Heaven Can Wait (1943 film)

Lore & Background

The film opens with an aged Henry Van Cleve entering the reception area of Hell, where he petitions to be admitted. To prove his worthiness, he recounts his dissolute life, beginning with his birth in Manhattan on October 25, 1872, as the spoiled only child of wealthy parents. He grows up idle, with a taste for showgirls, and eventually elopes with Martha, his cousin Albert's fiancée, after meeting her in a bookstore. They enjoy a happy marriage and have a son, though a misunderstanding about Henry's dalliances leads Martha to return to her parents' home; Henry and his grandfather follow and reconcile with her.

Reader's Guide

Heaven Can Wait is significant as a representative example of its time, a costume drama that luxuriates in period detail and a character study told with inventive narrative techniques and non-chronological structure. The film received positive critical response, with Bosley Crowther of The New York Times calling it 'a comedy of manners, edged with satire, in the slickest Lubitsch style' and noting it 'afford[s] entertainment quite well.' It holds an 89% approval rating on review aggregator websites based on 18 reviews. The film was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2015 and released on DVD by The Criterion Collection in 2006, followed by a Blu-ray reissue on August 21, 2018.

Did You Know?

• The film has no connection to the 1941 film Here Comes Mr. Jordan or its 1978 remake Heaven Can Wait.
• The film grossed $2.8 million by January 1944, with a final box office figure of $3,963,600.
• The film was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2015.
• The Criterion Collection released the film on DVD in 2006 and on Blu-ray on August 21, 2018.