| Death Takes a Holiday | |
| Director: | Mitchell Leisen |
| Producer: | E. Lloyd Sheldon Emanuel Cohen |
| Screenplay: | Maxwell Anderson Gladys Lehman |
| Based On: | Death Takes a Holiday by Walter Ferris La Morte in Vacanza by Alberto Casella |
| Cinematography: | Charles Lang |
| Studio: | Paramount Pictures |
| Distributor: | Paramount Pictures |
| Runtime: | 79 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Death Takes a Holiday is a 1934 American pre-Code romantic drama starring Fredric March, Evelyn Venable and Guy Standing. It is based on the 1924 Italian play La morte in vacanza by Alberto Casella (1891–1957), as adapted in English for Broadway in 1929 by Walter Ferris.
After years of questioning why people fear him, Death takes on human form as Prince Sirki for three days so that he can mingle among mortals and find an answer. He finds a host in Duke Lambert after revealing himself and his intentions to the Duke, and he takes up temporary residence in the Duke's villa. However, Death falls in love with the beautiful young Grazia. As he does so, Duke Lambert, the father of Grazia's mortal lover Corrado, begs him to give Grazia up and leave her among the living.
Death is torn between seeking his own happiness or sacrificing it so that Grazia may live. After listening to the pleas from the Duke and his houseguests, Death finally decides to let Grazia live and returns to his true self, a black shadow. As he prepares to depart, Grazia chooses to go with him, telling him that she knew all along who he really was. Death then proclaims that love is greater than illusion and is as strong as death. He puts his arm around Grazia, and they both disappear in a flash of light.
The theatrical premiere of the film was on February 23, 1934, at the Paramount Theatre in New York City. The home video releases have been:
Time called the film "thoughtful and delicately morbid", while Mordaunt Hall for The New York Times wrote that "it is an impressive picture, each scene of which calls for close attention".
Richard Watts, Jr, for the New York Herald Tribune, described it as "An interesting, frequently striking and occasionally beautiful dramatic fantasy", while the Chicago Daily Tribune said that March was "completely submerged in probably the greatest role he has ever played."[2] Variety called it "the kind of story and picture that beckons the thinker, and for this reason is likely to have greater appeal among the intelligentsia." It praised March's performance as "skillful".[3] John Mosher of The New Yorker wrote that the film was "nicely done", although he suggested it was "a little obnoxious with all its talk of being in love with death."[4]
The New York Times initially listed the film among those that "failed completely" at the box office.[5] Yet one month later the same author in the Times described the movie as a "gratifying success" for Paramount that "gave new life to the stockholders".[6]