Thankfully, nothing to do with the awful 80's movie with the same name, starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie. This is one of the finest comedies, criminally overlooked. A young Don Ameche and the beautiful Gene Tierney are both fabulous in the lead roles, in fact, they're one of the finest screen couples in film history. In an overall good cast, Charles Coburn and Eugene Palette, both great (comedy-)actors of their time (sadly, overlooked too), stand out particularly. Like many other Lubitsch-comedies, the clever plot and witty dialogue, are well ahead of its time. Trivia: The screenplay was based on the play 'Birthday' by Leslie Bush- Fekete.

An old roué arrives in Hades to review his life with Satan, who will rule on his eligibility to enter the Underworld.This film had my attention from the very beginning. Starting out in the underworld, and the devil himself has to decide whether or not to take a man? Great concept, with plenty of potential humor. The film ends up being much less about humor and more about romance, but this does not take away from the initial concept.A 1978 film, also called "Heaven Can Wait", is a remake of an entirely different film, the 1941 "Here Comes Mr. Jordan", which was based on a 1938 stage play originally titled "Heaven Can Wait". I am glad to know this now, because I had assumed it was a remake... now I will be less inclined to pick up a copy.

In the old days, they produced a lot of movies that made light of a man's infidelity, such as "The Women" (1939), "The Philadelphia Story" (1940), and, of course, "Heaven Can Wait." Perhaps it was because a divorce was harder to get in those days, or maybe it was that women had a much harder time supporting themselves when they did get a divorce. But the moral of such stories seems to be that women should forgive their philandering husband because their indiscretions are not serious, that their husbands really loved them deep down, and that such men are really just like cute, little, mischievous boys. Such movies helped women accept the fact that they were stuck in a loveless marriage, and they undoubtedly assuaged any feelings of guilt men might have for having been unfaithful. Now that divorces are easier to get, and women are better able to support themselves, we don't see such movies any more. Instead, a modern movie is more likely to treat adultery as being as painful and insulting as it really is.They may have cast creepy Laird Cregar in the role of the Devil, nattily attired, with the appropriate beard and mustache neatly trimmed, so as to make him look the part, but he is so kind and sympathetic that we can only wish most people were as considerate and caring as he is. The idea of giving us a Devil who is not really evil is to underscore the idea that adultery (on the part of a man, of course) is not really a sin. We don't believe that Henry Van Cleve should burn for eternity in the fires of Hell, but we don't believe he deserves a forgiving wife like Martha either.

The 1978 film gave us a smug-face Warren Beatty, a dead sports star, hopping around like a rabbit and talking about eating his "curds and whey" but unlike Little Miss Muffet a spider does NOT come along and eat Beatty, thus saving the audience.The 1943 film is a very fine comedy, filmed in stunning 3 strip Technicolor, overloaded with clever lines and fine performances.Don Ameche is dead and having his life reviewed by the Devil, for possible admission to Hell; but that doesn't work out.Ameche is a rich playboy, but when he takes one look at Gene Tierney it's love at first sight and marriage ASAP. Similarly, when I first saw Miss Tierney (in "Return of Frank James") I was stunned by her undeniable beauty. Too bad I was 10 years old and she was then 30.Heaven Can Wait certainly sells the idea of taking maybe 10 minutes to decide on a lifetime commitment. Older and wiser now, I can see that marriage with Gene would not have worked out. After a while, I can't long stand her screen personality, and I like a slimmer build in the upper measurement. I'd try to end it, "Gene, dear, you're much older, but..." BUT... I'd look at her beautiful face and be sunk all over again!