Heaven Can Wait (1943)

 

After his death, a lifelong womanizer (Don Ameche) enters Hell where he meets the Devil (Laird Cregar) who asks him to tell his life story. Greatly admired in some quarters, this droll romantic comedy by the great Ernst Lubitsch has its minor charms but for the most part, I found it hard going. Shot in luscious three strip Technicolor (Lubitsch's first color film) by Edward Cronjager (1931's CIMARRON), whose work here received an Oscar nomination, I found the material too thin. Lubitsch's best films were pre-code which allowed him to address sexual impropriety head on. Here, he has to dance around it and the film suffers. It doesn't help that the charmless Don Ameche is in the lead role. Gene Tierney as Ameche's wife makes restitution and brings a grace and melancholy to her part. Of Lubitsch's 1940s work, I much prefer CLUNY BROWN or SHOP AROUND THE CORNER. The supporting cast, however, is perfect: Charles Coburn, Marjorie Main, Eugene Pallette, Louis Calhern, Signe Hasso, Spring Byington, Allyn Joslyn, Florence Bates, Helene Reynolds (who only has one scene but it's a charmer) and in a bit part, Dane Clark. While it shares the same title as the 1978 Warren Beatty film, the two films are unrelated.