I really like Claude Rains. He always strikes me as a likeable fellow. So when I had a chance to watch a Claude Rains film I said, "sure." I had no idea what this was.

Here Comes Mr. Jordan is the first film adaptation of Heaven Can Wait which was a stage play of the time. Two years later another film entitled Heaven Can Wait will be released, but in 1941 this was the first.

I guess it sort of fits that Claude Rains, a likeable actor should be cast as the title role of a likeable story. Mr. Jordan is not the main character in the Heaven Can Wait story. He's the clue that helps the hero deal with his death, and then help others before going to heaven. This story is so likeable that it has been made into movies at least four times.

The film really revolve around Joe Pendleton (Robert Montgomery) a box who is in a plane wreck. he would have lived, but an angle pulled his soul away from his body early to save him from suffering. Joe shouldn't have died, and heaven isn't ready for him. Mr. Jordan attempts to make things right by putting Joe into the body of Bruce Farnsworth, who has just been murdered by his wife and his private secretary.

While Joe is Farnsworth he rights a few of Farnsworth's wrongs. He helps a woman's father get out of jail. Bruce Farnsworth has made him a patsy in a stock swindle. In helping the woman's father, he falls in love with her. Now as romance is ready to blossom, Joe is required to leave Farnsworth's body. He will be put into the body of another boxer who dies in the ring.

In the end the woman and the boxer meet. The woman sees something she recognizes in the boxer and, well we assume, live happily ever after. This happened a lot in the 1940's (at least in the movies).

If you like Heaven Can Wait, you'll like Here Comes Mr. Jordan. It will feel familiar because these are re-makes of eath other. If you've never seen Heaven Can Wait, give this a shot. You'll probably be very happy you did.