As Henry van Cleve reaches the end of his life in “Heaven Can Wait,” his dream of swimming through a sea of whiskey and soda with a blonde bombshell leaves a smile on your face and yet a tear in your eye as he shares this bittersweet moment with us.
Andrew Sarris wrote that this quality was true of all Ernst Lubitsch’s films, saying, “A poignant sadness infiltrates the director’s gayest moments, and it is this counterpoint. between sadness and gaiety that represents the Lubitsch touch.”
Perhaps this film suggests this most of all, because although Henry (Don Ameche) is telling his life story of love and family, he’s telling it from Satan’s office as he applies to be accepted into Hell. The polite conversation of this opening scene is tinted with a dark ring to it, and when the Devil finally gets the drop on you (and one of the characters), you end up howling with laughter.
This is a hilarious film with a sweet center. It manages not just to convey a touching love story but a wholesome and fulfilling life story. We grow so fully with Henry throughout the course of his testimonial. He says he knows he belongs in Hell because from when he was first born he had women fighting over him. His family paints him as a brat, a spoiled playboy, but he just seems more modern than the rest of his family. The movie has fun with the setting in the late 1880s to until the 1930s, painting Henry’s family and acquaintances as hilariously antiquated, oblivious, hokey and histrionic. Watch them turn Henry’s bout of hiccups into a Victorian Era soap opera.
It’s even been mentioned that Lubitsch at no point in “Heaven Can Wait” has Henry respond to the societal and cultural changes happening around him, but when you have characters like Henry’s cousin Albert (Allyn Josyln), who does seem to be part of society and yet is a right stick in the mud in just about everything he says (he’s the only person who would compare himself to wearing an adequately comfortable suit that’s not too hot in the summer and not too cold in the winter), why would you want to be any part of that?
When Henry meets and subsequently elopes with Martha (Gene Tierney), we only get a few moments of their day to day life but come to realize they know each other and love each other so well. He knows from the outset that the conventions of love are overrated, and convinces her as much when they finally do elope. “When Tristan falls in love with Isolde, they have to sing for 3 1/2 hours! Let’s just go!”
Neither Ameche nor Tierney is particularly funny or jokey in their parts. Rather, Lubitsch is a stylist when it comes to comedy. They’re lively and congenial, and he supplies the tone. They share some wonderfully tender, funny and even sorrow filled moments, the most elegant of which is the long crane shot as they dance during their 25th anniversary. But both performers are terrific. Ameche especially is playing his age, 35 at the time of release in 1943. People like Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart would play leading men years younger than they were and snare beautiful women half their age, but Ameche carries us through his whole life with ease.
I also thought Eugene Pallette’s performance as the meat packing king E.F. Strable was hilarious in his family dynamic with his wife. It took me seeing him as a character actor in five films (“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “The Lady Eve,” “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” and most recently for me, “My Man Godfrey”) to finally recognize who he was.
While so much of “Heaven Can Wait” is pitch-perfectly maudlin, just as much is absurd and gaudy as the entire movie is filmed in bold Technicolor. It’s the right look for the film. Notice how silly Henry looks dolled up as a baby and say the shot would’ve looked better in black and white.
I enjoyed “Heaven Can Wait” immensely, significantly more than some of Lubitsch’s more agreed upon masterpieces “Ninotchka” and “To Be or Not To Be.” I haven’t seen “Trouble in Paradise” yet, so I guess that’s next on my list.