Heaven Can Wait (1943 film)  Heaven Can Wait is a 1943 Technicolor American comedy film produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch. The screenplay was by Samson Raphaelson based on the play "Birthday" by . The music score was by Alfred Newman and the cinematography by Edward Cronjager. The film tells the story of a man who has to prove he belongs in Hell by telling his life story. It stars Gene Tierney, Don Ameche, and Charles Coburn. The supporting cast includes Marjorie Main, Laird Cregar, Spring Byington, Allyn Joslyn, Eugene Pallette, Signe Hasso, Louis Calhern, Tod Andrews, and Clara Blandick. An aged Henry Van Cleve enters the opulent reception area of "where innumerable people had told him so often to go", to be personally greeted by "His Excellency". Henry petitions to be admitted (fully aware of the kind of life he had led), but some doubt exists as to his qualifications. To prove his worthiness (or rather unworthiness), he begins to tell the story of his dissolute life. Born in Manhattan on October 25, 1872, Henry is the spoiled only child of stuffy, clueless, wealthy parents Randolph and Bertha. His paternal grandmother is also doting and naive, although his down-to-earth grandfather Hugo Van Cleve, a self-made millionaire, understands Henry quite well. Henry grows up an idle young man, with a taste for attractive showgirls. One day, Henry overhears a beautiful woman lying to her mother on a public telephone. Intrigued, he follows her into a Brentano's and pretends to be an employee to get to know her better. Despite learning that she is engaged, he begins making advances, finally confessing he does not work there, whereupon she hastily departs. Later, obnoxious cousin Albert introduces the family to his fiancée, Martha, and her feuding parents, the Strables. Henry is shocked to find that his mystery woman and Martha are one and the same. It turns out that Albert was the first suitor of whom both her parents approved. Fearful of spending the rest of her life as a spinster in Kansas City, Martha agreed to marry him. Henry convinces her to elope with him, instead. Though everyone (except Grandpa Van Cleve) is scandalized, eventually they are received back into the family. Henry and Martha enjoy a happy marriage and become the proud parents of a boy.