Here Comes Mr. Jordan - Claude Rains

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

directed by Alexander Hall
USA 1941

Here Comes Mr. Jordan is one of those rare Hollywood classics that hasn't dated and never fails to raise one's spirits. It's one of the first and best of the Films Blanc, the splinter genre of light comedy-dramas that imagine the universe to be governed by a fanciful Hereafter. Screenwriters Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller put Robert Montgomery into a no man's land between heaven and earth, while sympathetic angels work to correct a cosmic error. Nominated for seven Oscars, the film won two, for Original Story and Screenplay.

The Columbia release has a confusing history of remakes and sound-a-likes. It's originally from a Harry Segall play called Heaven Can Wait, the title of which ended up on Ernst Lubitsch's unrelated 1943 Film Blanc with Don Ameche and Gene Tierney. But when Warren Beatty remade Mr. Jordan in 1978, he reverted to the Heaven Can Wait title. In a further wrinkle, director Alexander Hall brought back three of Jordan's characters, played by two of the same actors, for 1947's Down to Earth.

Excerpt from TCM located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: 7 August 1941 (USA)

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Sony Pictures - Region 1, 2, 4 - NTSC

Big thanks to Gregory Meshman for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Sony Pictures Region 1, 2, 4 - NTSC
Runtime	1:33:57
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 4.79 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), French Dub (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
Subtitles	English, Portuguese, Japanese, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Sony Pictures Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • None DVD Release Date: February 6th, 2007 Keep Case Chapters 12

Comments

In late 1970's a term film blanc (as opposite to film noir) was created to describe many fantasy pictures set in afterlife (for explanations and discussions see HERE). The early examples of such movies can be traced to Fritz Lang's Destiny and Liliom, but Here Comes Mr. Jordan is one of the best films to represent this trend, especially of 1940's cinema. The film got a stand-alone release from Sony in 2007. The image quality is in great shape - the film was preserved by UCLA Film and Television Archive and restored for this release. The progressive transfer is wonderful, with some grain evident, but it's part of the picture.

The soundtrack is in good shape as well. The commentary by the late Elizabeth Montgomery that was available on laserdisc of this film from The Criterion Collection was NOT carried over. There are no extras, not even a trailer and as you can see the menu is a basic image not even related to the film, but finally having this film on DVD in a great form is a treat in itself.

- Gregory Meshman

DVD Menus