Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

mark.waltz Forget about the green mist of "The Ten Commandments" skipping doors with blood painted on them, or the cloaked skeleton pointing his dinner at a bunch of people who ate the Salmon Moose in "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life", or even the comical figure on "Family Guy". This view of the angel of death is profound, almost romantic, with sincerity and integrity. "Has it ever occurred to you that death may be more simpler than life?", Death (Fredric March) asks. I certainly hope so!Appearing to Sir Guy Standing as an unfaced dark mist, he tells him (in March's voice) that he will be soon ing them in the guise of the Russian nobleman scheduled to visit them that "won't be there himself". All but Standing believe him to be this member of the Russian aristocracy, and as his dark presence creates discord, life is saved for aging flowers, accident victims (seen in presumed newsreel footage) and the aging certain to die as soon as he returns to his duties. Death searches for love during his brief visit with life, finding only fear in the souls of two of the beautiful women (Gail Patrick and Katherine Alexander) in attendance. Only one, the sweet Evelyn Venable, whose purity touches him, does not fear him, and this creates fear in the family as well as their visitors as they comprehend the truth.Almost operatic in its tragedy, this actually did become a critically acclaimed Off-Broadway musical drama. The film version of the stage play is solemn, yet not depressing or morbid. It certainly constitutes discussion, and "Death", itself, makes observations about the selfishness of the living in not accepting the act of death as part of life, and not letting the dead rest in peace.Venable's demeanor of the gentile noblewoman is almost saintly, as she seems to welcome Death's presence in her life without even an ounce of fear while her parents (Katherine Howard and Henry Travers) obviously have the earthly view of "She's too young to be taken" and "What will we do without her?". The beloved Helen Westley is sweetly noble as Standing's wife, while her matriarchal character in the musical became a maturing beauty played by the striking Rebecca Luker. While the title indicates that this could be either a comedy or a horror movie, it is in fact, a love story of two worlds forbidden from meeting, let alone falling in love. Of course, the cinematography is at times almost like the early sound horror movies, and it is indeed haunting. Director Mitchell Leisen prevents it from ever becoming sappy or mellow, and at the end, you might feel that the two forbidden lovers are triumphant.

Tobias_R This fascinating curio from the 1930s is based on an Italian stage play that posited the simple question: Would Death be intrigued by why we mortals cling so stubbornly to life in spite of our self-evident self-destructive urges. Death, in this movie, is at a disadvantage in this since he is immortal and can never death itself. It posits a question that has been posed as earlier as the ancient Greek playwrights such Euripides: Are the gods inferior to mortals because the former have no knowledge nor capacity for understanding the deep suffering the latter are capable of because mortals are always aware on some level that they will ultimately die? This story, Death Takes a Holiday, is reminiscent of aspects of Christian theology that posited Jesus, as the Son of God, was part of the divine Godhead and thus by allowing Jesus the Crucifixion, God could come to understand the suffering of which His creation was capable. By that understanding, Jesus could redeem the sins of mankind as God, through Jesus, gained an understanding of what it meant to be human. Even though this perspective isn't strictly orthodox, it was best illustrated in another movie, The Green Pastures, which was made in 1936.As to the film itself, the presentation has definitely dated aspects. What keeps the film in the category of a flawed classic rather than a dated curio is Frederick March's wonderful performance as Death who comes as Prince Sirki to a weekend gathering of Italian aristocrats at the villa of one of those aristocrats. March captures ideally the worldliness of an ageless figure, such as death, who has seen everything and his endearing naiveté as Death realizes he's actually experienced nothing of what he sees. It's when he falls in love with the beautiful Grazia that he begins to understand the suffering of which humans are capable. Indeed when Grazia wishes to go with Sirki/Death, Death feels the anguish that a person feels who must part from one he loves. It is when she declares that she knew who he really was all along and isn't afraid to follow him to his realm that Death grasps the power of love in the face of death. March conveys all of this beautifully and even makes his final rather overwrought speech memorable and moving.Unfortunately, from those thespian heights, the other aspects of the film are a rather mixed bag. The young actress who plays Grazia is given overdone dialog that irresistibly reminds me of the lines of the "serious" play that Katherine Hepburn's character in the movie, Backstage, is auditioning for. That's the play with the classic line, much parodied, "Father, the calla lillies are in bloom again..." Grazia's lines approach the laughable. Also, for a group of Italian aristocrats, the guests at the house sport frank American or English accents while the few working class Italians that appear are pure stage Italians out of the Chico Marx mold.But despite these limitations which led me to subtract three stars out of ten, it's a film well worth seeing.

theowinthrop There is a subject that might be brought into the sphere of a masters degree thesis: how the destruction and death of World War I created a wave of theatrical and cinematic creativity dealing with life after death, and that death is not an ending but a beginning. This trend mirrored the rise of spiritualism (as pushed and advocated by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Oliver Lodge, and others) as a way of healing the real emotional losses felt by millions of people around the world after 1914 - 1918. It produced some works of stage and screen such as the anti-war FIFTY MILLION GHOSTS (attacking armaments king Basil Zaharoff - young Orson Welles appeared on stage in it), the play and film OUTWARD BOUND by Sutton Vane, and (probably best of all) Albert Casella's classic DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY. It's still produced occasionally, and even made it to a television version (in 1971) and a recent remake (MEET JOE BLACK).Supposedly, as the "Lusitania" was going to the bottom of the Irish Sea, producer Charles Frohman said to his friends standing with him on deck, "Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life?" or words to that effect. Frohman (who did drown in the disaster) was quoting the words of his close friend and business associate James Barrie from PETER PAN. In a sense, Casella's story follows this particular point of view. Death (Fredric March) has come to the palazzo of Duke Lambert (Sir Guy Standing) and is intent on taking his daughter Grazia (Evelyn Venable), but instead makes a deal. He has heard a great deal about the human emotion of love, and has never experienced it. Instead, the only experience with human beings he has had was fear. So, he will not take any of Lambert's guests, family, or friends on this visit, if Lambert will allow him to stay as "Prince Sirki", a recently deceased nobleman whose form is available. Lambert agrees.The film actually (like the play) is quite probing, into the nature of death, love, and life itself. We see the various people who are in the palazzo, some of whom have lives of pleasure or adventure, and March constantly finds small flaws in these things that the humans overlook. When he meets one who races at high speed, he asks (straightforwardly, but with a heavy ironic undertone), "Why haven't we met before?" Henry Travers in a ing role is a lover of fine food and drink - and obviously he too may soon meet March again under different circumstances.But it is Venable who is the key to March's humanization. She is not impressed by the wonders of life and the world her friends push. She seeks something more meaningful. A beautiful woman, she is pursued in the film (by Carrado - Kent Taylor), but finds his heavy sensual love not what she wants. It is only with March, also seeking an answer, that she finds the match to herself.March too is pursued, by the social climbing Gail Patrick and Helen Westley, and both are quickly shown the valuelessness of "titles" and status. March willingly shows them (briefly) his real self, and they flee him in terror. Both March and Veneble are incomplete: he by the seeming void in his eternal duty of ending life and being feared for it, she by her realizing what the book of ECCLESIASTES said two thousand years ago that is still true: "Vanity of Vanities...all is vanity!". The one exception is true love, and both find that in each other that goal is met. So at the end Grazia willingly goes with Sirki, because there is no fear for both when together - for together they can face the universe and eternity.

MARIO GAUCI 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!