Good concept, poorly executed.

Captivating movie !

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

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.

After his parents die in a car accident, a young boy goes to live with his grandparents. When the grandmother also dies, the boy's shrewish aunt tries to gain custody of him so she can get her hands on the money his parents left him. As the grandfather fights to keep the boy, Death comes calling for him. But Gramps has a trick up his sleeve and manages to trap Death up a tree (!), thus preventing him from claiming any lives.In many ways, the movie does feel like a filmed play (it is based on one). But the story is so involving and the cast so extraordinary that things stay lively and interesting throughout the picture. Lionel Barrymore, an expert at making crotchety lovable, is in rare form here. The boy is played by Bobs Watson, a child actor who specialized in being cute and crying on cue. Some of you may remember him from being hit by a car in Boys Town. His scenes with Barrymore are all golden. Cedric Hardwicke plays Death, named here Mr. Brink (get it?). Hardwicke always brought class to every film he was in and this is no exception. Fine support from Beulah Bondi as the loving grandmother and Eily Malyon as the meddlesome aunt. The rest of the cast includes greats like Henry Travers, Grant Mitchell, Nat Pendleton, and Una Merkel. Despite the bizarreness of the story (and maybe because of it), this is a very entertaining picture. It has several fun twists and a leisurely pace and pleasant tone that belies its rather dark subject matter. I guess whether you call it dark or not is part of the movie's message. It's a fantastic fable where death is (literally) around every corner. A curious mix of heartwarming and heartbreaking, this is a one of a kind film.

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

When I first saw the film in 1981, I felt that I had just watched a classic. Enough has been written here to describe the plot line so I skip ahead to some of the reasons why this film was overlooked when it was released and why it continues to be overlooked today. First of all, it came out in 1939 which is probably the greatest year in Hollywood history. Such huge color releases like Wizard of OZ and Gone With The Wind made some smaller black and white films less appealing. The USA was still fighting the economic hangover from the great depression and the movie going public was spending it's money on more upbeat fare like Gunga Din and not on a movie that deals with death as it's main theme. And this leads to why, for me, the movie was really overlooked. It dealt with death and perhaps the world's political and economic condition doomed this movie to it's relative obscurity.