Directed by:
Raoul WalshCinematography:
Sidney HickoxComposer:
Franz WaxmanCast:
Jack Benny, Alexis Smith, Allyn Joslyn, Reginald Gardiner, Guy Kibbee, John Alexander, Franklin Pangborn, Margaret Dumont, Robert Blake, Ethel Griffies (more)Plots(1)
Since persecution and hatred have soared out of control, Heaven's "front office" sends Athanael (Benny), a trumpet player in Heaven's orchestra, to Earth to play the first four notes of the "Judgment Day Overture." The notes must be played precisely at midnight from a hotel rooftop to initiate Earth's annihilation, but things become hilariously botched when Athanael is faced with the temptation of money and parties, saving a woman from suicide and having to protect his trumpet from "falling angels," gangsters and a group of young roughnecks, all intent on thwarting his mission. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Jack Benny
USA
Best movies:
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
A Guide for the Married Man (1967)
Alexis Smith
Canada
Best movies:
Rhapsody in Blue (1945)
Gentleman Jim (1942)
The Young Philadelphians (1959)
Allyn Joslyn
USA
Best movies:
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
The Fastest Gun Alive (1956)
I Wake Up Screaming (1941)
Reginald Gardiner
UK
Best movies:
The Great Dictator (1940)
The Lodger (1927)
The Flying Deuces (1939)
Guy Kibbee
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
It Started with Eve (1941)
It's a Wonderful World (1939)
John Alexander
USA
Best movies:
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Winchester '73 (1950)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
Franklin Pangborn
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Stage Door (1937)
Carefree (1938)
Margaret Dumont
USA
Best movies:
A Night at the Opera (1935)
A Day at the Races (1937)
Tales of Manhattan (1942)
Robert Blake
USA
Best movies:
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
In Cold Blood (1967)
Lost Highway (1997)
Ethel Griffies
UK
Best movies:
Waterloo Bridge (1940)
The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)
The White Cliffs of Dover (1944)
Paul Harvey
USA
Best movies:
Sabrina (1954)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Spellbound (1945)
Mike Mazurki
Austria-Hungary
Best movies:
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
Gentleman Jim (1942)
John Garfield
USA
Best movies:
Anni difficili (1948)
Juarez (1939)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Harry Morgan
USA
Best movies:
Inherit the Wind (1960)
Roots: The Next Generations (1979) (series)
The Glenn Miller Story (1954)
Cecil Cunningham
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
It's a Wonderful World (1939)
Monkey Business (1931)
Virginia Patton
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)
Canyon Passage (1946)
Mark Stevens
USA
Best movies:
Rhapsody in Blue (1945)
Objective, Burma! (1945)
Destination Tokyo (1943)
Monte Blue
USA
Best movies:
Gentleman Jim (1942)
Reap the Wild Wind (1942)
Adventures of Don Juan (1948)
Dolores Moran
USA
Best movies:
To Have and Have Not (1944)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
The Ghost Breakers (1940)
Jack Mower
USA
Best movies:
The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)