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Heaven Can Wait

427 votes

Joe Pendleton is a quarterback preparing to lead his team to the superbowl when he is almost killed in an accident. An overanxious angel plucks him to heaven only to discover that he wasn't ready to die, and that his body has been cremated. A new body must be found, and that of a recently-murdered millionaire is chosen. His wife and accountant—the murderers—are confused by this development, as he buys the L.A. Rams in order to once again quarterback them into the Superbowl.

Status: Released

Released Date: 1978-06-28

Runtime: 101 mins

Director: Buck Henry, Warren Beatty

Spoken language: English

Genres: Fantasy, Comedy, Romance

Original title: Heaven Can Wait

Production Companies: Paramount Pictures

Production Countries: United States of America

Cast

Warren Beatty

Julie Christie

James Mason

Jack Warden

Charles Grodin

Dyan Cannon

Buck Henry

Vincent Gardenia

Joseph Maher

Hamilton Camp

Arthur Malet

Stephanie Faracy

Jeannie Linero

Harry D.K. Wong

Reviews

Geronimo1967

Maybe Warren Beatty was also a fan of Powell & Pressburger as this has shades of "Matter of Life and Death" (1946) to it. Rather than a fighter pilot though, it's quarter-back "Joe" (Beatty) who is erroneously selected to take the Concorde to heaven. He protests to supremo "Jordan" (James Mason) who discovers that his new charge is still supposed to have another fifty-odd years with his mortal coil. OK, let's just put him back. Ah, well no - he has already been cremated. That's just one jigsaw puzzle too much, even for the celestial. "Jordan" decides that he can borrow the body of someone next in the queue, and he settles on millionaire industrialist "Farnsworth". This man has more enemies that he'd care to count, not least his scheming wife (Dyan Cannon) and the pesky British campaigner "Betty" (Julie Christie) who is adamant that her local village isn't going to be demolished to make way for an oil refinery. Now safely ensconced his new body, he only has thoughts of going back to playing ball - only now he can afford to actually buy a team. Re-uniting with coach "Max" (Jack Warden) whom he manages to convince of his true identity, we now embark on a gentle comedy that extols the virtues of team building and environmentally aware business practice. Cannon steals this as the plotting spouse, but Mason doesn't really make much impact and otherwise it's all just a rather blandly predictable offering that has it's moments but just not enough of them. Watchable, though, on a wet afternoon if it's on the telly.

2024-11-23

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