User Reviews

When I was 12, my only friend died. She had thalassemia, a genetic defect of the blood, her red blood cells died quickly and she had to have transfusions every few weeks. Her bones were brittle. She had terrible horrible pain. She couldn't even go to school, she had a tutor. My parents explained her illness to me, and that she wouldn't live to be an adult. But when you are 6 and 8 and 10 and then 12, that concept is incomprehensible.

We were very close. She was my only friend, I was her only friend. She lived around the corner from me, so after my school day we were always together. We combed the beach for sea glass and tiny shells, and watched the sunlight dancing on the water. We sat on the pier and watched the boats rocking. We made jewellery out of seed beads, we collected and played marbles. When she was bed ridden because of multiple broken bones, her bed was pushed to the window which her father made low so she could see out of it from bed, and we played punch buggy, very gently.

That Christmas we made a recording of our own radio show that we invented. (I got a tape recorder for Christmas) Our families spent Christmas eve together, then we all went to midnight Mass, then to my house for another dinner. (It's an Italian thing) So they left at about 4 in the morning. When we opened the door, it had begun to snow, and there was about a foot already. It was falling fast and thick. It looked like diamonds in the Christmas lights.

She turned to me and said, "We're going to have a great day tomorrow, we'll made a snow fort!"

I never saw her alive again.

I was told on Christmas day that she had to go to the hospital for another transfusion. I was used to that, I knew it would take two days.

The next day, I watched an old movie on TV called "On Borrowed Time".

It was about an old man and his grandson, who tricked Death into climbing a tree that was enchanted with a wish that whoever climbed it couldn't get down again until the grandfather said they could. The grandfather was played by Lionel Barrymore, who by that time was so incapacitated by arthritis that all the parts he played were of an old man using a wheelchair. The wheelchair was used to good effect in this story.

Death fought back by causing anything that touched the tree to instantly die. But around the world, for those few days while Death was trapped there, no-one and nothing died unless they touched the tree.

The grandfather was adamant to keep Death up the tree, because Death had come to take him, and if he died, the boy would be sent to live with his cruel aunt. But Death was clever.

The grandfather built a fence around the tree to protect anyone from touching it, and Death lured the boy with a dare to climb the fence. He did, but he fell, and broke his back. He was paralysed, but in terrible pain.

The grandfather was heartbroken, so he let Death come down out of the tree, and Death took him and his grandson. He knew that it was a kinder thing than to allow the child to suffer so much. When Death touched them both, the boy revived and the old man became younger and they both could walk again. They followed a golden path in the woods to "the land where the woodbine twineth".

I was only 12. But I understood the story, and that the death of that child was a better thing than his life of pain.

A few minutes after the movie ended, and while I was still caught up in the story, a phone call came. I could tell by my mother's voice that something terrible had happened. My friend Laura had died.

They debated about whether to let me go to the funeral. But I wanted to. I was the only child there. The room grew silent when I approached the casket, and I spoke to her out loud, telling her I was glad she didn't have that horrible pain and sickness anymore, and that she would always be a child and always be my friend. Then I said goodbye and kissed her. Her lips were cold and still.

There are times in our lives when we see things with a rare clarity. I was grateful for all the fun we had together, and I was grateful that I watched the movie, because it truly prepared me to accept her death.

Now I am 61. But I still comb the beach for sea glass, and watch the boats rock, and whenever I see seeds beads strung together, or marbles, or a Volkswagen Beetle, or hear the Beatles, I think of her and how she saved me from the crushing loneliness of my childhood.

Lionel Barrymore is tops as beloved "Gramp" to a newly orphaned "Pud", with Bula Bondi as the faithful "Gran", with the usual characters to round out the cast. A beautiful "sap story" complete with evil spinster aunt, out to get her hands on the boy's inheritance, "On Borrowed Time" includes a few magic tricks and requires a good dose of suspending one's disbelief. The feared "reaper" (in form of an English Genleman), named Mr. Brinks, turns out to be a "nice chap" after all.

The story is predictable from the start, but it still makes you feel like a kid watching a Saturday Matinée or even a Punch & Judy Show. There's a healthy portion of movie magic, in it's simple and sweet way. It can hold its own measured against the best of Shirley Temple's films. Young "Pud" will make you reach for the Kleenex box, as will many scenes in this wonderful "olden days" cinema gem!

