JohnHowardReid It's possible just to sit back and just enjoy the comedy. Actually more than a few shudders of drama are included as well, though the producer has tried to break this down by the casting of that ripe-old ham Donald MacBride as a particularly squally police inspector. Nonetheless Rita Johnson and John Emery are as cool and nasty a pair of schemers as ever deserved the hangman's noose. Don Costello's shifty manager is far from comic too. Aside from MacBride, it is largely left to Montgomery himself - with the admirable assistance of Edward Everett Horton and the less skillful but determinedly plugging-away James Gleason - to make with all the funny faces and can-this-really-be-me double takes. Midway between these two camps of farce and drama, Claude Rains plays Mr Jordan with such a suave, ironically smiling detachment that he succeeds in bringing yet a third acting force to bear on the script. Ironic detachment is a style of acting rarely used in the movies as it requires an actor with pres¬ence to bring it off - a gifted player like Claude Rains whose skilful performance is a double pleasure to see and hear. Another equally rare treat is provided by Lloyd Bridges who makes his two-line bit part memorable by mouthing his dia¬logue tongue-in-cheek. But whether played for laughs or thrills or fatal¬ism, the blending is almost always perfectly entertaining - thanks both to the collective skills of the actors and the stylish artistry of director Alexander Hall. (Two other troupers that deserve to be singled out for praise are Halliwell Hobbes as a delightfully stuffy old butler, and Evelyn Keyes who makes her heroine seem appropriately lovely and, vulnerable). Thirty years ago, Alexander Hall was a highly regarded director. He died in 1968 - too early for today's cult critics to get him down on tape - and his popularity has waned. Not all of Hall's movies are as enter¬taining or as well-served as Here Comes Mr Jordan, but there can be little doubt that Hall's was a superior talent in the fantasy field. Unlike most of the current crop of directors, Hall knew how to ration his special effects so that the movie wasn't swamped in a welter of dazzling but superfi¬cial visuals. Hall makes the effects reinforce the story - not today's way in which the story is merely an excuse for an endlessly juvenile display of cinema trickery. Hall has a real sense of timing and contrast. Admittedly, his touch is occasionally a little heavy-handed (especially in the Gleason-MacBride scenes) - but compared to the Steven Spielbergs of this world it's the excesses of a gavel to a jackhammer. He knows how to move the camera too and keep the plot moving along sharply. Of course he has a clever script to work from, ingenious not only in its princi¬pal idea but in the way it twists and turns until all the loose ends are neatly tied up at the conclusion. Perhaps it all comes out just a little too pat - but after all isn't that just what we'd expect from a Mr Jordan?Hall is also helped out by a fine array of a talent behind the camera. The sets are just right, neither calling a distracting attention to themselves by a tasteless if expensive gaudiness nor seeming on the other hand disappointingly cheap or sterile. The pho¬tography too has the perfect combination of atmosphere, realism and unobtrusive artistry. The music also contributes deftly but not egotistically to the entertainment whole.That old adage, "Many cooks spoil the broth," is usually untrue so far as films are concerned. Here is the proof. Here Comes Mr Jordan is a delectable feast. The Warren Beatty re-make is a burnt breakfast.

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.

zardoz-13 When you think about it, "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" almost seems sacrilegious. How could God and all his Angels make a mistake and summon somebody before their time? Mind you, organized religion doesn't enter into director Alexander Hall's comedy and God is never taken to task for this mistake. Still, makes you wonder if the real title could have been: "Heaven Made A Mistake." No way, not under the Production Code Administration. Interestingly enough, the play on which the film was based was entitled "Heaven Can Wait." Later, Warren Beatty would remake the Montgomery version but as a gridiron star instead of a boxer. Nevertheless, this body-swapping comedy boasts a nice-guy performance by Robert Montgomery as a prizefighter who likes to fly but crashes in an accident.An overzealous angel, Messenger 7013 (Edward Everett Horton of "Arsenic and Old Lace"), claims Joe Pendleton by mistake, whisking him out of a plane before it crashed, and our hero winds up in the clouds about to board another plane. Mr. Jordan (Claude Rains of "Casablanca") intervenes when he discovers that Joe wasn't schedule to die for another 50 years. Charitably, Mr. Jordan gives Joe a second chance. However, he is particularly upset after he learns that he won't be receiving his original body. As it turns out, Joe's fight manager Max Corkle (James Gleason of "Meet Joe Doe"), had him cremated! So Joe has no options. The unhappy Joe takes a lot of talking to before he agrees to accept another body. Hall and scenarists Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller indulge in quite a bit of exposition not only to explain Joe's predicament to him but also to us. Joe winds up in a body that is above his social class. They thrust Joe into 'the overcoat' of Wall Street tycoon Bruce Farnsworth and a business intrigue subplot kicks into gear. It seems that Farnsworth's duplicitous wife Julia (Rita Johnson of "Honolulu") has been cheating on him with his secretary, Mr. Abbott (John Emery of "Spellbound"), and these two initially drowned her sleepy husband in his own private bath. At the same time, our hero feels sympathetic toward the plight of the daughter of a man that Farnsworth swindled in the Stock Market. Much to the chagrin of his board of trustees and his wife, Joe admits in the guise of Farnsworth that he swindled Bette Logan's father. When Joe isn't straightening everything out for Bette, he struggles to convince Max that he is really Joe in Farnsworth's body. Joe still wants to compete in the boxing championship that he was training for in the first scenes. The black & white comic fantasy is ideal for a rainy day.

sdave7596 "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" made in 1941 and remade two more times, both with Warren Beatty in 1978 with "Heaven Can Wait" and the Chris Rock "Down to Earth" in 2005. This one is the best, although Warren Beatty's version is respectable. Robert Montgomery shines as Joe Pendleton, a tough-talking boxer who dies while piloting his own plane. But his death has been a "mistake" or so says "Mr. Jordan" (Claude Rains) who seems to rule over heaven and decide whose time it is or isn't. Well, Joe gets sent back to earth, with the able assistance of his heavenly/ghostly friend, but his old body is -- well, gone. It all gets quite complicated and hilarious, with Joe inhabiting the body of a rich man, and then a fighter. He falls big time for the lovely Evelyn Keyes (who could blame him). All Joe wants is a chance to compete in the big boxing match that was denied him with his death. This is, hands down, Robert Montgomery's best performance (although his performance in "Night Must Fall" in 1937 comes pretty close). He is spot-on as the tough boxer with a soft side, and his expressions and gestures are perfect, as is his New York accent. Montgomery had already been in Hollywood a long time by 1941, starting in the last days of silent films and transitioning to sound. Claude Rains is wonderful as Mr. Jordan, James Gleason plays his role to the hilt, as Joe's befuddled boxing manager. But these are supporting players, and this is Robert Montgomery's movie all the way -- and he does not disappoint.