Product Description

When a boxer (Robert Montgomery) is accidentally called to Heaven 50 years before his time, it's upto celestial executive extraordinaire Mr. Jordan (Claude Rains) to straighten out the matter. When Columbia Pictures' financial advisors read the screenplay for the fantasy comedy Here Comes Mr. Jordan, they had their doubts as to its box-office potential. Screenwriter Sidney Buchman went directly to studio president Harry Cohn in an effort to convince him to make the film. Cohn liked the script's uniqueness and, saying that all his bankers wanted was "what sold last year," told Buchman he'd make the picture. To play the saxophone-playing boxer Joe Pendelton, Cohn decided to borrow Robert Montgomery from MGM. Although Mongomery had some initial doubts about his part, he delivered what was to become an Oscar -nominated performance. The film, which received a total of seven 1941 nominations, including Best Picture, won two (Best Motion Picture Story, Best Screenplay). Here Comes Mr. Jordan was so successful, it inspired a semi-sequel (1947's Down To Earth, which starred Rita Hayworth) and was eventually remade in 1978 as Heaven Can Wait.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13849 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2007-02-06
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Portuguese, Japanese
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 94 minutes

Amazon.com
Even after two remakes--one a classic (Heaven Can Wait), the other, not so much (Chris Rock's Down to Earth)--this 1941 fantasy, an Oscar-winner for Best Original Story and Screenplay, has lost none of its ethereal charms. Robert Montgomery gives a knockout performance as Joe Pendleton, a boxer "in the pink" and poised to be the next heavyweight champion until a celestial messenger (Edward Everett Horton at his fussy best) pulls him from an impending plane crash and sends him to heaven before his time. Courtesy of Mr. Jordan (Claude Rains), Joe resumes his training in the body of a wealthy, unscrupulous businessman whose wife and personal secretary are plotting to murder. James Gleason steals his scenes as Joe's understandably befuddled manager, with lovely Evelyn Keyes as Bette Logan, whose innocent father the real Farnsworth framed and sent to prison, and with whom Joe/Farnsworth falls in love. Though this DVD doesn't even feature a chapter menu, the film itself is, as advertised, "as fantastic a yarn as was ever spun" and will make you feel, as Bette does when she looks into Joe's eyes, "warm, alive, and happy." And they don't make too many like that anymore. --Donald Liebenson

Stills from Here Comes Mr. Jordan (click for larger image)

Beyond Here Comes Mr. Jordan

Columbia Classics on Amazon.com

More Boxing Films on Amazon.com

The Remake: Heaven Can Wait

Customer Reviews

Joe Pendelton says, Evelyn Keyes GOOD... Rita Johnson BAD!
(January 1, 2007)

A WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL MOTION PICTURE...

Very happy to see that this terrific film will finally be struck to DVD.

But please, Sony, correct the cover art faux pas that has plagued this great film since its VHS release.

The actress pictured next to Robert Montgomery should be Evelyn Keyes, but is NOT!

Instead, actress Rita Johnson is pictured. Rita Johnson played the part of the murdering, adulteress wife of Bruce Farnsworth (Montgomery) in the flim. :-\

This art was obviously created or selected by someone who has never viewed this fine film--or the very beautiful Evelyn Keyes.

Please, Sony, correct this miscue before this DVD's February release date.

Still "In the Pink" Sixty Years On
It is a shame that this delightful comedy isn't better known today. Part of the reason might lie in the fact that the film's star Robert Montgomery (father of Elizabeth Montgomery of BEWITCHED), after a stint in the military in WW II, did very little acting following the war. Therefore, he doesn't have many later films to draw attention to his career as a whole. Also, after the war he because deeply involved in political matters, and was one of Hollywood's more avid Communist hunters. For whatever reason, the film does not today have the reputation it deserves.

There have been two remakes of this film, so some explanation is in order. HERE COMES MR. JORDAN was a film version of a play by Harry Segal titled HEAVEN CAN WAIT. There was a 1944 film by Ernst Lubitsch called HEAVEN CAN WAIT starring Don Ameche, but that movie had nothing in common with HERE COMES MR. JORDAN (apart from being an equally superb comedy). In 1978, Warren Beatty wanted to remake HERE COMES MR. JORDAN using the original play's title with Muhammad Ali in the lead role, but Ali's schedule made this impossible, so he cast himself in the lead and transformed the central character into a football quarterback. Not as good as the original film, this actually wasn't a bad movie at all. In 2001, the film was remade again as DOWN TO EARTH, starring Chris Rock. I often love Chris Rock, but this film is not merely one of the low points of his career: it is a miserable film on every level, with the dreadful decision to make our hero a comic rather than an athlete.

Because of the remakes, the plot is familiar: Joe Pendleton, a boxer with a penchant for playing the saxophone and a shot at the title, is accidentally taken to heaven fifty years too early by an overzealous angel who wrongly assumes that he is about to die. The angel, Messenger 7013 (played marvelously by the inimitable Edward Everett Horton), brings Joe to his supervisor, Mr. Jordan (played magnificently by the ultra-suave and civilized Claude Rains). It is decided to provide Joe with a new body, where upon he tries in his new millionaire's body to get back into shape ("in the pink") in order to get a new shot at the championship. The only trouble is that the millionaire's wife and lover want to kill him so they can get his money and each other. Rounding out a great cast is Evelyn Keyes as the girlfriend of Joe (and the love interest of his subsequent incarnations) and James Gleason, Joe's trainer, who nearly steals ever scene he is in. The scene where Joe, in his new body, hires Gleason and then tries to convince him of his real identity, is just hysterical.

More people need to see this film. It remains one of the finer comedies made immediately before the onset of WW II, and is vastly better than the two films based upon it. It deserves far more attention than it has, in recent years, received.

Many, MANY Thanks To Mikey! Your Images (clips) Are MOST Helpful and Enlightening.*
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Unique... from the Latin 'one'---"only one of its kind."

"Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941) starring Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, Claude Rains and James Gleason (nominated for a Best Supporting Oscar for Max Corkle) ... and let's not omit the great Donald MacBride who plays police inspector Williams. All are perfect for their roles. Better than perfect---ideal!

But, that said, studio president Harry Cohn had to be cajoled and convinced to make the film. Columbia Pictures' financial advisors had their doubts as to its box-office potential. All the bankers wanted was "what sold last year."

That notwithstanding, this wonderful film went on to receive a total of seven 1941 nominations, including Best Picture, and won two Oscars (Best Motion Picture Story and Best Screenplay).

*I'm indebted to the reviewer "Mikey" for his earlier review: "Joe Pendelton says, Evelyn Keyes GOOD... Rita Johnson BAD!" which he posted here on December 19, 2006---the first review of the DVD and its artwork.

Mikey, I am MOST obliged to you for posting (sharing) your images/clips from the film showing the actors and the roles they played, and for explaining the unbefitting and lamentable errors made regarding this DVD's cover art. It is regrettable that this cover received such a paltry, meager effort from its producers. Thanks again for that timely information.

- And my final words... Evelyn Keyes is a stunningly beautiful woman Period. -