This is quite an impressive little film dating from 1939. Set in a small-town there are quite a few stereotypes here, but not bad ones. You've got Lionel Barrymore as the grandfather of Bobs Watson, raising the boy after both parents died in a car accident. You've got the wonderful Beulah Bondi as the grandmother, and way older than her years here...even more so than in most of her films. And, you've got death -- Sir Cedric Hardwicke -- not unlike the role in "Death Takes A Holiday" or "Meet Joe Black".

One day Death comes for Gramps, who orders Death off the property, not knowing who he is. So, Death takes Granny. But Gramps has also made a wish that anyone who climbs in his apple tree will be stuck up there until he wishes him down...and that's where Death finds himself.

Meanwhile, Bobs Watson's aunt has designs on the money left him by his parents, and Gramps must fend off the aunt's efforts to adopt Watson.

Death is now stuck in a tree and can't take anyone...even those who are suffering. So, how does Death get down from the tree? And who dies? And is it bad? There really is lots to think about here in what was actually a rather minor film. I guess if there's anything a little annoying in the film it's Bobs Watson. He's a good little actor, but a little Bobs Watson goes a long way...especially for well over 90 minutes.

Nevertheless, this film is worth watching. As I said, lots to think about, and Lionel Barrymore is simply fascinating to watch, here though he was so crippled that they had to fake his walking in the scenes at the very end of the movie. There are some swell performances by supporting actors as well -- Henry Travers (as always) and Una Merkel, particularly.

Well worth watching, although the pace could have been slightly quicker.

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.

I might have liked this film (well, probably not... the boy's acting was atrocious) but for the ending, where death is revealed to be not just an essential part of life, but quite a lot of fun, better even than life.

Most of the film is fairly good, despite the gimmick of making death a talking character. Despite its brutal treatment of the boy, killing off everyone and everything he cares for, it seemed to be teaching something about death, about relationships, and bending the rules.

But death is not fun. It's not a visit to the relatives. Death is painful, and then it's a permanent nothing, like before birth.

Children can handle the truth, and they deserve not be lied to, and we certainly don't need to be encouraging them to try to get themselves killed.

Also, in these days, it's thankfully no longer permissible to condemn sissies, many of whom are responsible for the computers you are reading this on.

Everyone knows of evil old Mr. Potter and sweet Clarence in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, and who played them so well: Lionel Barrymore and Henry Travers, two splendid actors. But their only sequence in that film was either never shot or cut by Frank Capra (where Clarence momentarily turns nasty and reveals to Potter he will soon die and face some unfriendly times from providence). So they both showed up in a great fantasy film, but never appeared in the finished movie together.

Fortunately, seven years earlier they did appear in this little gem. Again it is a fantasy with spiritual overtones. The theme of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE is that the individual human life is more valuable than we imagine because we interact with so many others in our lifetimes. But the theme of ON BORROWED TIME is that of the better known DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY. The theme here is that we should not fear death, but see it as a welcome release from pain and anguish, and that we will be reunited with those we love in the afterlife.

Of course this is a philosophical/theological point of view and suject to one's opinion. Being optimistic one might fully buy it. Being more pessimistic one can question if there is a genuine afterlife, and whether dying is something to fully embrace. I have problems with this idea, as dying is usually painful, and (despite many religious dogmas) there is no real proof of an afterlife. However, as death for all of us is (unfortunately) inevitable, we might as well take a positive approach to it.

The movie was based on a novel, but in the credits it is pointed out that the novel had been turned into a play by Paul Osborne. Osborne was one of Broadway's legends up to the time of his death in 1988. He really is what is called a "play doctor", turning the work of others into viable theatre (and usually doing it superbly). Ironically, in his own career he only wrote one play that was original. It was the charming MORNING'S AT SEVEN, which had it's first Broadway debut in 1980, with Theresa Wright starring in it. It has been revived on Broadway and elsewhere since then, and probably will become part of regular drama repertory. MORNING'S AT SEVEN dealt with three 60-70ish couples in a small town. Osborne must have liked that type of background, because (except for Pud, and a boy who steals apples) most of the characters sin ON BORROWED TIME are grown-ups, and Pud lives with his beloved Gramps (Julian Northrup) and Granny (Nellie Northrup).

