Saturday, April 1, 2006
In its essence, Heaven Can Wait is one big wisecrack, sneaking in its dialogue, and cathartically funny, so I guess it was a good choice to watch on April Fool's Day. Take the unexpected premise by itself: Henry Van Cleve (Don Ameche), a recently deceased playboy pleads his case to the devil so he may join ranks in hell. Through a series of flashbacks that tour through his devious life of cheats and lies he calmly explains to the dark overlord that he deserves nothing more than a reserved spot in the underworld.
Damn him for his infant impropriety when as a beasty child he manages to seduce the family's French maid. And a wrong he has done in his later years when he steals away his own cousin's fiance (Gene Tierney). Though, Henry is a society man, spoiled on riches and therefore, as the story goes, has nothing better to do than instigate trouble. There is an obvious theme in this film that patterns throughout other Ernst Lubitsch pictures (see: Trouble in Paradise), that the upper-class is too rigid in their routine to be interesting. Because Henry craftily makes this crowd entertaining he is good, and thus by the devil's measure itself, a far cry from eternal damnation.
Henry goes to heaven because his past is mocking and funny, and full of nuance; risk and audaciousness makes Henry interesting and what colors his stories. Hell isn't for him. No, it's for the ones who are too bland to notice that in their complacency they're already there.
No comments:
Post a Comment