Death Takes a Holiday

Death Takes a Holiday
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mitchell Leisen
Produced by	E. Lloyd Sheldon Emanuel Cohen
Screenplay by	Maxwell Anderson Gladys Lehman
Based on	Death Takes a Holiday (play) by Walter Ferris, adapted from La Morte in Vacanza by Alberto Casella
Starring	Fredric March Evelyn Venable Guy Standing Katharine Alexander Gail Patrick Kent Taylor Helen Westley Henry Travers Kathleen Howard
Cinematography	Charles Lang
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	February 23, 1934
Running time	79 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Death Takes a Holiday is a 1934 American Pre-Code romantic drama starring Fredric March, Evelyn Venable and Guy Standing. It is based from the 1924 Italian play La Morte in Vacanza by Alberto Casella, as adapted in English for Broadway in 1929 by Walter Ferris.

After years of questioning why people fear him, Death takes on human form (Fredric March) for three days so that he can mingle among mortals and find an answer. He finds a host in Duke Lambert (Guy Standing) after revealing himself and his intentions to the Duke, and takes up temporary residence in the Duke's villa. However, events soon spiral out of control as Death falls in love with the beautiful young Grazia (Evelyn Venable). As he falls in love with her, Duke Lambert, the father of Grazia's mortal lover Corrado (Kent Taylor), begs him to give Grazia up and leave her among the living. Death must decide whether to seek his own happiness, or sacrifice it so that Grazia may live.

The theatrical premiere of the film was on February 23, 1934 at the Paramount Theatre in New York City. The home video releases have been:

The film was an enormous critical and commercial success.Time called it "thoughtful and delicately morbid", while Mordaunt Hall for The New York Times wrote that "it is an impressive picture, each scene of which calls for close attention".

Richard Watts, Jr, for the New York Herald Tribune, described it as "An interesting, frequently striking and occasionally beautiful dramatic fantasy", while the Chicago Daily Tribune said that March was "completely submerged in probably the greatest role he has ever played."Variety called it "the kind of story and picture that beckons the thinker, and for this reason is likely to have greater appeal among the intelligensia." It praised March's performance as "skillful".John Mosher of The New Yorker wrote that the film was "nicely done", although he suggested it was "a little obnoxious with all its talk of being in love with death."