Heaven Can Wait

Heaven Can Wait (1943) is Ernst Lubitsch's comedy-fantasy — watch it online on iFILM. Don Ameche plays Henry Van Cleve, a well-heeled New York libertine who dies at seventy and presents himself at the gates of Hell, fully convinced he has earned his place there. The Devil, played by Laird Cregar with perfect deadpan, agrees to hear the case.

What follows is Henry's life, told in flashback as evidence for the prosecution. He courts and steals a neighbour's fiancée, Martha — Gene Tierney, luminous throughout — and then spends the next twenty-five years as a mostly faithful husband who occasionally can't help himself. The film is structured like a courtroom drama staged in the afterlife, and Lubitsch keeps the whole thing wickedly light. No sentimentality is allowed in.

The picture landed three Academy Award nominations — Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography — a striking showing for a pure romantic comedy in wartime Hollywood. It was also Lubitsch's first film shot in Technicolor, and the Fox palette gives it a warmth that suits every scene. Stream Heaven Can Wait (1943) full movie on iFILM.