A quietly fantastic story about a bourgeois philanderer who, on the occasion of his death, presents himself at the gates of hell, where he had so often been advised to go during his lifetime. In an effort to gain admission to an ultra-modern Hades by an uncannily suave Satan, Henry Van Cleve (Don Ameche) relates his story, set primarily in the Fifth Avenue home, where he lives (circa 1900) with his wife (Gene Tierney), and from which he makes his excursions to the thrilling outside.
Lubitsch's first color film is, as might be expected, a witty and elegant use of the new medium. Film Comment editor Richard Corliss writes, “Sophisticated or screwball, talkie comedy hit its peak around 1932--the year of the Lubitsch-Raphaelson Trouble in Paradise--and remained on that elevated plateau for a decade or so, until its climax and elegy, the Lubitsch-Raphaelson Heaven Can Wait. With this film the miraculous occurred, a Hollywood Satan could be as suave as a Shavian one; a charming philanderer could be sent to heaven; Don Ameche and Gene Tierney could give lovely performances. And, if the sheer verbal brilliance of Trouble in Paradise is primarily a writer's achievement, then Heaven Can Wait's serene death scene stands as the apotheosis of a movie moment that melds the collaborative efforts of writer and director, actor and role, aura and era.”