On Borrowed Time

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

Growing up, my Mom introduced me to a ton of the old blackand- white movies of her youth. We watched all the old Universal momster movies, the classic Tarzan films, Charlie Chan, The Thin Man, Sherlock Holmes… If it was on the “Late, Late Show,” we watched it.

One that always stuck with me was called “On Borrowed Time.” It came out in 1939 — the same year as “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone With the Wind” — what a year for movies! It stars Lionel Barrymore (who is more famously remembered as Old Man Potter in “It’s a Wonderful Life”) as a cranky old man who somehow manages to trap Death (as in The Grim Reaper) up in an apple tree. It’s actually based on a very old Greek fable. Anywat, in the movie, Death is called “Mr. Brink,” and Barrymore’s “Gramps” character is tasked with caring for his

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young grandson after the boy’s parents are killed in a car crash.

Well, once Mr. Brink is trapped in the tree, no one on Earth can die. Great, right?

Well, not really, because you see, some people are in terrible agony, some are old and frail and ready for death. It’s an important lesson for Gramps to learn — especially after his grandson falls from a fence and breaks his neck.

Spoiler for an 85-year-old movie, Gramps eventually relents and frees Mr. Brink from the tree, allowing the boy (and Gramps) to die and go to Heaven.

Sure, it’s a little hokey but it is a reminder about the role death plays in life and a reminder that we are all, indeed, on borrowed time.