Here Comes Mr. Jordan Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Year: 1941
Director: Alexander Hall
Country: US
Language: English

Columbia chief Harry Cohn preferred to reserve his more lavish budgets for surefire successes. Anything that didn't involve Rita Hayworth, the motion picture company's only major star, didn't seem to be worth it. Sidney Buchman, the writer of Here Comes Mr.Jordan, had great faith in Harry Segall's minor stage play and thought he knew more about what made a financial hit. Eventually he was able to convince Cohn into forking out the dough, and borrowing Robert Montgomery from MGM. Their gambling would pay off. 

Boxer Joe Pendleton, flying to his next fight, crashes...because a Heavenly Messenger, new on the job, snatched Joe's spirit prematurely from his body. The celestial Mr.Jordan grants him a new body, in the form of a millionaire playboy. 

At the time of release, Here Comes Mr.Jordan was a major critical and commercial success. It was nominated for 6 Academy Awards, winning two for writing. Like Arsenic and Old Lace, the plot of this film is very silly and is enjoyable for being so. It has a charm that can't be replicated, mainly because its stars are incredibly charismatic and have impeccable comedic timing. I very much like Jack Gleason, who plays Pendleton's boxing manager. His dialogue is frenetic and goofy, he plays the character well.

Perhaps I took the film too seriously, but I didn't like how the philosophical consequences of  the ending (in which SPOILER! Pendleton is transferred to another boxer's body but is forced to lose his memory. Isn't memory part of identity? How can Joe still have his soul if he has no consequences of being Joe?) were shrugged off for convenience. There may be a more satisfying religious explanation that I'm missing, but for now it just irks me.

Less escapist that its remake, perhaps due to the toxic political climate of World War Two, Here Comes Mr. Jordan was a fantastical farce made during a time when people needed to laugh. Bureaucracy is the butt of the joke, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Many filmmakers would be too heavy handed in approach, but Director Alexander Hall hits most of the right notes.