Heaven Can Wait (1943 film)
Encyclopedia
Heaven Can Wait is a 1943 American comedy film produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch
. The screenplay
was by Samson Raphaelson
based on the play Birthday by Leslie Bush-Fekete. The music score was by Alfred Newman
and the cinematography by Edward Cronjager.
The film tells the story of a man who has to prove he belongs in Hell
by telling his life story. It stars Gene Tierney
, Don Ameche
and Charles Coburn
. The supporting cast includes Marjorie Main
, Laird Cregar
, Spring Byington
, Allyn Joslyn
, Eugene Pallette
, Signe Hasso
, Louis Calhern
, Tod Andrews
, and Clara Blandick
.
In late nineteenth century Manhattan
, Henry is the spoiled only child of stuffy, clueless, wealthy parents Randolph (Calhern) and Bertha (Byington). His paternal grandmother (Blandick in an uncredited role) is also doting and naive, although his down-to-earth grandfather Hugo van Cleve (Coburn), a self-made millionaire understands Henry quite well. 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 (Allyn 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 of whom both her parents approved. Fearful of spending the rest of her life as a spinster in Kansas City, 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 thereafter and Martha passes away shortly after their twenty-fifth anniversary. Henry lives to a ripe old age, then dies under the care of a beautiful nurse after portending her coming in a dream. 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".
for Best Cinematography - Color
, Best Director
and Best Picture
.
, is a remake
of an entirely different film, the 1941 Here Comes Mr. Jordan
, which was based on a 1938 stage play originally titled Heaven Can Wait.
Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch was a German-born film director. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch."In 1947 he received an Honorary Academy Award for his...
. The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
was by Samson Raphaelson
Samson Raphaelson
Samson Raphaelson was an American screenwriter and playwright.Born in New York City, Raphaelson worked on nine films with Ernst Lubitsch, including Trouble in Paradise , The Shop Around the Corner , Heaven Can Wait , and That Lady in Ermine...
based on the play Birthday by Leslie Bush-Fekete. The music score was by Alfred Newman
Alfred Newman
Alfred Newman was an American composer, arranger, and conductor of music for films.In a career which spanned over forty years, Newman composed music for over two hundred films. He was one of the most respected film score composers of his time, and is today regarded as one of the greatest...
and the cinematography by Edward Cronjager.
The film tells the story of a man who has to prove he belongs in Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
by telling his life story. It stars Gene Tierney
Gene Tierney
Gene Eliza Tierney was an American film and stage actress. Acclaimed as one of the great beauties of her day, she is best remembered for her performance in the title role of Laura and her Academy Award-nominated performance for Best Actress in Leave Her to Heaven .Other notable roles include...
, Don Ameche
Don Ameche
Don Ameche was an Academy Award winning American actor with a career spanning almost sixty years.-Personal life:...
and Charles Coburn
Charles Coburn
Charles Douville Coburn was an American film and theater actor.-Biography:Coburn was born in Macon, Georgia, the son of Scots-Irish Americans Emma Louise Sprigman and Moses Douville Coburn. Growing up in Savannah, he started out doing odd jobs at the local Savannah Theater, handing out programs,...
. The supporting cast includes Marjorie Main
Marjorie Main
Marjorie Main was an American character actress, mainly at MGM, perhaps best known for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies.-Early life and career:...
, Laird Cregar
Laird Cregar
-Early life and career:Samuel Laird Cregar was the youngest of six sons of Edward Matthews Cregar, a cricketer and member of a team called the Gentlemen of Philadelphia. They toured internationally in the late 1890s and early 1900s...
, Spring Byington
Spring Byington
Spring Byington was an American actress. Her career included a seven-year run on radio and television as the star of December Bride. She was a key MGM contract player appearing in films from the 1930s through the 1960s.-Early life:Byington was born Spring Dell Byington in Colorado Springs,...
, Allyn Joslyn
Allyn Joslyn
Allyn Joslyn was an American stage, film and television actor.-Biography:Allyn Joslyn was born in Milford, Pennsylvania, the son of a mining engineer...
, Eugene Pallette
Eugene Pallette
Eugene William Pallette was an American actor. He appeared in over 240 silent era and sound era motion pictures between 1913 and 1946....
, Signe Hasso
Signe Hasso
Signe Hasso was a Swedish-born American actress, writer and composer.-Background:Signe Eleonora Cecilia Larsson was born in the Kungsholmen parish of Stockholm, Sweden in 1915...
, Louis Calhern
Louis Calhern
Louis Calhern was an American stage and screen actor.- Early life :Louis Calhern was born Carl Henry Vogt on February 19, 1895 in Brooklyn, New York. His family left New York City while he was still a child and moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he grew up...
, Tod Andrews
Tod Andrews
Tod Andrews was an American actor on the stage, screen, and television. Born in New York, he was raised in California. He studied acting and journalism at Washington State College.-Career:...
, and Clara Blandick
Clara Blandick
Clara Blandick was an American actress. Her many film appearances include the role of Auntie Em in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:She was born Clara Dickey, the daughter of Isaac B...
.
Plot
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 Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, Henry is the spoiled only child of stuffy, clueless, wealthy parents Randolph (Calhern) and Bertha (Byington). His paternal grandmother (Blandick in an uncredited role) is also doting and naive, although his down-to-earth grandfather Hugo van Cleve (Coburn), a self-made millionaire understands Henry quite well. 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 (Allyn 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 of whom both her parents approved. Fearful of spending the rest of her life as a spinster in Kansas City, 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 thereafter and Martha passes away shortly after their twenty-fifth anniversary. Henry lives to a ripe old age, then dies under the care of a beautiful nurse after portending her coming in a dream. 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".
Awards
It was nominated for Academy AwardsAcademy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Best Cinematography - Color
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
, Best Director
Academy Award for Directing
The Academy Award for Achievement in Directing , usually known as the Best Director Oscar, is one of the Awards of Merit presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to directors working in the motion picture industry...
and Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
.
Unrelated namesake
A 1978 film, also called Heaven Can WaitHeaven Can Wait (1978 film)
Heaven Can Wait is a 1978 American comedy film directed by Warren Beatty and Buck Henry. It is the second film adaptation of Harry Segall's stageplay of the same name, preceded by Here Comes Mr. Jordan and followed by Down to Earth...
, is a remake
Remake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
of an entirely different film, the 1941 Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Here Comes Mr. Jordan is a comedy film in which a boxer, mistakenly taken to Heaven before his time, is given a second chance back on Earth. It stars Robert Montgomery, Claude Rains and Evelyn Keyes. The movie was adapted by Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller from the play Heaven Can Wait by Harry...
, which was based on a 1938 stage play originally titled Heaven Can Wait.
External links
- Criterion Collection essay by William Paul
- Film-series' opening speech by James Bowman