Film

Here Comes Mr. Jordan

Name: Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Released: 1941
Cast: Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, Claude Rains, Rita Johnson, Edward Everett Horton

A fast, sunny fantasy-comedy from 1941 in which a boxer, snatched from his body a moment too soon by a bumbling angel, gets loaned Claude Rains as a celestial fixer and someone else's corpse to finish his unfinished business. It's Old Hollywood at its nimblest — quick, funny, oddly tender about fairness and second chances, and never quite as light as its plot summary suggests.

TMDb rating

7.0

If you liked this

It's a Wonderful Life1946

Capra's own angel-sent-to-fix-a-life story, and the gold standard for turning celestial bureaucracy into something that actually makes you cry. Same warmth, same faith that the universe keeps score fairly.

But It's been Christmas-ified into wallpaper; watching it fresh, outside December, takes some effort.

A Matter of Life and Death1946

British Technicolor fantasy where a dying pilot argues his case before a celestial court — same trial-in-heaven logic as Mr. Jordan, played with dazzling visual imagination.

But Slower and more painterly than Mr. Jordan's screwball pace; it's poetry, not punchlines.

Defending Your Life1991

Albert Brooks turns the afterlife into a courtroom sitcom, complete with celestial paperwork and a bureaucrat with a sense of humour — the wisecracking modern cousin of Mr. Jordan's heaven.

But Broader and more overtly comic; the romance is thinner than the original's.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Liliom1934no page yet

It's the direct dramatic ancestor: the same afterlife-tribunal machinery and the same idea that a soul gets one more chance to fix a life, minus any of the comedy.

A French film, directed by Fritz Lang before Hollywood claimed him, about a dead carousel barker judged in a celestial tribunal and sent back to Earth to make amends — the exact structure Mr. Jordan would use seven years later, played dead straight.

But Melancholy where Mr. Jordan is puckish; subtitled, slower, and interested in guilt rather than gags.

The Bishop's Wife1947

Cary Grant as an angel sent to sort out a stalled human life, with the same gentle idea that intervention from above can nudge people toward who they're meant to be.

But Christmas dressing and a slower courtship plot than Mr. Jordan's breezy pace.

Angel on My Shoulder1946no page yet

A dead gangster is stuffed into the body of a respectable judge by the Devil himself — practically the same premise as Mr. Jordan, told from Hell's side of the ledger.

But Rougher and less polished; the comic timing doesn't have the same lightness.

Topper1937

A stuffy banker is haunted by a pair of ghosts determined to loosen him up — same era, same appetite for the supernatural as an excuse for comedy of manners.

But Its jokes about drinking and propriety feel dated in a way Mr. Jordan's don't.

Cabin in the Sky1943

A musical fantasy in which Heaven and Hell literally fight over one man's soul — the celestial stakes of Mr. Jordan turned into song and dance, with a landmark all-Black cast.

But Its racial politics are of their moment and require some historical patience.

Angels in the Outfield1951no page yet

A hapless baseball manager gets divine help from actual angels — Mr. Jordan's premise shrunk down to dugout size, sweet and unpretentious.

But Slighter and more sentimental; there's no moral complexity, just charm.

Groundhog Day1993

No angels this time, just a cosmic force correcting a man's rotten character through repetition instead of body-swap — same bones, a completely different mechanism.

But The comedy is sharper-edged and more cynical before it turns warm.

Carnival of Souls1962

Same engine — a spirit dislodged from its rightful body and life, moving through the world unnoticed — reworked as dread instead of delight.

A cheap, eerie American horror film about a woman who may or may not be dead, wandering through a world that's subtly wrong — Mr. Jordan's premise of a soul out of place, stripped of every joke and left to fester.

But No romance, no rescue, no comic relief — it's unsettling rather than uplifting, and the low budget shows.

Your Name.2016

Both hinge on living someone else's life to fix or understand your own, using the mistaken body as a route to a second chance at love.

A Japanese animated film about two teenagers who inexplicably swap bodies and lives, discovering who they are through someone else's skin — the body-borrowing conceit of Mr. Jordan, made achingly sincere and gorgeous to look at.

But It's animated, in Japanese, and pitched at teenage emotional intensity — a very different register from wisecracking 1940s Hollywood.