Death Takes a Holiday

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: March 30, 1934

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

53	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 5 Critic Reviews

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Critic Reviews

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TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

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

John Beifuss

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]

Staff (Not Credited)

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]

Dave Kehr

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. Read full review

Mike Clark

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]