On Borrowed Time is a 1939 film about the role death plays in life, and how humanity cannot live without it. It is adapted from Paul Osborn's 1938 Broadway hit play. The play, based on a novel by Lawrence Edward Watkin, has been revived twice on Broadway since its original run. Academy Award winner Harold S. Bucquet (for his 1937 Torture Money) directed.Set in small-town America, the film stars Lionel Barrymore, Beulah Bondi and Sir Cedric Hardwicke.