Main Cast: James Burke, Rita Hayworth, Larry Parks, Roland Culver, Jean Donahue, William Frawley, James Gleason, Edward Everett Horton, Marc Platt
Release Year: 1947
Country: US
Run Time: 101 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
A semi-sequel to Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Columbia's Down to Earth is a camp- and kitsch-lover's delight. More beautiful than ever, Rita Hayworth stars as Terpsichore, the Goddess of Dance. From her perch Up Above, Terpsichore discovers that Broadway producer Danny Miller (Larry Parks) intends to put together a musical satire, lampooning herself and her fellow Greek Gods. Eliciting the aid of Heavenly emissary Mr. Jordan (Roland Culver, taking over from the earlier film's Claude Rains), Terpsichore descends to Earth in human form, landing a role in Miller's play. Through her bewitching influence, Miller agrees to abandon his plans for a satire, transforming his production into a portentiously serious "work of art"-which lays a large and noxious egg with the opening-night crowd. Somehow, our ethereal heroine manages to set things right, but there's still one nagging problem: Will she, a goddess, ever be permitted to fall in love with a mere mortal like Miller? Repeating their Here Comes Mr. Jordan roles, James Gleason and Edward Everett Horton appear respectively as the eternally flustered Max Corkle (formerly a fight promoter, now a theatrical agent) and the pompous, rule-bound Heavenly messenger #7013. Silly but immensely entertaining, Down to Earth was remade as the sillier but decidedly less entertaining Xanadu in 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Considering how bad much of it is, Down to Earth is actually kind of fun, even if most of it is of the "what in the world were they thinking?" variety. The production would have benefited from a lighter touch -- not mention a consistency of tone -- but its biggest problem is that the plot is ridiculous and the dialogue alternates between ponderous and ludicrous. Many other musicals have had a similar problem, but they had brilliant (or at least buoyant) scores to help out; Earth's songs are either unmemorable or memorable for the wrong reasons. Fortunately for one and all, there's Rita Hayworth, looking absolutely stunning and exuding enough charm and appeal to help smooth over the many rough spots. She's helped by an attractive physical production, including some of the lushest color around at the time; it may not seem like much on paper, but the combination of Hayworth, the costumes and the particular color choices packs quite a wallop. Add to this some choreography from Jack Cole that is never less than interesting and on occasion is dazzling, and the viewer may find himself having a much better time than anticipated. Neither Larry Parks or Roland Culver help things much -- Parks is given a lousy part, and Culver is too fussy and stuffy -- but some old reliables like James Gleason, Edward Everett Horton and William Frawley do help out. For all its considerable flaws, Earth is heaven compared to its remake, the dreadful Xanadu. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Stephen Goosson - Art Director, Rudolph Sternad - Art Director, Jack Cole - Choreography, Jean Louis - Costume Designer, Wilbur McGaugh - First Assistant Director, Alexander Hall - Director, Viola Lawrence - Editor, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco - Composer (Music Score), George Duning - Composer (Music Score), Heinz Roemheld - Composer (Music Score), Morris W. Stoloff - Composer (Music Score), Morris W. Stoloff - Musical Direction/Supervision, Clay Campbell - Makeup, Rudolph Maté - Cinematographer, Don Hartman - Producer, William Kiernan - Set Designer, George Cooper - Sound/Sound Designer, Edwin Blum - Screenwriter, Don Hartman - Screenwriter, Harry Segall - Play Author
Hayworth stars as the MuseTerpsichore who is annoyed that popular Broadway producer Danny Miller (Parks) is putting on a play which portrays the Muses as man-crazy tarts fighting for the attention of a pair of Air Force pilots who crashed on Mount Parnassus (in mythology, the Muses lived on Mount Helicon). She asks permission from Mr. Jordan to go to Earth and fix the play. Jordan reluctantly agrees and sends Messenger 7013 (Horton) to keep an eye on her.
Terpsichore uses the name Kitty Pendleton and quickly gets an agent, Max Corkle (Gleason), and a part in the show. As the play is being rehearsed, Kitty takes every chance she gets to tell Danny that his depictions of the Muses are wrong. Danny, who has fallen madly in love with Kitty, is soon persuaded to her point of view and alters the play from a musical farce to a high-minded ballet in the style of Martha Graham.
The revised play debuts on the road and is a complete flop. Danny, who is in debt to gangsters who will kill him if the show isn't a success, has no choice but to go back to his original concept. He and Kitty quarrel over this, and Kitty is ready to leave when Mr. Jordan shows up and explains the whole situation. Despite her argument with Danny, Kitty still loves him and decides to save him even if it means damaging her and her sisters' reputation.
Max Corkle hears Kitty talking to Mr. Jordan and realizes this is the same heavenly messenger he had heard about in Here Comes Mr. Jordan. (Corkle makes a reference to the previous movie and tells Mr. Jordan that his old friend Joe Pendleton is doing just fine - and has a wife and two children now.)
Kitty returns to the musical and performs "Swingin' the Muses" the way the producer had intended. When the musical becomes a hit, Terpsichore learns her time on Earth is up and she must return to heaven. After getting Corkle to tell the police about the gangsters, she says she wants to stay with Danny - but she is now invisible to mortals. Mr. Jordan says that she will see Danny again and grants her a vision of their eventual reunion in the afterlife.
In the newspaper montage, the third item in the Lyons Den column reads: "Save up your gas money and go over to Danny McGuire's place in Brooklyn. You'll see the current Vanity cover in the flesh." This is the plot for "Cover Girl", Rita Hayworth's previous movie for Columbia, so in effect, the characters of Kitty Pendleton and Rusty Parker are playing at the same time in different venues, even though they're both played by the same person.
After Kitty and Danny finish their fight about how the information in the play is all wrong, Hayworth picks up a snow globe from a table and throws it at a mirror. It is the same snow globe that Charles Foster Kane drops when he dies in Citizen Kane. Charles Foster Kane was played by Orson Welles, who was Hayworth's husband at the time.
Remakes
The film was given a sequel in 1980 in Xanadu. Confusingly, the 2001 film Down to Earth is a remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan (to which this film, as mentioned above, is a sequel), which was also remade into the 1978 film Heaven Can Wait.
