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Heaven Can Wait (1943)
Cast/Credits/Review (From the Movie Database at TVGuide.com)
Plot Summary:
On the day of his death in 1943, the spirit of Henry Van Cleave (Don
Ameche)
obligingly heads for the place where so many people had previously told him to go. The
immaculately dressed septuagenarian arrives at the outer offices of Hades, where he is
greeted by His Excellency (Laird Cregar), the most courteous and gentlemanly Satan in
screen history. His Excellency doubts that Van Cleave has sinned enough to qualify for
entrance into Hades, but Henry insists that he's led the most wicked of lives, and
proceeds to tell his story. Each milestone of Henry's life, it seems, has occurred on one
of his birthdays. Upon reaching 15, Henry (played as a teenager by Dickie Moore) naively
permits himself to get drunk with and be seduced by his family's French maid
(Signe Hasso). At 21, Henry elopes with lovely Martha Strabel (Gene Tierney) stealing her away
from her stuffy fiance Albert Van Cleve (Allyn Joslyn), Henry's cousin. At 31, Henry
nearly loses Martha when, weary of his harmless extracurricular flirtations, she goes home
to her boorish parents (Eugene Pallette and Marjorie Main). Henry's grandpa (Charles
Coburn) orders the errant husband not to let so wonderful a girl as Martha get away from
him. Henry once more declares his love to Martha, and she can't help but be touched by his
boyish sincerity. Twenty years later, Henry, now a faithful and proper husband and father,
attempts to charm a beautiful musical-comedy entertainer (Helen Walker) so that she'll
forsake his young and impressionable son. But Henry's gay-90s romantic approach is out of
touch with the Roaring 20s, and he ends up paying the entertainer a tidy sum to rescue his
son--a fact that amuses Henry's understanding wife Martha, who now knows that her husband
is hers and hers alone. Ten more years pass: Henry dances a last waltz with Martha, whose
loving smile hides the fact that she knows she hasn't much longer to live. Five years
later, it is "foxy grandpa" Henry who must be kept in check by his conservative
son Jack (Michael Ames). Finally, it is 1943: as he quietly drinks in the loveliness of
his night nurse (Doris Merrick), the bedridden Henry contentedly breathes his last. His
story told, Henry once again asks to be permitted to enter Hades. But His Excellency,
realizing that the only "sin" Henry has truly committed is attempting to live
life to the fullest, quietly replies "If you'll forgive me, Mr. Van Cleave, we just
don't want your kind down here." While he allows that Henry may have some trouble
getting past the Pearly Gates, the wait will be worth it, since his loving wife Martha
will be waiting for him. His Excellency cordially escorts Henry to the elevator, giving
the operator a one-word instruction: "Up." A charming delight from first frame
to last, Heaven Can Wait is another winner from director Ernst Lubitsch, and his first in
Technicolor. Samson Raphaelson's screenplay was based on Birthdays, a play by Laslo
Buz-Fekete. -- Hal Erickson
Plot Summary from The All
Movie Guide.
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