A 1947 sequel to Here Comes Mr. Jordan this time starring Rita Hayworth as the goddess who descends to Earth to inspire a mere mortal. On Earth, a struggling producer is trying to mount a musical about the muses but up in heaven the focus of the sing-a-long hears this & asks the big boss to descend to our shores to make sure the presentation is faithful & true to form. No sooner as she's cast, she begins to thrown her weight around forcing the producer to eliminate anything deemed a 'sacrilege' to the point where during the previews, word comes down on the negative side. Fearing she's lost her way (& also the niggling detail she's fallen for the bum), Hayworth comes around & the show reverts back to its initial incarnation wowing the audience's approval. No sooner than the curtains come down, Mr. Jordan, here played by Roland Culver (the original Jordan was essayed by Claude Rains), signals to Hayworth her time is done & she has to go back. Essentially flipping the characters from the predecessor (in the original the recently deceased man is given a new body to inhabit while here the granter becomes the grantee), the story, directed by Alexander Hall (who also helmed Jordan), gives a meaty showcase to Hayworth who is luminous throughout even though the numbers themselves are forgettable & flighty w/the supporting players wan & wax figure like as compared to Hayworth's vibrant firebrand. A couple of remakes worth mentioning are 1978's Heaven Can Wait where Warren Beatty played the hapless deceased football player getting a new lease on life & Chris Rock took a turn remaking the material as well entitling it Down to Earth in 2001. Co-starring William Frawley (from I Love Lucy) as a cop & James Gleason, reprising his role from the original as a talent agent (who also name-checks the hero from the previous story).
Review of Down to Earth
