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| Add Fredric March's pose to the tagline in the top left of this poster for Mitchell Leisen's Death Takes a Holiday, and you've got a pretty funny example of pre-code movie publicity salaciousness |
QUICK REVIEW:
We are with some very classy people, where a young girl is getting courted by a young man, when Death pays them a visit, in the guise of the mysterious Prince Sirkin.
Death Takes a Holiday is based on Alberto Casella's play La Morte in Vacanza, written by Maxwell Anderson (So Red the Rose (1935)) and Gladys Lehman (The Lady Objects (1938)) and directed by great Michigander filmmaker Mitchell Leisen (Stranded in Paris (1938)).
There's a warm and touching core to the story of love-starved, lonely Death, splendidly played by Fredric March (Inherit the Wind (1960)), who heads a batch of lovely actors' performances. The film is handsomely photographed by Charles Lang (Charade (1963)) and well-written. It is an unusual and beautiful picture.
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Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown (but reportedly a big hit)
[Death Takes a Holiday premiered February 23 (New York) and runs 79 minutes. The film was reportedly a great success and among Paramount's highest-grossing films of the year. Leisen later recounted how 7-8,000 people from all over America subsequent to the film's success send letters to the studio, writing about how the film had cured them of their fear of death. Casella's play has been adapted several times since, most recently as Meet Joe Black (1998) with Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins. Death Takes a Holiday has a 7.2 rating on IMDb, based on 1,162 user ratings.]
What do you think of Death Takes a Holiday?
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