Death Takes a Holiday (1934)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Am I Missing Something?

A Major Disappointment

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Here is a film, which I have never before seen, which has Death, in the form of Frederic March, yearning to discover what it is about life that makes people so fearful and reluctant to let go of it. He interacts with people in an Italian villa to taste what it would be like to be one of the living. He falls smitten with lovely Evelyn Venable (who gives a fine, ethereal performance) and must decide between his own yearnings and the natural selection of things. This production is given a luxurious treatment by Paramount, and it is a beautiful film to look at. Thought provoking and with an ending you won't expect, it is an engrossing and well-made product of the 1930s.

Long before the atrocious "Meet Joe Black" came the classic story of love, romance and death. Suave Fredrick March portrays Prince Sirki, an Aristocrat whose identity Death has chosen so that he might better understand the fear that all people seem to have of him. For three days he stays at the villa of a minor aristocrat, during which time no one in the world dies. Evelyn Venable is the girl filled with melancholy who falls in love with him, and unknown to all the others has seen him for who he really is all along (Venable was a popular actress of her day but is best known as the Columbia Lady with the Torch symbol)A sophisticated play of manners as well as a touching and sensitive love story this one will last through the ages. Sometimes black and white is better.

The story line is nothing like Meet Joe Black. The only thing the two movies have in common is that Death decides to take human form to find out why the living resist Death. The characters are typical of movies of this era - overacted, overly dramatic, too much makeup, almost comical. Death in 1934 forgets that he's trying to keep his identity secret, and he keeps letting slip little comments that reveal who he is. Death in 1998 has no such confusion; he is who he is, and it's for others to figure out why certain things amaze him so, such as peanut butter, tea cookies and the closeness of a woman. I thought the 1998 version was much richer, the premise was much more meaningful - taking human form so that he could learn from a man of good character why a life well lived had such great value. The 1934 Death seemed to just stumble upon this household of shallow elites who loved fast cars and parties. 1934 Death's focus seemed to be on women, and one melancholy woman in particular who welcomed Death into her life. His grand realization was that romantic love was the reason people resisted Death (huh?). The whole premise of the earlier movie just wasn't as deep as the later version. If you like the overly dramatic silliness of early movies, you'll probably enjoy this one. I was disappointed. In the category of early movies, this didn't come close to films like "It Happened One Night."

Despite some stilted dialogue and acting, this is an exquisitely opulent fantasy about the meaning of life which seamlessly mixes elements of comedy, romance and horror and emerges as an unjustly neglected minor classic - so much so that dear old Universal has deemed it fit to only give it a DVD release by proxy, unceremoniously slapping it onto their "Ultimate Edition" DVD of its overblown and unnecessary remake, MEET JOE BLACK (1998). Fredric March is superb in the lead and only confirms his position as one of Hollywood's finest, most versatile and consistent character actors (despite being blessed with matinée idol looks); March himself considers this to be one of his favorite roles. This was only Mitchell Leisen's second film as director, and his production designer past is still much in evidence, but he would go on to make several accomplished films - particularly EASY LIVING (1937), MIDNIGHT (1939), ARISE, MY LOVE (1940) and KITTY (1945) - before his career gradually petered out in the late 40s. A strikingly similar film to DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY which I also would love to watch is Harold S. Bucquet's ON BORROWED TIME (1939) with Sir Cedric Hardwicke playing Death and Lionel Barrymore as his unwilling "client" - but it never seems to get shown on TV in my neck of the woods!