HEAVEN CAN WAIT: Angels in the Endzone!

  The late 70s saw a couple of blockbuster releases that took a humourous look at the foibles of God.  One was the George Burns classic “Oh, God”.  The other was “Heaven Can Wait.”  Both were good stories.

  If “Heaven Can Wait” had a better conversion rate of Oscar nominations vs wins, it would have been rated one of the best movies of all time.  It had nine Academy Award nominations, including the top five categories of actor, actress and director.  But it was only able to convert on one in a year where the Deer Hunter was tops.  But this is still a great story.

  Joe Pendleton is a star quarterback on a Los Angeles rams team that was considered a shot for the Super Bowl.  But a terrible thing happens to Joe.  He rides his bike into a tunnel and is involved in a collision with a car.  A squeamish angel, new on the job and not wanting to see the carnage, pulls Joe out early.  This horrifies his boss, played by the venerable James Mason, who chastises the new escort for messing with the rules of probability.  As it turns out, Pendleton would have survived, but his body is unfortunately cremated before he can climb back into it!  And so begins the merry-go-round of bodies that Joe tries out in his desperate attempt to make it to the Super Bowl. 

  As the nominations would attest, this movie is loaded with talent.  Warren Beatty is great as Joe Pendleton.  Mason gives his usual brilliant performance.  Dyan Cannon is hilarious in the role of Leo Farnsworth’s wife.  And Julie Christie…..if you can get by her hairstyle that resembles a poodle, is fantastic as the Pagelsham lass who falls in love with whatever body Beatty happens to be in. 

  Heaven Can Wait doesn’t try to make any kind of statement, as so many films of that time period did.  It’s just a fun story that will make you laugh a lot.  In other words, a great way to spend a Saturday night. 

7.5 out of 10