Video cover showing Fredric March and Evelyn Venable.

Death Takes a Holiday is a 1934 film produced by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Mitchell Leisen, with a screenplay by Maxwell Anderson and Gladys Lehman which was based on a play by Alberto Casella. It opened at the Paramount Theatre, New York on February 23, 1934 with a running time was 79 minutes. Fredric March photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939 Fredric March (Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel) (August 31, 1897 – April 14, 1975) was an Academy Award winning American actor. ... 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Films are produced by recording actual people and objects with cameras, or by creating them using animation techniques and/or special effects. ... The Paramount Pictures logo used since 2003. ... The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... A screenplay or script is a blueprint for producing a motion picture. ... (James) Maxwell Anderson (15 December 1888 – 28 February 1959) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, author, poet, reporter and lyricist, and a founding member of The Playwrights Company (which included, at various times, Maxwell Anderson, S.N. Behrman, Elmer Rice, Robert E. Sherwood, Sidney Howard, Roger L. Stevens, John... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ... February 23 is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Fredric March stars as Prince Sirki, with Evelyn Venable, Guy Standing, Katherine Alexander, Gail Patrick, Helen Westley, Kathleen Howard, Kent Taylor and Henry Travers also in the cast. Fredric March photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939 Fredric March (Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel) (August 31, 1897 – April 14, 1975) was an Academy Award winning American actor. ... Katherine Alexander, (22 September 1898 - 10 January 1981), was an American film actress and Broadway performer. ... Movie actor Kent Taylor (May 11, 1906 - April 11, 1987), born Louis William Weiss in Nashua, Iowa, USA, appeared in over 110 films. ... Henry Travers (March 5, 1874 – October 18, 1965) is an actor. ...

The film is a romantic fantasy about Death (played by March), taking the human form of Prince Sirki, to discover why people fear him. As Death is drawn further into the mortal world he becomes fascinated by the people he meets, particularly the beautiful young Grazia (played by Venable), the only person he meets who seems to have no fear of him. Throughout the world people notice that there is no death - even as war rages it is observed that there are no casualties and even plants and flowers do not wither and die as they should. Death, personified is a personification of death as an anthropomorphic figure or a fictional character, who has existed in mythology and popular culture since the earliest days of storytelling. ...

Death Takes a Holiday was a commercial success, and drew mainly positive comments from reviewers. Time described the film as "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 the playing of Fredric March as one of the film's "chief virtues". (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... The New York Herald Tribune was a newspaper created in 1922 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald. ...

A 1971 Universal Studios television production featured Yvette Mimieux, Monte Markham, Bert Convy and two veterans from the era of the original production, Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas. Loy related in her biography that the production was marred by a decline in filming production standards, and described a frustrated Douglas storming off the set and returning to his home in New York, when a tour guide interrupted the filming of one of his dramatic scenes to point out Rock Hudson's dressing room. 1971 (MCMLXXI) is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ... Universal Studios logo Universal Studios is an informal designation for NBC Universal Inc. ... Yvette Mimieux (born January 8, 1942 in Los Angeles, California) is an actress with a French father and a Mexican mother. ... Bernard Whalen (Bert) Convy (July 23, 1933 – July 15, 1991) was an American game show host, actor and singer. ... Myrna Loy in the 1930s Myrna Loy (August 2, 1905 - December 14, 1993) was a United States motion picture actress. ... Melvyn Douglas (April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981) was a United States actor. ... Rock Hudson Rock Hudson (November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor, famous for his rugged good looks. ...

Reference

• Loy, Myrna and Kotsilibis-Davies, James - Being and Becoming, Alfred A. Kopf, Inc. 1987, ISBN 1-55611-101-0
• Quirk, Lawrence J. - The Films of Fredric March, The Citadel Press, 1971, ISBN 0-8065-0413-7

Myrna Loy in the 1930s Myrna Loy (August 2, 1905 - December 14, 1993) was a United States motion picture actress. ...

External links

• Death Takes a Holiday (1934) at the Internet Movie Database
• Death Takes a Holiday (1971) at the Internet Movie Database