Death Takes a Holiday

Leisen, who would go on to make Hold Back the Dawn and Lady in the Dark, rarely equalled the splendor of this film.

The film retains a certain power and is ripe for rediscovery. Its theatrical morbidity and poetic earnestness could make it a favorite of moony teenage depressives everywhere, especially as Grazia -- like Romeo and Juliet -- appears to prefer Death to a compromised life. [25 Dec 1998, p.12]

It is the kind of story and picture that beckons the thinker, and for this reason is likely to have greater appeal among the intelligentsia. [27 Feb 1934, p.17]

Mitchell Leisen, the director, hadn't yet developed the light touch with actors he would display memorably later in the decade, though some of his trademark pictorial effects are in evidence.

So unwatchably creaky that it's hard to believe director Mitchell Leisen filmed Murder at the Vanities (with its wildly demented Sweet Marijuana production number) the same year. [04 Dec 1998]