{"id":44051,"date":"2019-07-30T11:38:37","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T18:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=44051"},"modified":"2021-01-19T09:59:05","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T16:59:05","slug":"death-takes-a-holiday-1934","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=44051","title":{"rendered":"Death Takes a Holiday (1934)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;I have been caught in this web of flesh &#8212; caught and tortured!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Death-Takes-a-Holiday-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Death-Takes-a-Holiday-Poster-197x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-44055\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Death-Takes-a-Holiday-Poster-197x300.jpg 197w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Death-Takes-a-Holiday-Poster-84x128.jpg 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Death-Takes-a-Holiday-Poster.jpg 328w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen Death (Fredric March) decides to take a holiday-in-disguise in the home of a duke (Guy Standing), he falls in love with the girlfriend (Evelyn Venable) of the duke&#8217;s son (Kent Taylor), much to the consternation of both Standing and Taylor.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Death and Dying<\/li>\n<li>Fantasy<\/li>\n<li>Fredric March Films<\/li>\n<li>Mistaken and Hidden Identities<\/li>\n<li>Mitchell Leisen Films<\/li>\n<li>Play Adaptation<\/li>\n<li>Star-Crossed Lovers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nThis stagy but atmospherically filmed adaptation of a Broadway play (itself adapted from a 1924 Italian play) was one of Paramount Studios&#8217; top box-office successes &#8212; clearly showing audiences&#8217; interest in the subject matter. Indeed, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/72659\/death-takes-a-holiday#articles-reviews?articleId=90511\">TCM&#8217;s article<\/a>, director Mitchell Leisen recalled, &#8220;We had seven or eight thousand letters come in from people all over the country, saying they no longer feared death. It had been explained to them in such a way that they could understand the beauty of it.&#8221; At the heart of the story is a star-crossed romance between Death and a woman (Venable) who seems strongly in touch with forces beyond earthly nature &#8212; and naturally, there is tension over whether she will choose eternal love or mortal life. It&#8217;s all handled nicely by Leisen, DP Charles Lang, and set designer Hans Dreier, but not must-see viewing for all film fanatics. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fredric March as Death<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Death-Takes-a-Holiday-March.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Death-Takes-a-Holiday-March.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"528\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-44054\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Death-Takes-a-Holiday-March.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Death-Takes-a-Holiday-March-128x94.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Death-Takes-a-Holiday-March-300x220.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Atmospheric sets and cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Death-Takes-a-Holiday-Cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Death-Takes-a-Holiday-Cinematography.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"528\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-44053\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Death-Takes-a-Holiday-Cinematography.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Death-Takes-a-Holiday-Cinematography-128x94.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Death-Takes-a-Holiday-Cinematography-300x220.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though fans of March&#8217;s work may be curious to check it out. Listed as a film with Historical Importance in the back of Peary&#8217;s book. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0025037\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/fantasticmoviemusings.com\/2015\/06\/08\/death-takes-a-holiday-1934\/\">Fantastic Movie Musings Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=2631&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/72659\/death-takes-a-holiday#articles-reviews?articleId=90511\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I have been caught in this web of flesh &#8212; caught and tortured!&#8221; Synopsis: When Death (Fredric March) decides to take a holiday-in-disguise in the home of a duke (Guy Standing), he falls in love with the girlfriend (Evelyn Venable) of the duke&#8217;s son (Kent Taylor), much to the consternation of both Standing and Taylor. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Death and Dying Fantasy Fredric March Films Mistaken and Hidden Identities Mitchell Leisen Films Play Adaptation Star-Crossed Lovers Review: This&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=44051\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44051"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64444,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44051\/revisions\/64444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}