For Heaven's Sake

A movie that recently got taken out of the Fox vaults for running on FXM is For Heaven's Sake. It's going to be on again tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM, although apparently not for some time after that.

Clifton Webb plays Charles, an angel who has a problem he has to deal with down on earth. Apparently one of the junior angels, "Item" (Gigi Perreau), has gotten it into her head that she wants to be born. And, she's found the perfect couple to be born to, the Boltons. Jeff (Robert Cummings) is a successful theater director, while his wife Lydia (Joan Bennett) is the female lead in all of their plays. They live in a deluxe duplex in Manhattan with enough servants that Item thinks they'd make great parents to her.

There's just one problem. Jeff is definitely married to his work, and Lydia is dedicated to the stage even if she's more than ready to take a vacation. Starting a family seems not in the cards, and if they can't resolve whether to do another play, who knows if the marriage will survive. Not that Item cares; she's insistent upon their being her parents, and she's not going to leave. Charles and his partner Arthur (Edmund Gwenn) are sent to fetch Item.

Eventually Charles comes up with an idea. Item knows that if the Boltons can just have one more successful play, that will satisfy them enough and bring back the spark to their lives such that they'll start a family and Item can be born. Charles is going to "materialize" in human form and use his powers to persuade Jeff and Lydia to do the new play and start a family. Not that it's going to be easy.

Charles shows up at the racetrack as a rancher channeling Gary Cooper, and has a "chance" meeting with Jeff and Lydia that convinces them to offer a new play written by their friend Daphne (Joan Blondell) for "Slim Charles" to back. Not that he has the money having just come down from heaven. But Charles goes down to the Bolton's farm for a weekend to discuss the play. Daphne is very clearly attracted to Charles, which presents all sorts of problems. Among them is her ex-boyfriend Tony who doesn't want anybody else to have Daphne. Charles wins a bet with another rancher that results in the other guy backing the play and getting the profits, and Charles winning a $10,000 consolation. Tony reports Charles to the IRS, threatening to scupper everything.

For Heaven's Sake is a pleasant enough diversion, although in terms of angel movies there are a lot of better movies, starting with The Bishop's Wife and Here Comes Mr. Jordan. Still, you could do worse than to waste 85 minutes with For Heaven's Sake. You know it's going to have a happy ending, but how it gets there is the fun part. Clifton Webb's attempt at playing a Texan, or some sort of rancher, has to be seen to be believed. Edmund Gwenn is good, as always, and I really liked the plot twist of bringing in the IRS. Perreau comes across as a bit too cloyingly precocious, but that's in part because the character is written that way.

For Heaven's Sake is available on DVD at Amazon courtesy of Fox's MOD scheme, but for some reason doesn't show up at the TCM Shop, which is why I was thinking it might be out of print. To be honest, I'm not so sure I'd spend MOD prices on it, but I've also seen a lot worse.