Here Comes Mr. Jordan

Plot

Boxer and amateur pilot Joe Pendleton, nicknamed the Flying Pug, was flying to a New York City fight on May 11, 1941, when a severed control cable caused his plane to crash. The angel 7013 retrieved his soul, wrongly assuming Joe could not have survived. In the afterlife, records showed Joe’s death was a mistake—he was meant to live another 50 years. The angel’s superior, Mr. Jordan, confirmed this, but since Joe’s body had been cremated by his manager Max “Pop” Corkle, Joe had to inhabit a newly dead corpse.

Joe insisted on a physically fit body to continue boxing. After rejecting several options, Jordan showed him the body of crooked banker Bruce Farnsworth, recently drugged and drowned by his wife Julia and secretary Tony Abbott. Joe reluctantly agreed when he saw the pair mocking Bette Logan, whose father had been ruined by Farnsworth’s fraudulent securities. In Farnsworth’s body, Joe repaid investors, cleared Bette’s father, and convinced Corkle of his identity by playing his saxophone poorly.

Using Farnsworth’s wealth, Corkle trained Joe for a boxing match, but Jordan warned that Joe’s destiny as champion could not happen that way. Joe told Bette to give a chance to any stranger, especially a boxer, before Tony shot him. Joe returned to a ghostly existence, Farnsworth’s body was hidden, and Corkle hired a private investigator to find him.

Production

Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohn was persuaded to try the risky project Here Comes Mr. Jordan, despite his policy of building on past successes. The film adapted Harry Segall's 1938 stage play Heaven Can Wait. Broadway producer Jed Harris had planned to produce the play until Columbia purchased the rights as a vehicle for Cary Grant. While in pre-production, Robert Montgomery was borrowed from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to star. Principal photography ran from April 21 to June 5, 1941, with location shooting at Providencia Ranch, California, and on Universal City sound stages.

Reception

Upon its world premiere at Radio City Music Hall, Theodore Strauss of The New York Times called the film a delightful and disarming joke at heaven's expense, describing it as gay, witty, tender, and wise. Variety highlighted Montgomery's acting and praised Alexander Hall's direction for expert handling of characters. Harrison's Reports commended the novel theme, ingenious plot developments, good production values, and high standard of acting and direction.

The Film Daily noted that producer Everett Riskin's talent placed the film near the peak of perfection in filmmaking. Here Comes Mr. Jordan placed fifth on The Film Daily's year-end poll of 548 critics, naming it one of the best films of 1941. Russell Maloney of The New Yorker called it one of the brightest comedies of the year, praising Claude Rains' acting. The film's premise of a protagonist receiving a second chance through angels inspired later films such as I Married an Angel, A Guy Named Joe, and Angels in the Outfield.

Film critic Leonard Maltin described it as an excellent fantasy-comedy with first-rate cast and performances. Harry Segall won the Academy Award for Best Story, and Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller won for Best Screenplay. Here Comes Mr. Jordan was preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive with cooperation from Columbia Pictures and the Library of Congress.

Remakes

The 1942 Lux Radio Theatre broadcast of Here Comes Mr. Jordan reunited Claude Rains, Evelyn Keyes, and James Gleason, with Cary Grant taking the lead role originally intended for him. A television version titled Heaven Can Wait aired in 1960 on The DuPont Show of the Month, featuring Tony Franciosa and Robert Morley. The story was later remade as Heaven Can Wait in 1978, starring Warren Beatty, Buck Henry, and Julie Christie. In 2000, Fox Family released Ice Angel, which changed the premise so an adult male hockey player ends up in the body of a teenage female figure skater. Chris Rock starred in Down to Earth (2001), a film sharing its name with the original’s sequel. An Indian Hindi remake, Jhuk Gaya Aasman, came out in 1968, while the Punjabi film Mar Gaye Oye Loko also drew inspiration from the story. A pornographic version, Debbie Does Dallas ... Again, was released in 2007.