For Heaven's Sake

Director: George Seaton George Seaton

Overview

When the continual bickering of a married couple threatens to tear them apart, an angel is sent to help them get back together and start making babies in this fantasy. The husband is a busy producer for theatrical shows so the angel disguises himself as a wealthy Westerner looking to invest in a show. He meets the couple at a casino where the angel discovers a special gift for gambling. He is so good that the IRS threatens to intervene and he must be rescued by another angel.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/22/2012
UPC:	0024543827368
Original Release:	1950
Source:	ALLIED VAUGHN
Presentation:	[B&W, Full Frame]
Sound:	[monaural]
Language:	English
Time:	1:27:00
Sales rank:	32,719

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Clifton Webb	Charles / Slim Charles
Edmund Gwenn	Arthur
Joan Bennett	Lydia Bolton
Robert Cummings	Jeff Bolton
Joan Blondell	Daphne
Gigi Perreau	Item
Jack LaRue	Tony
Harry von Zell	Tex
Tommy Rettig	Joe
Dick Ryan	Michael
Charles Lane	Tax Agent
Robert Kent	Joe's Father
Whit Bissell	Doctor
Ashmead Scott	Doctor
Dorothy Neumann	Western Union Woman
Esther Somers	Dowager
Jack Daly	House Detective
Bob Harlow	Elevator Boy
Perc Launders	Doorman
Richard Thorne	Doorman
Albert Pollett	Waiter
Sid Fields	Waiter
Gordon Nelson	Doorman
Arno Frey	Man,Headwaiter
Julie Adams	Joe's Mother
William O'Leary	Gardener
Gilbert Fallman	Jewelry Salesman
Sue Casey	Nurse

Technical Credits

William Perlberg	Producer
George Seaton	Director

Editorial Reviews

Director George Seaton and 20th Century-Fox were obviously hoping for a success akin to their earlier Miracle On 34th Street when they put For Heaven's Sake before the cameras three years later. With Gigi Perreau as a worldly-wise, literally angelic waif -- awaiting the parents that she has "selected," a married, two-career couple played by Robert Cummings and Joan Bennett, to decide that it's time to put their careers aside and start a family -- and Edmund Gwenn present as a whimsical, wry-humored heavenly representative working his powers on Earth, there were similar ingredients there, reminiscent at times -- especially later in the movie -- of the on-screen chemistry between Gwenn and Natalie Wood in the earlier film. Very much at the center of this story, however, is Clifton Webb (sans moustache) as the angel assigned to resolve Perreau's situation, preferably by getting Cummings and Bennett to decide that a marriage requires children. He takes the bull by the horns, materializing in the guise of a would-be investor (i.e. an "angel," in the parlance of the Broadway theater) in playwright/director Cummings' stage production. And in order to pass himself off as a flamboyant millionaire from out west, Webb watches Gary Cooper in The Westerner, and spends the rest of the movie mimmicking many of Cooper's mannerisms and eccentricities. Amazingly, this all works as a amusing comedy/fantasy, and if nothing here is bound up quite as tightly as the story and sentimentality of Miracle On 34th Street, it does make for a diverting 90 minutes of entertainment. Even in its own time, For Heaven's Sake veered to a point almost too cute for its own good, where matters of birth and children are concerned -- interspersed with some nicely acidic asides from Webb (especially when Bennett discusses travel plans "out west") -- but it never quite crosses the line, and the scenes between Perreau and Tommy Rettig (as another child awaiting his long-delayed birth) are very sweet and affecting, especially near the end of the movie. Modern viewers may be uncomfortable with the emotional heartstrings that the fantasy/comedy tugs upon, but the sight of Webb, the waspish metrosexual, mimmicking the laconic, quietly macho Cooper is worth the price of admission. And as a bonus, for those who only remember Harry Von Zell as a comic stooge for George Burns and Gracie Allen, he does an impressive turn here as a comically flamboyant Texan.

All Movie Guide - Bruce Eder