Here Comes Mr. Jordan

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Here Comes Mr. Jordan

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 (1941) is a comedy film in which a boxer, mistakenly taken to Heaven before his time, is given a second chance back on Earth. It stars Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes and Claude Rains. 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 by Down to Earth (1947 film), 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), and Down to Earth (2001). It was also remade in India as Jhuk Gaya Aasman (1968).

[edit] Plot

Boxer Joe Pendleton takes a joyride in a small plane, which crashes. His soul is "rescued" by 7013, an officious angel (Edward Everett Horton), who assumed that Joe could not have survived. Joe's manager, Max Corkle (James Gleason), has his body cremated. In the afterlife, the records show his death was a mistake; he was supposed to have fifty more years. The angel's superior, Mr. Jordan (Rains), confirms this, but since there is no more body, Joe will have to take over a newly dead corpse. Mr. 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 unsuitable "candidates", Mr. Jordan takes him to see the body of a crooked, extremely wealthy banker-investor named Farnsworth. Farnsworth's wife Julia (Rita Johnson) and his secretary, Tony Abbott (John Emery) have just drugged and drowned him in a bathtub. Joe is reluctant to take over a life so unlike his previous one, but when he sees the murderous pair mockingly berating Miss Logan (Keyes), the daughter of a financier who was sold worthless bonds by Farnsworth's bank, he changes his mind (and body). The audience continues to see Montgomery as Pendleton, but everyone in the film, including his wife and secretary (who are astonished to see that the murder didn't "take"), see and hear Farnsworth.

As Farnsworth, Joe reforms, repaying all the investors, including Miss Logan's father. He sends for Corkle and convinces him that he is Joe (by playing his saxophone just as badly as he did in his previous incarnation). With Farnsworth's money to smooth the way, Corkle trains him and arranges a bout with the current heavyweight champion, but Mr. Jordan returns to warn Joe that, while he is destined to be the new champion, it cannot happen that way. Joe has just enough time to warn Miss Logan, with whom he's fallen in love, to look for him in another body, most likely a boxer, before he is shot by his secretary. The body is concealed and Joe returns to a ghostly existence.

Accompanied by Mr. Jordan, Joe finds that his replacement in the prizefight with the champ is a clean-cut, honest fighter named Murdoch, whom Joe knows and respects. Finding that he has forgotten his lucky saxophone, Joe runs back to the Farnsworth mansion to find that everyone believes Farnsworth has "disappeared." Corkle has hired a private investigator to find him. Joe manages to mentally nudge Corkle to turn on the radio to the prizefight, and hears that Murdoch has collapsed without even being touched. Mr. Jordan reveals that the boxer was shot by gamblers because he refused to throw the fight. Joe takes over Murdoch's body and wins the fight. Back at the mansion, Corkle hears one of the radio announcers mention a saxophone hanging by the ringside and realizes Joe has assumed Murdoch's body.

Corkle races down to the dressing room. There, Joe passes along information from Mr. Jordan that Farnsworth's is in a refrigerator in the basement of the mansion. Corkle tells 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 destiny; he can be Murdoch and live his life. Healing the gunshot wound and at the same time removing Joe's memory of his past life, 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. The two go off together, while Mr. Jordan smiles over another job well done.