Here Comes Mr. Jordan

Here Comes Mr. Jordan is a 1941 American fantasy romantic comedy film directed by Alexander Hall, in which a boxer, mistakenly taken to Heaven before his time, is given a second chance back on Earth. It stars Robert Montgomery, Claude Rains, Evelyn Keyes, James Gleason, Edward Everett Horton, Rita Johnson, and John Emery.

The film screenplay, based on Harry Segall's 1938 play Heaven Can Wait (originally titled It Was Like This), was written by Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller. The working titles for the film were Heaven Can Wait and Mr. Jordan Comes to Town.

Horton and Gleason reprised their roles in the film's sequel Down to Earth (1947), while Roland Culver took on the role of Mr. Jordan. Warren Beatty later remade the film in 1978 as Heaven Can Wait. The 2001 film Down to Earth, starring Chris Rock, is also based on the play. The 1943 film Heaven Can Wait, itself also a Best Picture Oscar nominee, has no connection to the source material for Here Comes Mr. Jordan.

Plot

On May 11, 1941, boxer and amateur pilot Joe Pendleton, affectionately known as "the Flying Pug", flies his small aircraft to his next fight in New York City but crashes when a control cable severs. His soul is retrieved by 7013, an officious angel who assumed that Joe could not have survived. Joe's manager, Max "Pop" Corkle, has his body cremated. In the afterlife, the records show his death was a mistake; he was supposed to live for 50 more years. The angel's superior Mr. Jordan confirms this, but without his body, Joe will have to take over a newly dead corpse. Jordan explains that a body is just something that is worn like an overcoat; inside, Joe will still be himself. Joe insists that it be someone in good physical shape because he wants to continue his boxing career.

After Joe turns down several "candidates", Jordan takes him to see the body of a crooked but extremely wealthy banker and investor named Bruce Farnsworth, who has just been drugged and drowned in a bathtub by his wife Julia and his secretary Tony Abbott. Joe is reluctant to take over a life so unlike his previous one, but when he sees the murderous pair mockingly berating Bette Logan, whose father's name has been misused by Farnsworth to sell worthless securities, he changes his mind and agrees to take over Farnsworth's body.

As Farnsworth, Joe repays all the investors and has Bette's father exonerated.

Reception

Critical response

Upon Here Comes Mr. Jordan world premiere at Radio City Music Hall, film critic Theodore Strauss of The New York Times noted, "Columbia has assembled its brightest people for a delightful and totally disarming joke at heaven's expense." He further described the film as "gay, witty, tender and not a little wise. It is also one of the choicest comic fantasies of the year."

Variety called Montgomery's acting "a highlight in a group of excellent performances" and praised Hall's direction for "expert handling of characters and wringing utmost interest out of every scene."

Harrison's Reports wrote, "Here is a picture that is praiseworthy from many angles; for one thing, the theme is novel and the plot developments ingenious; for another, the production values are good, and the acting and direction are of a high standard."

The review in The Film Daily opined, "Producer Everett Riskin, noted for his successes in the field of comedy, had no cinch with this property which might easily have backfired with an inexperienced hand at the helm. But Riskin's talent and knowledge has placed this finished product very near the peak of perfection in film making." Here Comes Mr. Jordan placed fifth on the year-end poll of 548 critics nationwide at The Film Daily, naming it one of the best films of 1941.

Russell Maloney of The New Yorker called the film "one of the brightest comedies of the year ... Mr. Rains' acting is the kind that makes the word 'ham' a word of endearment, and I mean that for a compliment."

The film's premise of a protagonist receiving a second chance through the intervention of angels inspired other films throughout the ensuing decade, including I Married an Angel (1942), A Guy Named Joe (1943), and Angels in the Outfield (1951).

Film critic Leonard Maltin noted that Here Comes Mr. Jordan was an "Excellent fantasy-comedy of prizefighter Montgomery accidentally sent to heaven before his time, forced to occupy a new body on earth. Hollywood moviemaking at its best, with first-rate cast and performances."

Accolades

Harry Segall won the Academy Award for Best Story, while Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller won for Best Screenplay. Nominations included: Best Picture, Montgomery for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Hall for Best Director, Gleason for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Joseph Walker for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White.

Here Comes Mr. Jordan was preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive with the cooperation of Columbia Pictures and the Library of Congress.

Home media

Here Comes Mr. Jordan was originally going to be released on VHS and Betamax in November 1979 as one of Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment's launch titles, but because of the financial success of Midnight Express, the release was cancelled and Midnight Express took Here Comes Mr. Jordan place in the launch lineup. Due to this, Columbia did not release the film on home video until 1982.

On June 14, 2016, The Criterion Collection released a fully restored version of the film on DVD and Blu-ray.

Remakes

On January 26, 1942, Claude Rains, Evelyn Keyes, and James Gleason reprised their roles in a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast with Cary Grant, the original choice for the lead role, co-starring. A made-for-television adaptation was aired as an episode of The DuPont Show of the Month as "Heaven Can Wait" in 1960 starring Tony Franciosa as Joe Pendleton and Robert Morley as Mr. Jordan. Here Comes Mr. Jordan was remade as Heaven Can Wait (1978), starring Warren Beatty, Buck Henry, and Julie Christie. Ice Angel, a 2000 film for Fox Family starring Nicolle Tom and Tara Lipinski remade it with the "twist" that it was an adult male hockey player who was forced to take over the body of a teenaged female figure skater. Down to Earth (2001), sharing the title with the sequel to Here Comes Mr. Jordan, starred Chris Rock. The Punjabi film Mar Gaye Oye Loko is also inspired by Here Comes Mr. Jordan. A pornographic remake, Debbie Does Dallas ... Again (which reimagines the person taken too soon as the lead character from Debbie Does Dallas), was released in 2007.

In other media

In Road to Morocco (1942), one of Bob Hope's characters, the deceased Aunt Lucy, comes to him in a dream but then cuts it short, saying "Here comes Mr. Jordan", a homage to the film of the same name.

Notes

References

External links

Here Comes the Angel of Death – an essay by Farran Smith Nehme at The Criterion Collection
Here Comes Mr. Jordan on Lux Radio Theater: January 26, 1942