as he did. Back in present day, Henry awaits his final sentence, assuming His Excellency will open the gates of Hell. But, alas, that is not the ending in the works for such a frothy, charming, and pleasant story.

    The film has the so-called "Lubitsch touch", as it's so commonly referred, in it's whimsical nature and it's comedic script. Despite the film's charms, however, it's a bit forgettable due to the dull performances of the two leads. What does hold up remarkably, however, is the Oscar-nominated cinematography (it was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Director). "Heaven Can Wait" is a simple 40's melodrama, charming and delicate, but it doesn't create the lasting impression of, say, any of the Douglas Sirk pictures which would come a decade later.
  • rubystevens
    July 20, 2009
    rubystevens
    utterly charming. gene tierney has the cutest overbite in pictures
  • organgrinder136
    October 7, 2008
    organgrinder136
    pretty decent effort about some hoighty toighty types caught up in their pocket money into their late 20's. saying that... it's still an interesting story. a cultured devil though?? whats next? will george lucas direct a good film again? the best part was the lovely swedish signe...( read more) hasso who played the saucy french maid. i'll say no more...
  • kenstachnik
    September 5, 2008
    kenstachnik
    I know this is going to resonate a lot more with me in about 15 years.
  • benjaminguilbert2
    December 9, 2007
    benjaminguilbert2
    What was the great Lubistch thinking of when he shot that one? It is painfully boring and lacks the form of humor that made him famous. Somewhat the director seems old and tired in that one.
  • luvmonkey911
    February 11, 2009
    luvmonkey911
    Have never seen the original
  • ralch
    January 25, 2009
    ralch
    Genial. Magnífico libreto y estupenda dirección. / Genial. Magnificent screenplay and great direction.
  • bookhead92
    November 28, 2008
    bookhead92
    This movie is fun to watch. A man telling a story of his life since he was infant. The narration was fun and the dialogs were witty. The storyline is divine!! I had a blast watching this!
  • jazzmonk
    October 19, 2008
    jazzmonk
    Top flight movie making.
  • hypathio7
    July 3, 2008
    hypathio7
    want to see this because it was nominated for best picture at the oscars

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Heaven Can Wait Trivia

  • Who played the angel in Heaven Can Wait, starring Warren Beatty?  Answer »
  • What 1978 film is this? A Los Angeles Rams quarterback, accidentally taken away from his body by an over-anxious angel before he was supposed to die, comes back to life in the body of a recently-murdered millionaire.  Answer »
  • In the movie Hostage, What is the DVD next to the correct 'Heaven Can Wait'  Answer »
  • The movies, "Here Comes Mr. Jordan", "Heaven Can Wait", are based on the same plot line. There is a third movie also based on that plot line  Answer »
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