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Paramount, 1934. Directed by
Mitchell Leisen. Camera: Charles Lang.
With
Fredric March, Evelyn Venable, Guy Standing, Katharine Alexander, Gail
Patrick, Helen Westley, Kent Taylor, Henry Travers. |
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On their way home from a carnival, Duke Lambert
and his family and guests narrowly escape death in an auto accident caused
by a mysterious shadow. At Lambert's Villa Felicitá, Lambert and his
son Corrado, who is in love with Grazia, the daughter of Princess Maria,
urge Grazia to marry Corrado soon. Grazia, however, is reluctant to
marry because she has not yet experienced the kind of happiness for which
she longs.
While alone in the garden, Grazia screams and
faints when she senses a mysterious and malevolent presence, but sees no
one. The garden is searched for an intruder but, when no one is found,
everyone but Lambert retires early. The presence reveals himself as
Death to Lambert and demands that Lambert accept him as a guest while he
takes a three-day holiday in mortal form to discover why men cling to life.
Death insists that Lambert reveal to no one his true identity when he
appears in the form of Prince Sirki, a friend whom Lambert was expecting and
who, unknown to him, recently died.
As Death leaves the house, Corrado shoots from
an upstairs window at what he believes to be the intruder, but to no effect.
The sound of the gunshot awakens the household, and Lambert attempts to
prepare them for the strangeness of their new guest, Prince Sirki, who
arrives shortly thereafter.
The newness of his mortal form delights Death,
and he behaves like a gentleman. Death and Grazia are immediately
smitten with each other; however, she goes home with her mother, and Death
is entertained by Lambert's guests, Stephanie and Rhoda Fenton, who are
hungry for husbands.
In the meantime, accidents occur all over the
world but, to everyone's amazement, no one dies. Gradually, Death
realizes that love is the most important human emotion, but remains free
from its pull, as all the women he encounters sense Death's strangeness and
are frightened of him.
Grazia returns to the villa on the eve of
Death's last night in human form and remains willing and unafraid as Death
makes love to her. Now anguished at having to leave his newfound
humanity behind, Death consents to the pleas of Lambert and the others that
he leave Grazia behind, but Grazia, it transpires, already knows the true
identity of the man she has taken as her lover, and she and Death depart
joyfully together. |
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