lasttimeisaw This is the bona-fide movie adaption of Harry Segall's play HEAVEN CAN WAIT, which Warren Beatty would remake in the 70s, whereas Ernst Lubitsch's 1943 namesake is a different story. Alexander Hall's HERE COMES MR. JORDAN is a seven-times Oscar nominee including those big ones, BEST PICTURE, BEST DIRECTOR, BEST LEADING ACTOR and BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR and it won 2 for its original story and script (at a time when there were three different categories to honor the writers). This fantastic fable is about a promising prizefighter Joe Pendleton (Montgomery), whose soul is prematurely taken out of his body by an eager beaver soul-collector (Horton) during a plane crash, then according to the almighty agent of heaven, Mr. Jordan (Rains), Joe still has five-decade of life on earth, but the scrape is that his body has already been cremated, there is no way he can return as Joe. But no need to worry, Mr. Jordan comes to the rescue, he promises to chaperon Joe's soul to look for a perfect body, aka. a newly dead corpse, to his liking. Finally it is the murdered millionaire banker Bruce Farnsworth catches Joe's interest, but not in light of his wealth, the high- minded script clarifies that it is solely because of Joe's Good Samaritan attribute and an overt love- at-first-sight vibe, he tries to help out an elegant damsel-in-distress Miss Logan (Keyes), whose financier father is going to be put in jail thanks to the worthless bonds sold by Bruce's bank. Only, things will not be that easy because a certain destiny is already written in stone, and another tricky thing is, how can he makes Miss Logan reciprocate her love to him, Joe Pendleton instead of the person she sees aka. Bruce Farnsworth? Yet, don't worry, Mr. Jordan will safeguard that everything will be fine, plus, Joe always has his lucky saxophone as a mnemonic. Tackling with surreal idea like afterlife, floating-soul, body-altering, etc., the film deploys a strikingly economic visual tack, not even tries to adorn the narrative with a rudimentary out-of- body and invisible artifice which David Lean puts into practice in BLITHE SPIRIT (1945), this most expedient yet effective sleight-of-hand is to allow audience seeing Joe's soul all the time, regardless of his physical hosts, which means Montgomery can play along with a supporting cast reacts differently according to his host's identity, whether he is Bruce Farnsworth or later, the boxer Murdoch. Amplifying by the identity-shifting gimmick, a concise but innovative script, the film makes great play of appeal with a credible cast, headlined by Mr. Montgomery, who is marginally needling being a self-centered whiner in the beginning, but in time, he will imbue a charming patina of earnestness when the plot thickens and effortlessly take our breath away. Veteran character actor James Gleason scoops a hard-earned Oscar nomination as Joe's boxing agent, Max Corkle, who is the only one in the know and Gleason is hilarious, particularly in several reaction shots and whenever he attempts to communicate with Mr. Jordan whom he cannot see. Claude Rains is by and large, affable and unfathomable in a larger-than-life design, meanwhile the distaff players have less to impress, Evelyn Keyes and Rita Johnson (as Bruce's murderous wife) incarnate a Manichaean representation of women, which shamefully belies the movie's wishful- thinking male spin - a woman finds him desirable because of his soul rather than his outward form, but let's not forget, what attracts Joe at the first place is Miss Logan's comely appearance, not her inner quality, that's a double standard doesn't consonant with political correctness, otherwise, it is a refreshingly engaging comedy, replete of the gratifying allure of Hollywood's Golden Age.

classicsoncall Having Claude Rains in any film is a good enough recommendation for me to watch a picture. The title here might be considered an odd one because the Mr. Jordan of the title, portrayed by Rains, is not the principal character. But it's probably fair to say he commands the viewer's attention in any scene he's in, including those with the star of the picture, Robert Montgomery, who's put through his paces as three different people before it's all over.To maintain continuity, Montgomery's original appearance as boxer Joe Pendleton is maintained throughout the story as he assumes different bodies after 'dying' at the very outset. Well actually, he didn't really die in the plane crash; an overzealous angel on his first mission snatched Joe's spirit before the plane hit the ground. It kind of bothered me that Messenger 7013 (Edward Everett Horton) didn't have to serve some sort of penalty for his rather cosmic mistake. Mr. Jordan hit him with a verbal slap on the wrist as it were, but 7013 kept showing up time and again without too much in the way of contrition for his major blunder.However the prospective romance at the heart of the picture between Pendleton and Bette Logan (Evelyn Keyes) is played out rather creatively. In the guise of wealthy businessman Bruce Farnsworth, Montgomery sets things right regarding the five million dollar securities swindle her father was blamed for. Personally I would like to have seen him take a more aggressive response to his scheming wife and business manager after they found out their victim was still breathing. For a split second I lost concentration when Pendleton/ Farnsworth summoned the man with 'Hey Abbott', I thought Costello might show up too.As for the resolution to the story, I don't think I'm alone in feeling that good old boy Joe might have been dealt an unfortunate hand after all with the memory of his former life being erased. Earlier, Mr. Jordan remarked that "In the final reckoning everything will be accounted for". Sadly for Joe Pendleton, he didn't really get another fifty years on his own terms, making me wonder if Mr. Jordan might have considered some other heavenly option.

DKosty123 Robert Montgomery & Claude Rains carry this film. There are several other good people in the cast but the main stars are the glue. The story here has been redone twice now, Chris Rock the latest & Heaven Can Wait earlier. Neither remake has the charm of this one.The story here is one of the strengths. It relies on light comedy & romance plus situations to carry the film. They do so quite well as the actresses in this are not as well known now as the actors, & they are clearly in support. This film has had a recent restoration which pretty much has made it as originally released.Claude Rains is an angel here, but he could play almost any role. It isn't too long after this that he is memorable in Casablanca. While it is obvious Rains worked hard in perfecting all the roles he played, he often brings them off making it look easy. In this case, he makes the angel role believable enough that you wonder if he might be there now, waiting for all of us when we go.

kenjha After a boxer is mistakenly summoned to heaven before his time, the powers that be scramble to find a new body for him to inhabit. This is a fairly amusing comedy, although it's not as funny as it could have been. The plot is of course pretty silly but the cast seems to be having a good time. As in "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" from the same year, Montgomery shows a flair for low-key comedy as the unfortunate boxer. Rains brings a light touch to the role of the Big Kahuna in heaven (God?), a man named Mr. Jordan. Horton and Gleason provide most of the laughs. This was remade as "Heaven Can Wait" in 1978, not to be confused with the great Ernst Lubitsch comedy with that title made in 1943.