Death Takes a Holiday

As a melodrama it is sustained, to some extent, by a remarkable performance from Fredric March as Death in aristocratic garb, but unfortunately I find its narrative lost between the superfluous conversations and opulent settings. [Full review in Spanish]

This Pre-Code is such a great example of the time aged phrase, “They don’t make romantic dramas like they used to.”

The real visual treats in Death Takes a Holiday, however, come from the art decoration by Hans Dreier and Ernst Fegté.

Fredric March plays Death as if he thought he might possibly be Dracula; and he intones all his words with an awesome, old-Shakespearian-actor solemnity. Evelyn Venable is contrastingly starry-eyed and vernal as his love.