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Film: In-Flight Movies - Angels On Film

Nick Fearn
Wednesday 10 June 1998 23:02 BST
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Here Comes Mr Jordan (1941, remade in 1978 as Heaven Can Wait)

A bureaucratic oversight sends Robert Montgomery's prize-fighter to Heaven fifty years too soon. With the aid of Claude Rains' celestial guide and Edward Everett Horton's incompetent heavenly dogsbody, he returns to Earth as another man to win the World Championship. The film was much imitated even before its official remake with Warren Beatty.

The Horn Blows At Midnight (1945)

No sooner has trumpeter Jack Benny joined the heavenly choir than he is sent back on a special mission from God to destroy the Earth. Two fallen angels have other ideas and put paid to the scheme. The film itself put paid to Benny's career - he never played a lead again.

It's A Wonderful Life (1946)

Reprised in cinemas last Christmas, a film that smothers you in kisses. Impish guardian angel Henry Travers talks James Stewart out of suicide and gets a promotion in the process. One of the few angel films casting the heavenly host in a good light.

A Matter Of Life And Death (1946)

More heavenly bureaucracy as angel Marius Goring and others argue over the life of injured bomber pilot, David Niven. Goring needs Niven's soul to make up the numbers and balance the books. At least the angels enjoy the comfort of a Heaven decked out like an exclusive Hollywood nightclub.

The Bishop's Wife (1947)

David Niven again, this time as a bishop whose prayers receive personal attention from sophisticated angel Cary Grant. Grant moves in mysterious ways, even flirting with Niven's wife in the process of saving their relationship. He succeeds and also helps Niven to raise the money for his new church. Now, if he'd wanted the money for anything else ...

Nick Fearn

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