Heaven Can Wait (1978) on Netflix
PG19781h 41mComedyFantasyRomance
A guardian angel plucks Joe Pendleton, a Los Angeles Rams backup quarterback, out of his body before his time. His corpse cremated, Joe is placed in a murdered industrialist's body.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.9/1025,981 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes88%
Trailer
Plot summary
Joe Pendleton is a backup quarterback with the Los Angeles Rams, named the starter for the team's next game and a man who relaxes by playing the soprano saxophone badly. Riding his bicycle through a tunnel, he is pulled out of his body by an overeager guardian angel on a first assignment who thinks a truck is about to hit him. Mr. Jordan, the angel's superior, learns that Joe was not due to die for nearly fifty years, and that nothing remains of his old body. A substitute is needed, and Joe is given the body of Leo Farnsworth, a millionaire industrialist. Julia Farnsworth and Tony Abbott are astonished when Leo turns up alive, and his household is puzzled by his altered habits. Betty Logan, an activist from Paglesham, comes to protest a Farnsworth factory's practices.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Warren Beatty became the first and to date only person nominated for producing, directing, writing and acting on the same film, with Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor nods, and the film won for Best Art Direction.
- Beatty initially wanted Muhammad Ali to play the central character, but because of Ali's continued commitment to boxing, Beatty changed the character from a boxer to an American football player and played him himself.
- Beatty lobbied hard for Cary Grant to take the role of Mr. Jordan, going so far as to have Grant's ex-wife Dyan Cannon, who stars as Julia Farnsworth, urge him to accept. Grant was tempted but decided not to end his retirement from film-making.
- Neil Diamond composed a song titled Heaven Can Wait specifically for the film, thinking it would make a good theme song, but Beatty declined to use it, and the Paul McCartney and Wings song Did We Meet Somewhere Before? was also ruled out.
- The Super Bowl game between the Steelers and the Rams was filmed during halftime of the San Diego Chargers versus Los Angeles Rams preseason game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on September 1, 1977; about a year and a half after the film's release the two teams met in the real Super Bowl XIV.
- Several former Los Angeles Rams players have cameo roles, including Deacon Jones, Les Josephson, Jack T. Snow, Jim Boeke and Charley Cowan, while the sportscasters Curt Gowdy and Al DeRogatis can be heard doing the Super Bowl play-by-play commentary.