The plot is simply allegorical. Even the movie acknowledges this, by referring to similar stories going back to Geoffrey Chaucer in the forward. Death, here a "Mr. Brink" goes around meeting his next subject or subjects and taking them to the hereafter. We see him waiting for a car, and along comes one driven by a young man (a young Hans Conried, just starting his Hollywood career). He has a bad cough, and keeps coughing (pneumonia or tuberculosis?), but he has seen Brink and offers him a ride. Brink thanks him, but he's waiting for some other car. Before Conried leaves he hears Brink say he'll see Conried soon. Shortly after that a car drives up. It is Mr. and Mrs. John Northrup, the parents of John Jr. (Pud). Brink gets a lift, and is present when the car goes off the road into a ravine, killing the young couple.

We soon see the Northrup household, held together by the affection of Gramps to his wife, Miss Nellie, and his grandson. But soon we learn of the tragic death of Gramps son and daughter-in-law. This introduces the snake in this Eden: Pud's aunt Demetria (the "pismire") who has a facade of religious gentility, but is a greedy hypocrite and a vicious scold and gossip. Demetria has entry into the house because Miss Nellie would like Pud to be a bit more church going and observant. Since Demetria makes a big show of this, Miss Nellie tolerates her as a potentially good role model to counter-balance the less church-oriented Gramps. However toleration is not the same as stupidity. Although Beulah Bondi makes Miss Nellie seem elderly and fragile, she is not taken in by Demetria trying to get Miss Nellie to agree to the aunt getting legal custody over Pud. [Actually few are really taken in by Demetria - early in the film, when she first hears her sister has been killed, the minister who breaks the news to her hears her bemoan a trip to California the sister promised her!]

Mr. Brink shows up, austensibly to take Gramps, but Gramps won't go. For some reason Brink can wait (we never learn why, but it is a fantasy). Later Gramps accidently makes a wish that nothing can descend from his apple tree unless he says they can come down. We watch a boy who has been stealing apples get caught (Sonny Bupp, who played the young Charles Foster Kane two years later). Then Pud gets stuck for awhile. Then Mr. Brink returns, but he comes for Nellie, and takes her (in a rather sweet scene). When he comes back for Gramps, he is tricked into going into the tree to get Gramps (who is in a wheelchair) an apple. Now Mr. Brink can't get down unless Gramps says he can. So death is unable to function.

Which becomes the central theme of the rest of the film: What if death was banished from life? Sadly the movie takes the view that death is a release from agony and pain. Yes it is, but it is a release that has no return guaranteed. While Gramps keeps Brink in the tree nobody dies, but plenty of people suffer from illness beyond their time of death. Travers plays Dr. Evans, the family friend and doctor. He first is brought in with the family lawyer by Demetria, who is now trying to prove Gramps is mentally incompetent because he sees the invisible Brink in the tree, and is wasting money building a fence around the tree (to keep people from touching the tree, which is inevitably fatal). Travers thinks that Gramps has lost it, but subsequently he notices that things that should be dying are not, unless they touch the tree. When he realizes this he tries to convince Gramps to let Brink out of the tree, for the sake of the world. But Gramps is afraid that if he does so, he'll be taken and Pud will fall into the hands of Demetria.

The film ends tragically for awhile, but satisfactorily. Oddly one key to the future is overlooked by Gramps as the film continues: Nobody seems to see Brink but himself...except for Pud. Obviously, Pud can see Brink because he is meant to die soon too. Well, it is a fantasy, and a good one, so we can overlook the flaw in it's plot.

Not even the elements of a future "Death Takes A Holiday" and "Harvey" can save this piece. Why? The film is pretty morbid when you think about it.

Lionel Barrymore, that usual irascible character, does display a heart here but the ending where Death shows that it still has the upper hand is not very pleasant. This film is certainly not suitable for children.

The film would have been far better if it had been all about that wicked aunt, so similar to Margaret Hamilton, in "The Wizard of Oz," attempting to get the nephew after the tragic death of his parents. Instead, the film takes on new meanings with Cedric Hardwicke, who portrays death in its usual way.

Everyone literally starts going and you have to wonder why this was their fate!

Despite what the writer wanted to convey, you certainly can't have that feel good feeling at the film's end.

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.

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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 better

SPOILER ALERT

This 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.