Here Comes Mr. Jordan

Joe Pendleton is a boxer preparing for a title fight. He flies his own plane. The plane crashes. But Joe had not died; an inexperienced messenger from above took him early and his soul left his body. When the records are checked the mistake is clear: the man had fifty more years to live. His body, though, has been cremated and there is nowhere to return to. Mr Jordan offers to find him another body. The one offered belongs to a wealthy businessman just murdered by his wife. Joe takes it, and still wants to box. Alexander Hall directs. Robert Montgomery plays Joe and Claude Rains plays Mr Jordan; Evelyn Keyes is in the cast. The film won Oscars for original story and for adapted screenplay. The source is a stage play by Harry Segall. What the narrative builds is a game of identity; Joe is in someone else's body and everyone around takes him for that man. Only his manager knows. It was remade twice in later years and those versions found wide audiences too. Claude Rains's Mr Jordan is calm and explanatory; the narrative does not build death as something frightening. Its ending makes a decision about memory, and that section is the film's best. Its limit is rhythm; the second half leans on comic conventions and the plot becomes tangled. Who it is for: viewers who like classic Hollywood fantasy and romantic comedy. Who it is not for: the premise has dated, the humour belongs to its period, and the plot is convoluted.