Beatty's ballgame, an unecessary remake of HERE COMES MR. JORDAN--he produced, co-directed, co-wrote (with Elaine May) and starred as Joe Pendleton, a Los Angeles Rams quarterback who is prematurely ushered to heaven by a bumbling celestial messenger (co-director Henry) after an auto
accident. An archangel, Mr. Jordan (Mason), tries to redress this error by restoring Joe to life in the body of a wealthy industrialist moments after he's murdered by his adulterous wife (Cannon) and the industrialist's nitwit secretary (Grodin). Determined to play in the Super Bowl, Beatty buys
the Rams and hires his old coach (Warden) to help him train, convincing Warden that Beatty has been reincarnated. Beatty also meets and falls in love with Christie, an English environmental activist, but just when it looks as though everything is going to work out, Cannon and Grodin try again.
The title comes from the Harry Segall play, upon which the 1941 JORDAN was based. There are a few laughs from Grodin and Cannon, but Beatty and Christie are like 400-pound gorillas chasing a milkweed seed. The more Beatty concentrates, the more glazed and distracted he looks. The film won an Oscar
for Art Direction--presumably for Beatty's expensive bathrobes, Cannon's mane and the clipped hedges and boxwoods of a California estate. leave a comment
