Here Comes Mr. Jordan - Alexander Hall
Joe’s soul is taken too early and this is heaven’s attempt to set things right. The angel sent to collect his soul is on his first mission and plucks him from his plane too early.
There is a debate that follows and it turns out that Joe wasn’t supposed to be taken for many years. A senior angel, Mr. Jordan, is placed on the case.
They return to earth and the investigation about where his body has gone ensues. It’s all very funny because Joe spends the entire film forgetting that he can’t affect the world and people cannot hear him when he is in spirit form.
His body has already been cremated once they find out where it is. The new offer is for anybody they can find.
Joe doesn’t love this because he still wants to be a world champion boxer. The other issue is that they have to put him into the body exactly when he dies.
Joe doesn’t love the idea because he wants a particular body – he wants to be in tip-top shape to become the next boxing world champion. While they are searching for that Mr. Jordan convinces Joe to become Mr. Farnsworth, who his wife and secretary have just murdered.
The way the transfer works is that Joe has to go into the body right as it dies. We still see and hear Joe. The rest of the world sees and hears the old Mr. Farnsworth. Hilarity ensues.
Joe saves the girl by buying back a lot of stock which makes his board of directors super mad. Joe doesn’t care. He sees ads for the title fight he was supposed to be having and decides to get in shape.
He gets his old manager back and convinces him of the truth. Another great scene. So they make plans to set up for the title fight.
Unfortunately, Mr. Fansworth gets murdered again and Joe has to move on to another body. And the other body is the old world champion – Murdoch – who gets shot while he is in the ring.
Joe wins the fight and gets his dream. Now everything that is set earlier on becomes important. Joe is now going to become Murdoch and lose Joe. This is the demoneaux so not part of the story per se.
The loss of self through becoming Murdoch isn’t a terrible plot point because the story is finished when that happens. It’s an exciting way to end the film because Joe doesn’t become the world champion – Murdoch does but Joe is Murdoch.
He has told the lady he saved as Farnsworth that she may know him as a different person when they meet by the way his eyes look. So he bumps into her right after the fight before he has lost himself completely and she sees the thing in his eyes. Great idea and well played with. They set up the rules of how this could all work and go to town on it—really great film making.
