My Grading System

A+ = Masterpiece (I hold back on this one.) / A = Great. / A- = Really Good. / B+ = Good. / B = Decent (Serviceable). / B- = Flawed but okay (For those times there's something redeeming about the work). / C+ = Not very good (Skip it). C = Bad. / C- = Awful. / F = Complete Disaster (I hold back on this one too).

Note on Spoilers: I will try to avoid ruining a story by going into too much detail. But if I wish to include some revealing points to my analysis I will try to remember to add a separate spoiler paragraph.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Heaven Can Wait (1943)

Usually with this kind of film you’d have the hero standing before Heaven’s gate trying to convince the Head Angel why he deserves to get inside, but not with this wonderful and clever fantasy from Ernst Lubitsch.  Here our hero, Henry stands before Hell’s entrance trying to get in because he believes he doesn’t deserve Heaven.   Don Ameche stars along with Gene Tierney in a film that covers the life of a man and the woman he loved.   Not surprisingly I really enjoyed this film and thought it was very moving.   I’d actually love to see this film remade because it’s a very promising concept.   Just please, if someone does, don’t make it a cheesy Adam Sandler like comedy.  It’s too good a story to be given a crass and overly slapstick treatment.  Grade: B+

Note:  My film favorite titled Heaven Can Wait (1978) was a remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) not this film.  I was confused when I first saw Here Comes Mr. Jordan because I had assumed this was the original to the Warren Beatty film.   To be honest I’d have called this film Deny Me Heaven or something like that.  Heaven Can Wait doesn’t really work for this film’s plot, if you think about it.
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