Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Dotbankey A lot of fun.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

vincentlynch-moonoi This is a beautiful film. Sentimental, but not maudlin. A lavish production with lush color photography.The story is of a man (Don Ameche) at the (rather tame) gates of Hell, explaining his life to the Devil, who will decide where he belongs. Of course, as lives go, his was not that devilish, but it's an entertaining story of life in a different era.But the real attraction here is the cast, led by the devilishly handsome Don Ameche, and he was just perfect for this role. Suave, sophisticated, and decidedly an actor whose prominence is now somewhat overlooked.The female lead is Gene Tierney, perhaps at her most beautiful, and well cast as Ameche's wife.Charles Coburn is along as the grandfather, and he's a hoot...as usual in those roles where he could be humorous. Marjorie Main and Eugene Palette play Tierney's parents, and are just classic. Spring Byington is along as Ameche's mother. Allyn Joslyn plays a rather obnoxious cousin to Ameche. Louis Calhern plays Ameche's father. The cast is about as perfect for the film as possible.What is there to criticize here? Not much. Perhaps Gene Tierney's hairdo toward the end of the picture. Perhaps the sentimentality level. Or is that simply charming? It's one of the most lovely films of that genre that I've ever seen.

jarrodmcdonald-1 Have you ever noticed while watching your favorite films, that in Hollywood they sort of discretely hide the ages of older characters? When you think about it, many motion pictures have quite a few older performers in the most important roles (usually playing much younger). But Ernst Lubitsch's 1943 masterpiece, Heaven Can Wait, is different. It rewrites the rule book on movie star aging and goes against the norm. There are many performers in this picture that are well above forty. And what's so great is that Lubitsch lets them act their own natural age. Take, for example, Charles Coburn. He happens to play a character quite a bit older than he is in real life! And the movie is much richer for it.

secondtake Heaven Can Wait (1943)Brilliantly rich in color, speeding through decades of a man's life, and tumbling with jokes and situations time and again, this movie has style and sophistication written all over it. On the one hand it's chipper and funny and clever, on the other it's a hair stuff and forced, or what director Ernest Lubitch would call stylized and refined. The entire story is a flashback of a man named Henry sitting in purgatory looking at the underestimated Laird Creger. I think Henry expects to go to hell next, and so there's an impression that we'll see just how bad he's been in life (and you wish he had been more bad, actually). If you have this feeling of tolerance as you laugh and the movie speeds through its opening scenes, hang on! It rises up several notches and truly takes off when the two main leads arrive: Don Ameche who is rather good as the center of the tale and Gene Tierney who is totally wonderful as Martha, the woman of increasing interest. Tierney plays roles that combine reserve and style with a kind of undercurrent of mischief very well. She has to keep a slightly false style to fit the Lubitch sense of a "comedy of manners," but she otherwise is less of a caricature than the rest of the cast, her and Henry.Speaking of caricatures, boy is this movie loaded up. Martha's parents are an extraordinary high volume pair, Marjorie Main and Eugene Palette (they could make an entire movie of their own, which you'll appreciate once the Kansas scene is established--there are some moments with the servants that are masterpieces). Henry's grandfather is the always impressively quirky and complex Charles Coburn, who luckily lives through many scenes.The color (true Technicolor) is a character of its own here--the opening scenes of purgatory are like a color version of Mr. Thatcher's famous library in "Citizen Kane," the bedroom of the newly married Martha is a pink and baby blue wonder. Skin tones glow, flowers (of which there are many in this upper crust world) and drapes (all very fancy) pop off the screen, and most of all, that first blue dress that Martha wears is something to wonder at. The photographer, Edward Cronjager, was a staple of great 1930s films, and he got an Oscar nomination for this 1943 film (and D.W. Griffith said it was the finest footage ever filmed). And speaking of "Citizen Kane," there are several echoes here--the photograph that (almost) comes to life, the telling of man's life including his old age, and there's the long long dining room table between Main and Palette--that may or may not be intentional, but it's there, for sure."All my life I've wanted to run away with a woman," says the grandfather. "And it's happening!" But not like you think. Check out this very funny and beautifully filmed bit of escapism, which came out right in the middle of World War II. A welcome relief even to this day. And you know what's amazing about movies like this ("Dinner at Eight" comes to mind, too) is how really moving they eventually become--regular tear jerkers. But I'm a sucker.

TheLittleSongbird I have loved Gene Tierney since Laura and The Ghost and Mrs Muir, and Ernst Lubitsch is a brilliant director, I am especially fond of The Shop Around the Corner and The Merry Widow. Heaven Can Wait is a wonderful film, and another one of Lubitsch's best. The production values are impeccable, with stunning costumes and beautiful photography and sets and the Technicolour is as radiant now as it was then. Alfred Newman's score is wonderful, and the soundtrack choices are perfectly chosen and incorporated. The script is filled with warmth, charm, wit and honesty, while the story is never dull and Lubitsch's direction superb. Don Ameche is perfectly cast, Gene Tierney looks gorgeous, Laird Cregar is very effective in his satanic role and Charles Coburn is hilarious as the wise-cracking grandfather. So all in all, a classic. 10/10 Bethany Cox