介绍：这部极为豪华的古装剧以1866年春天，意大利和奥地利发生冲突前夕为历史背景描写了一名意大利贵族妇女Countess Serpieri  ，背叛自己的婚姻和国家，不顾一切爱上了俊美而乖戾的奥地利军官Lieutenant Franz Mahler，两人爱得轰轰烈烈，但时代已经发生巨变，最终酿成悲剧。

介绍：Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me; the carriage held but just ourselves and immortality” – Emily Dickinson　　If Death took a holiday, the guns would go silent in Iraq, the slaughter on our nation’s highways would cease, and the news media would be compelled to cover positive events in the humanities, arts, and sciences. Unfortunately, Death has not had a vacation in recorded history, but Mitchell Leisen’s 1934 fantasy, Death Takes a Holiday, allows us to consider the possibility. Co-written by Maxwell Anderson and Gladys Lehman and based on the play La Morte in Vacanza by Alberto Casella, Death Takes a Holiday stars Frederic March as the Grim Reaper who takes on human form in an attempt to discover why men fear him so much. Why he has waited 5,000 years to satisfy this curiosity is not explained.　　[Spoiler] After a brief tryout as a shadowy figure who scares the daylights out of those that cross his path, Death shows up at, of all places, an upscale party at an Italian villa, posing as the mysterious Prince Sirki. Only one person knows who he really is, the host Duke Lambert (Guy Standing), and he is sworn to secrecy. Sirki proceeds to fascinate the guests. Given to bursts of wit and poetry, he can just as quickly turn sullen and threatening, and some soon find out that it is better not to look too deeply into his eyes. During the three days in which the Prince is at the villa, however, people all over the world miraculously escape death and potential suicides are doomed to frustration.　　To see what’s behind all the conversation about love, the suave but naïve Prince Sirki falls for the irresistible Grazia (Evelyn Venable), the daughter of one of Duke’s friends. Grazia knows who Death is but does not fear him, much to the chagrin of her fiancé, Corrado (Kent Taylor) who has developed a strong disdain for Prince Charming.　　More sinister than Brad Pitt in the 1998 remake Meet Joe Black, March turns in a very convincing performance as the creepy yet strangely appealing guest. Although the ending is melodramatic, the emotions are very real and the suggestion that Death may in reality be a friend disguised as a foe is quite touching.　　(Howard Schumann, talkingpix.co.uk)　　In this wearisome and predictable plot line, Death falls in love and bores us to death talking about it.　　(Dennis Schwartz, homepages.sover.net)　　I've heard DRACULA was advertised with the tag line The Weirdest Love Story ever told! (this is probably a paraphrase), but at heart, I've never felt that you could honestly call that movie a love story. The tag line would be much more appropriate for this one, since it ultimately boils down to what amounts to a love story. This movie is very good indeed, particularly if you consider that it is built around a concept that could have easily been handled in a cute or facile manner. Instead, it is handled as seriously as possible, with some real thought put into how death would try to come to terms with a life and an outlook that was to that point totally unfamiliar to him; much of the credit does go to Fredric March in the title role. It's quite scary when it needs to be, particularly during the first twenty minutes. From then on, it deals with its themes with subtlety, a quiet wit, an enduring sadness, and an everpresent tension on how Death might react if crossed. It's not perfect; some of the dialogue is self-conscious and artificial, as if the writers knew they were dealing with weighty issues and were trying to be profound. But I am certainly glad they didn't try to turn it into a musical comedy of sorts.　　(Dave Sindelar, scifilm.org)　　See also the remake Death Takes A Holiday (1971)

介绍：演而優則導的瑪莉路易斯‧依莉貝以令人驚豔的光影戲法改編德國文學與音樂中的經典作品《魔王》導演一方面結合自然場景、歌舞疊影與特技攝影，成功地詮釋歌德敘事詩中的奇幻想像；另方面也巧妙地運用蒙太奇式的剪輯手法，體現舒伯特藝術音樂中充滿動態感的創作調性。依莉貝以懸疑、獨特的視覺語彙成為開創法國有聲電影史新頁的代表人物之一。