Film Friday: Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
When I saw this film for the first time a few days ago, I found out it was one of the ten Best Picture nominees at the 14th Academy Awards. Since all «Film Fridays» this month focus on an Oscar-winning or nominated picture, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about it. Directed by Alexander Hall, Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) tells the story of Joe Pendleton (Robert Montgomery), a boxer-pilot-musician who crashes his plane while flying to a match and is escorted to heaven by Messenger 7013 (Edward Everett Horton). Arriving at the Pearly Gates, the celestial registrar, Mr. Jordan (Claude Rains), discovers that Joe has been called to his death 50 years too soon. 7013 returns Joe to the crash site only to find out that his manager, Max «Pop» Corkle (James Gleason), has had the body cremated. Mr. Jordan orders 7013 to find Joe another body and they end up at the mansion of Bruce Farnsworth, a dishonest businessman who has just been drowned in the bath by his wife, Julia (Rita Johnson...