Paul Mini is Eddie Kagel, a tough gangster who is just released from prison after a four-year stretch. He's picked up at the gate by his old friend Smiley, who greets him effusively, considering that he's another hood. The pair drive away, punching each other lovingly on the arms, friends since childhood. "Where's my rod?" asks Muni. "I got it right here," replies the smiling Smiley. "Give it to me," says Muni. Smiley pulls out the gun and shoots Muni dead.
Muni finds himself in hell, which turns out to look a lot like Newark, New Jersey, all flames, furnaces, bubbling mud pots, and "hotter than Florida." The Devil is Claude Raines, who looks pretty Satanic with those kick lights always under his face. The suave Raines makes a deal. He'll take Muni back and plant him in the body of an honest judge. Muni will do his evil act and ruin the good judge's reputation. Then Raines will let Muni give Smiley what's coming to him.
Well -- the best laid plans, you know? Enter the judge's sexy, good-looking girl friend, Anne Baxter. She's so disgustingly virtuous that she's at first shocked by the new judge's lack of social polish. He says things like, "Say, ain't no dame ever put nothing over on me." His manners are pustular. He gulps down double scotches and smokes cigars. And he doesn't know what the hell is going on. He talks to the now-invisible Raines, who is coaxing him on how to be bad, as if Muni needed lessons.
I think the sophisticated viewer can take the plot from here. Baxter converts Muni into a man of the most pure moral thoughts. Muni now loves Baxter but he no longer gropes her at every opportunity. He refuses to kill the treacherous Smiley when he has the chance. The disgusted Raines gives up, returns the original judge, and takes Muni back to hell, where he will be a trustee instead of a stoker. I was a little mixed up about the whereabouts of the original judge, the one Muni, as Kagel, replaced.
No matter. This is a fantasy, and an old one at that. Except for the personae and some plot details, you must have seen it before in one or another of its incarnations -- "Here Comes Mister Jordan," or "Heaven Can Wait," "A Guy Named Joe," "Always." Two of those are remakes of the other two.
It's a pleasant enough diversion, although I wish the writers hadn't confused hydrogen sulfide with H2SO4. They could also have gotten the quote from Dante accurate. It's not "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here." It's "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." Heck, I had to look that up in Wikipedia. It only took a few minutes, and I don't see why the writers couldn't have taken the time.
Muni is often accused of overacting and I guess he does overact, but I didn't mind much. His simian features were a little disturbing. It's difficult to understand how the cute, chubby, petite Anne Baxter could have fallen for a guy who looks like that -- but then he's a big-shot mayor and is headed for the governorship. Okay. I think I do understand.
Muni finds himself in hell, which turns out to look a lot like Newark, New Jersey, all flames, furnaces, bubbling mud pots, and "hotter than Florida." The Devil is Claude Raines, who looks pretty Satanic with those kick lights always under his face. The suave Raines makes a deal. He'll take Muni back and plant him in the body of an honest judge. Muni will do his evil act and ruin the good judge's reputation. Then Raines will let Muni give Smiley what's coming to him.
Well -- the best laid plans, you know? Enter the judge's sexy, good-looking girl friend, Anne Baxter. She's so disgustingly virtuous that she's at first shocked by the new judge's lack of social polish. He says things like, "Say, ain't no dame ever put nothing over on me." His manners are pustular. He gulps down double scotches and smokes cigars. And he doesn't know what the hell is going on. He talks to the now-invisible Raines, who is coaxing him on how to be bad, as if Muni needed lessons.
I think the sophisticated viewer can take the plot from here. Baxter converts Muni into a man of the most pure moral thoughts. Muni now loves Baxter but he no longer gropes her at every opportunity. He refuses to kill the treacherous Smiley when he has the chance. The disgusted Raines gives up, returns the original judge, and takes Muni back to hell, where he will be a trustee instead of a stoker. I was a little mixed up about the whereabouts of the original judge, the one Muni, as Kagel, replaced.
No matter. This is a fantasy, and an old one at that. Except for the personae and some plot details, you must have seen it before in one or another of its incarnations -- "Here Comes Mister Jordan," or "Heaven Can Wait," "A Guy Named Joe," "Always." Two of those are remakes of the other two.
It's a pleasant enough diversion, although I wish the writers hadn't confused hydrogen sulfide with H2SO4. They could also have gotten the quote from Dante accurate. It's not "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here." It's "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." Heck, I had to look that up in Wikipedia. It only took a few minutes, and I don't see why the writers couldn't have taken the time.
Muni is often accused of overacting and I guess he does overact, but I didn't mind much. His simian features were a little disturbing. It's difficult to understand how the cute, chubby, petite Anne Baxter could have fallen for a guy who looks like that -- but then he's a big-shot mayor and is headed for the governorship. Okay. I think I do understand.