Undescribable Perfection

Captivating movie !

Best movie ever!

Awesome Movie

Directed by Harold S. Bucquet, based on a play by Paul Osborn, with a screenplay co-written by Claudine West, this above average fantasy drama with comedic elements features a recognizable cast that includes wheelchair-bound Lionel Barrymore, Cedric Hardwicke, two time Supporting Actress nominee Beulah Bondi, Una Merkel, Nat Pendleton, Henry Travers, Grant Mitchell, Eily Malyon, James Burke, and Ian Wolfe.The story is most compelling, about a man and his grandson who trap "Death" up a tree in their yard, so that no one can die until he's let down. Its execution is also very good, with excellent characterizations all the way around. Barrymore's loving relationship with child actor Bobs Watson, who plays his character's devoted grandson, and Hardwicke's calm and confident, soft spoken Death are particularly noteworthy.Dr. James Northrup (Truman Bradley) and his wife (Barbara Bedford, uncredited) pick up a passenger on their way home to their son, who's staying with his grandparents Julian (Barrymore) and Nellie (Bondi) Northrup. Unbeknownst to them, their passenger is Death (Hardwicke), and the car soon drives through a guard rail and crashes, killing both. So, their son John, nicknamed 'Pud' (Bobs Watson) by his grandfather who spoils him, must stay with 'Gramps' and Nellie. Town gossip and John's Aunt Demetria Riffle (Malyon) hears that Dr. Northrup had a large life insurance policy, and schemes to figure out she can gain custody of John to control the $50,000 he was left.Meanwhile, Gramps and Pud do everything together, including avoiding going to church when they can go fishing instead. However, Julian does give a significant donation from the inheritance money to Reverend Murdock (Charles Waldron) with which to help others. Ian Wolfe plays the Reverend's assistant. On their way home, Pud tells Gramps he's entitled to a wish for his good deed, per something he'd heard said. Later, when Gramps chases a boy out of his large backyard apple tree, he wishes that he could keep whomever climbs the tree to steal one of his apples would have to stay there until he decides to let them get down - Pud tells him that he's made his wish. But Gramps doesn't think anymore about it until another boy (Dickie Jones, uncredited), and then Pud, gets stuck and are unable to climb down until he gives them permission.After Aunt Riffle fails to succeed in getting Nellie to sign custody of Pud over to her, Death (who calls himself Mr. Brink) visits John's grandmother and, tired, she goes with him willingly. Gramps meets with his lawyer Ben Pilbeam (Mitchell), but is unable to assign custody of Pud to their maid Marcia (Merkel, playing a much younger woman than her 35 years), who Demetria had earlier accused of scandalously kissing her beau Bill (Phillip Terry) in a public park! When Mr. Brink visits Gramps, a second time actually, in Pud's presence, the two conspire to get him to climb the tree to get an apple. Of course, he is now unable to get down to "take" Gramps without his permission. Gramps learns that anything that touches the tree will die instantly, so he hires some men to build a fence around it that very day. Demetria hears of this, and the reason for it, and brings Dr. Evans (Travers) and Ben to witness Julian's "insanity". Gramps, and Pud, can talk to, hear and even see Mr. Brinks, but no one else can.Later, Dr. Evans returns with an assistant (Pendleton) to take Gramps to an asylum, but Gramps proves quite dramatically that nothing can die while Death is treed in his backyard. Dr. Evans comes to believe what Gramps has said, but then urges Julian to let him down lest the natural order of things be disrupted. In fact, he tries to force Gramps to allow Mr. Brink to come out of the tree. James Burke plays the Sheriff. Without spoiling the ending, one should know that Death will eventually be invited to come down out of the tree by Julian/Gramps.

SPOILER ALERT !!I thought the end should have been, Mr. Brink agrees to let Pud live if Julian goes with him, and Julian sees to it that Pud gets to be with Marcia and Bill. When he scares off the Sheriff and Demetria, that would be the time to fix it for Pud. The Sheriff tears up the court order, and he could have made them agree to let Marcia and Bill have Pud right then. Also, he could have gotten rid of Demetria earlier, before anyone believed the tree held Death, by getting her to touch it or pick an apple.All else is wonderful, Lionel Barrymore is a treat, the dialogue is fun and colorful, Nellie and Marcia are as lovable as Demetria is despicable. The scene where Mr. Brink is first trapped in the tree and he makes the wind blow, makes you think he could have easily made the tree die too, or break up, get hit by lightning.

A perfect movie is a rare thing. It requires a very good script, actors capable of giving a remarkable performance, and a superlative director capable of making everything come to together.On Borrowed Time is such a movie.No, it didn't have a big budget. The performers are not movie "stars." They were all seen as character actors in their day. But, as anyone who cares about movies knows, such "character actors" often had acting skills lacking in box-office attractions.So, when a great director brings out the best of them - and that is what Harold S. Bucquet, a forgotten director who made no other great movies - did, greatness happens. In this case, in spades.Everything works in this movie. Barrymore had given many great performances, and he delivers another one here. But so does Una Merkel, in one of her best roles. And Henry Travers, remembered from "It's a Wonderful Life," and Grant Mitchell, remembered from so many great movies.It is never mawkish - until the very end. Everything is low-key, and therefore all the more moving.You will never forget this movie once you have seen it. The premise is astounding, and we all want to believe it could be true. For an hour and a half this cast makes us believe it could be true, and we wait, spellbound, to see what will happen.This is a small movie, but a perfect one. Watch it once, and you will never forget it.And you will always wish it could come true.------------------------I saw this movie again tonight, on TCM, two years after I wrote the above review, and marveled once again at how good it is. Granted, the first part is unremarkable. It doesn't really become interesting until Mr. Brink gets caught in the tree.Thereafter it just gets better and betterSPOILER ALERTThis movie would never be made this way today. The child - played wonderfully by Bobs Watson - would never be allowed to die, as he does here. Perhaps even Grampa would be given an extension on life. But movie audiences in 1939 did not expect everything to have a happy ending. In fact, it has the only possible ending, since if Pud had lived, his Aunt Demmy would inevitably have gotten control of him and his estate.This movie therefore ends perfectly, even if it's a real tear-jerker.

Appearing as the personification of "Death", well-groomed hitch-hiker Cedric Hardwicke (as Mr. Brink) passes on a convertible ride with coughing Hans Conried. You may be thinking tuberculosis, but it must only a cold and not yet Hans' time. The real target is a physician and his wife, who quickly die in a car crash. This leaves orphaned "Bobs" Watson (as John Gilbert "Pud" Northrup) in the care of loving grandparents Lionel Barrymore (as Julian "Gramps" Northrup) and Beulah Bondi (as Nellie "Granny" Northrup). However, they are both getting older, and closer to death...On the brink, Mr. Barrymore receives one special wish. He uses it on an apple tree in his back-yard...This parable is surprisingly effective, and blurs the perception of "good" (god) and "evil" (devil) in a manner uncommon in films of the era. It's better to see this for yourself, and not read anymore about it here. Meanwhile, pis-mired aunt Eily Malyon (as Demetria "Demmy" Riffle) wants to take young Watson from Barrymore, desiring the lad's $50,000 inheritance. Barrymore learns she plans to send the boy to a school for girls and fears this will "make a sissy out of Pud," which must have been considered a fate worse than death, considering this film's startling but satisfying outcome...******** On Borrowed Time (7/6/39) Harold S. Bucquet ~ Lionel Barrymore, Bobs Watson, Eily Malyon, Cedric Hardwicke