On Borrowed Time
| On Borrowed Time | |
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| Directed by | Harold S. Bucquet |
| Produced by | Sidney Franklin |
| Written by |
Alice D.G. Miller Frank O'Neill Paul Osborn (play) Lawrence Edward Watkin (novel) |
| Starring |
Lionel Barrymore Sir Cedric Hardwicke Beulah Bondi |
| Music by | Franz Waxman |
| Cinematography | Joseph Ruttenberg |
| Edited by | George Boemler |
| Distributed by | MGM |
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Release date
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Running time
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99 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
On Borrowed Time is a 1939 film about the role death plays in life, and how humanity cannot live without it. It is adapted from Paul Osborn's 1938 Broadway hit play. The play, based on a novel by Lawrence Edward Watkin, has been revived twice on Broadway since its original run. Academy Award winner Harold S. Bucquet (for his 1937 Torture Money) directed. The story is a retelling of a Greek fable in which Death is tricked into climbing a pear tree which had been blessed by Saint Polycarp to trap anyone who was trying to steal an old woman's pears.
Set in small-town America, the film stars Lionel Barrymore, Beulah Bondi and Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Barrymore plays Julian Northrup ("Gramps"), a wheelchair user (Barrymore had broken his hip twice and was now using a wheelchair, though he continued to act), who, with his wife Nellie, played by Bondi, are raising their orphaned grandson, Pud. Hardwicke plays Mr. Brink, the personification of death.
Brink (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) has recently taken Pud's (Bobs Watson) parents in an auto wreck. Brink later comes for Gramps (Lionel Barrymore). Believing Brink to be an ordinary stranger, the crotchety old Gramps orders Mr. Brink off the property. Pud comes out of the house and asks who the stranger was. Gramps is surprised and relieved that someone else could see the stranger; he was not merely a dream or apparition.
Pud tells Gramps that when he does a good deed, he will be able to make a wish. Because his apples are constantly being stolen, Gramps wishes that anyone who climbs up his apple tree will have to stay there until he permits them to climb down. Pud inadvertently tests the wish when he has trouble coming down from the tree himself, becoming free only when Gramps says he can.
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Wikipedia