Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
Trivia
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Spoilers (1)
Columbia chief Harry Cohn had serious misgivings about this adaptation of Harry Segall's minor stage play. He preferred to reserve his more lavish budgets for surefire successes (i.e., anything featuring the studio's biggest star, Rita Hayworth). However, Sidney Buchman was eventually able to talk Cohn into forking out for costly celestial sets and Farnsworth's elaborate mansion and also into hiring Robert Montgomery on loan-out from MGM. Buchman was also able to convince Cohn that he had a better appreciation of what the public would pay to see than the Wall Street bankers who Cohn answered to.
James Gleason was mainly brought on board to polish the dialogue. Gleason had a knack for authentic sounding vernacular language but also happened to be a great actor.
James Gleason was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in the role of Max Corkle. This is the first time in Academy Awards history for a person to be nominated for a supporting Oscar for a role for which a different person would later also be nominated for a supporting Oscar: Jack Warden was nominated for Best Supporting Actor as Max Corkle in Heaven Can Wait (1978).
Columbia planned to film a sequel to this picture entitled "Hell Bent for Mr. Jordan", but shelved the project until the original cast could be re-assembled. That picture was never produced.
The tune that Joe Pendleton keeps playing (poorly) on his saxophone is "The Last Rose of Summer" - whether he's Pendleton or Farnsworth.
Claude Rains plays an agent of Heaven who finds a new body for the soul of Robert Montgomery. In Angel on My Shoulder (1946) Rains plays the Devil, who finds a new body for the soul of Paul Muni. Harry Segall, who wrote the story for the latter film, also wrote the play "Heaven Can Wait", upon which Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) is based. The first film titled Heaven Can Wait (1943), staring Don Ameche and Gene Tierney, based on a play titled "Birthday", differs greatly from "Here Comes Mr. Jordan". The central character in the Ameche film is an older man who has already lived a full life and is confronted by the Devil. Not much emphasis is given to reincarnation. The second film, Heaven Can Wait (1978), starring Warren Beatty, based on the play "Heaven Can Wait", is practically a word-for-word rewrite of "Here Comes Mr. Jordan", the one exception being that the central character is a football player and not a boxer.
"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on January 26, 1942 with Claude Rains, Evelyn Keyes and James Gleason reprising their film roles.
This paved the way for a series of films all dealing with the afterlife. Some of the more notable examples included A Guy Named Joe (1943), Down to Earth (1947), The Bishop's Wife (1947), It's A Wonderful Life (1946) and A Matter of Life and Death (1946).
Robert Montgomery and his leading lady Evelyn Keyes did not get on in real life. He would rib her constantly about the fact that she was engaged in an affair with a married man.
Robert Montgomery was borrowed from MGM to appear in the picture.
Minor adjustments had to be made to the screenplay as the Breen Office objected to any suggestion of predestination.
Broadway producer Jed Harris had originally planned to produce Harry Segall's play on the New York stage until Columbia purchased the rights as a vehicle for Cary Grant.
A lot of the ideas here were recycled in the Rita Hayworth vehicle Down to Earth (1947), a sequel of sorts which saw Edward Everett Horton and James Gleason reprising their roles.
The film marked John Emery's first screen appearance since The Road Back (1937).
In the heavenly mix-up, Mr Jordan is told that Joe Pendleton will die in 1991. In reality, Robert Montgomery, who plays Pendleton, died 10 years earlier than that in 1981. Ironically, he was also cremated.
An actor in this film calls out to character Tony Abbott (at 0:58) who has gone into another room, "Hey, Abbott!". That call became a catch-phrase yell used often by comedian Lou Costello when he desperately needed his comedian partner, Bud Abbott. It's heard in many Abbott and Costello films, radio, and television programs.
Features James Gleason's only Oscar nominated performance.
Spoilers
At the end of the film, it is still the "soul" of Joe Pendleton in Murdock's body. However, he is given the "identity" of Murdock to live the rest of his life with the woman (Bette Logan) he loves, because the "identity" of Joe Pendleton is confirmed dead among the people who live on earth due to both Joe Pendleton's accidental plane crash and his body being cremated. In order to confirm that it is still "the soul" of Joe in Murdock's body, screenwriters Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller wrote the scene where the "soul" of Joe recognizes the saxophone but he still doesn't know his "identity" of Joe Pendleton. This idea has "biblical" connection to John the Baptist. It is Elijah "spiritually" in John the Baptist's body, but in terms of "identity" he is John the Baptist. The memory of being Joe Pendleton is faded away so that the soul of Joe will "never" reveal himself as the "identity" of Joe Pendleton to the people who believe Joe Pendleton is dead. If the "soul" of Joe Pendleton reveals himself as the identity of Joe Pendleton, then he will also reveal that he was in Bruce Farnsworth's body. This will cause people to believe that he is crazy, just like they thought Max Corkle was crazy. This is a good reason that will prevent the "soul" of Joe Pendleton from getting Bette Logan as the woman in his life.
