Here Comes Mr. Jordan
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| Here Comes Mr. Jordan | |
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| Directed by | Alexander Hall |
| Produced by | Everett Riskin |
| Written by | Harry Segall (play Heaven Can Wait) Sidney Buchman Seton I. Miller |
| Starring | Robert Montgomery Evelyn Keyes Claude Rains Rita Johnson Edward Everett Horton |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 23 July 1941 |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Here Comes Mr. Jordan is a 1941 comedy film in which a boxer, accidentally killed before his time, is allowed a chance to come back to Earth in the body of a rich man who has just been murdered by his wife. It stars Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, Claude Rains, Rita Johnson, Edward Everett Horton, James Gleason, John Emery, Donald MacBride, Don Costello, Halliwell Hobbes and Benny Rubin.
[edit] Summary
Boxer Joe Pendleton takes a joyride in a small plane, which crashes. His soul is "rescued" by 7013, an officious angel (Horton), who believed it was Joe's time to die and that he could not have survived. His manager, Mr. Corkle (Gleason), is also his will's executor and has him cremated. In the afterlife, Pendleton has managed to hold onto his saxophone, which is his good-luck charm. But the records show his death was a mistake; he's supposed to have fifty years left. The angel's superior, Mr. Jordan (Rains), confirms this, but since the body was cremated, Joe will have to take over the body of someone else, newly dead, explaining that a body is just something you wear, like an overcoat; inside, he will still be himself. Joe insists that it be someone in good physical shape, because he wants to return to his boxing career.
The best choice is an extremely wealthy banker-investor named Farnsworth, whose wife and secretary have just drugged and drowned him in the bathtub. Joe doesn't want to live Farnsworth's life, but when he sees the guilty pair mockingly berating Miss Logan (Keyes), the daughter of a financier who's been sold worthless bonds by Farnsworth's bank, he has an instinct to help the young woman and jumps into Farnsworth's body. The audience continues to see Montgomery as Pendleton, and it is understood that he is seen and heard as Farnsworth by everyone he meets, including his wife and secretary, who are astonished to see that the murder didn't "take".
As Farnsworth, Joe pretends to reform from "his" crooked ways, repays all the investors including Miss Logan's father, and takes up arduous exercise, saying he wants to get in shape and perhaps go into boxing. Sending for Corkle, Joe manages to convince him that it's him, Joe, in Farnsworth's body. Corkle promises to arrange to have Joe-as-Farnsworth go up against the heavyweight champion, but Mr. Jordan returns to warn Joe that while he really is destined to be the new champion, it can't happen that way. Joe has just enough time to warn Miss Logan, with whom he's fallen in love, that she might not see him again, but since she loves him and sees his real self, to look for him in another body, most likely a boxer. "Farnsworth" is shot by his secretary, and the body concealed; Joe returns to a ghostly existence. Mr. Jordan reassures him that "no one is cheated," and that all will come right in the end, that if it is meant for him and Miss Logan to be together, they will be; and Joe has to take this on faith.
Accompanied by Mr. Jordan, Joe finds that the prizefight he was supposed to be in as Farnsworth has been re-arranged with another boxer versus the champion, a clean-cut, honest fighter named Murdoch whom Joe deeply respects. Finding that he's forgotten his lucky sax, Joe runs back to the Farnsworth mansion to find that everyone believes Farnsworth has "disappeared," and that Corkle (knowing "Farnsworth" is really Joe), has called in a private investigator (MacBride) to find him. Joe manages to mentally nudge Corkle to turn on the radio to the prizefight, and hears how Murdoch simply collapsed without being touched. Mr. Jordan reveals that Murdoch was shot by gamblers because he wouldn't throw the fight. Joe, seizing his sax from the Farnsworth parlor and making a mad dash for the ring, takes Murdoch's body and wins the fight for him. Still in the mansion, Corkle hears one of the radio announcers mention the sax hanging by the ringside, and realizes Joe has jumped to Murdoch's body.
Corkle races down to the boxing ring's dressing room just in time to greet Joe, who has learned from Mr. Jordan that the body of Farnsworth was stuffed into a refrigerator in the basement of the mansion. Corkle passes this on to the detective, who promptly has Mrs. Farnsworth and the secretary arrested. As Murdoch, Joe fires his old, crooked manager and hires Corkle. Mr. Jordan reveals to Joe that this is his true road; he can be Murdoch and live his life. Healing the gunshot wound and at the same time removing Joe's memory of his identity as Joe, Mr. Jordan hangs around for a bit longer until Miss Logan arrives. She wanted to see Corkle, but runs into Murdoch instead. The pair feel they have met before. Although he cannot now remember her, he is strongly attracted to her, and she, as before, sees his real self and knows that this is the man she fell in love with, even if he doesn't know it anymore himself. The two go off together, while Mr. Jordan smiles over another job well done.
The movie was adapted by Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller from the play Heaven Can Wait by Harry Segall. It was directed by Alexander Hall.
It won Academy Awards for Best Writing, Original Story and Best Writing, Screenplay. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Robert Montgomery), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (James Gleason), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Director and Best Picture.
Here Comes Mr. Jordan was followed up in 1947 by Down to Earth, in which two of the actors reprised their roles.
It was remade several times, with different titles:
- Heaven Can Wait (1978)
- Heaven's Touch (1983)
- Down to Earth (2001)
