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Here Comes Mr. Jordan Movie Review

Here Comes Mr. Jordan is a 1941 fantasy film directed by Alexander Hall and starring Robert Montgomery and Claude Rains. It’s a pretty solid, interesting movie.

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“So long, champ“

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Boxer Joe Pendleton dies 50 years too soon due to a heavenly mistake, and is given a new life as a millionaire playboy. This movie would later be remade in 1978 as ‘Heaven Can Wait’, and I personally much preferred this version as the characters are better developed in this original film. Still, most of the plot remains as complicated as ever and I would have preferred more emphasis on the fantastical elements instead of just the dramatic ones. The romantic parts also were forgettable.

The movie is most remembered for launching a decade of movies with a similar premise as the forties had a string of movies about the afterlife produced. One of them, ‘A Matter of Life and Death’, is so much better than this movie that the impact of this Oscar nominee was, thus, quite blunted for me.

Robert Montgomery is quite strong in the main role and he was deservedly Oscar-nominated for the role. Others are also quite solid with the standouts being the reliably memorable Claude Rains and also quite good Evelyn Keyes and James Gleason. It’s also always great seeing Edward Everett Horton and his casting here was impeccable.

Here Comes Mr. Jordan is at its best when dealing with the human elements of the story, but the complications of this scenario did feel overly detailed. More emphasis should have been put on the themes and one major storyline instead of focusing on so many different characters, which led to the movie feeling rushed at around ninety minutes long.

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It looks great and some of the imagery is memorable as is the score. However, again most of the movie, especially the mid section felt like a typical drama with too many indoors sequences and an overly abundant dialogue. The pacing and the whole structure I would have changed to enliven things a bit. But otherwise that dialogue is mostly excellent with some very interesting discussions.