Editing One Foot in Heaven

{{short description|1941 US film directed by Irving Rapper}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = One Foot in Heaven
| image          = Original movie poster for the film One Foot in Heaven.jpg
| caption        = Original promo poster for ''One Foot in Heaven''
| director       = [[Irving Rapper]]
| producer       = Irving Rapper
| based_on       = {{based on|''One Foot in Heaven''<br>1940 book|[[Hartzell Spence]]}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/Foot-Heaven-Life-Practical-Parson/dp/B000OO3OAA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387717765&sr=1-1|title=One Foot in Heaven the Life of a Practical Parson|first=Hartzell|last=Spence|date=12 November 2017|publisher=Grosset & Dunlap|access-date=12 November 2017|via=Amazon}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-may-28-me-3661-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times|first=Jon|last=Thurber|title=Hartzell Spence; Coined Term 'Pinup'|date=May 28, 2001}}</ref>
| screenplay     = [[Casey Robinson]]
| starring       = [[Fredric March]]<br>[[Martha Scott]]<br>[[Beulah Bondi]]<br>[[Gene Lockhart]]
| music          = [[Max Steiner]]
| cinematography = [[Charles Rosher]]
| editing        = [[Warren Low]]
| country        = United States
| budget         = 
| gross          = 
| studio         = [[Warner Bros.]]
| distributor    = Warner Bros.
| released       = {{Film date|1941|10|2}}
| runtime        = 108 minutes
| language       = English
}}

'''''One Foot in Heaven''''' is a 1941 American [[biographical film|biographical]] [[drama film]] directed by [[Irving Rapper]] and starring [[Fredric March]], [[Martha Scott]], [[Beulah Bondi]], [[Gene Lockhart]] and [[Elisabeth Fraser]]. The film was adapted by [[Casey Robinson]] from the autobiography by [[Hartzell Spence]]. It was produced and distributed by [[Warner Brothers]]. It was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Picture]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1942|title=The 14th Academy Awards|website=Oscars.org|date=3 October 2014 |access-date=12 November 2017}}</ref>

==Plot==
In [[Stratford, Ontario]], in 1904, William Spence ([[Fredric March]]), a medical student on the verge of becoming a doctor, receives "[[Religious calling|The Call]]" while passing a [[Methodism|Methodist]] church one Sunday. His bride-to-be, Hope Morris ([[Martha Scott]]), accepts his decision to enter the [[Minister (Christianity)|ministry]] with a whole heart despite the disappointment of her prominent and affluent parents.

Will "dives right in," but, with no vacancies in Canada, is posted as a [[circuit preacher|circuit minister]] to a small town in rural [[Iowa]], beginning a life for them of frequent moves around the district, dingy [[parsonage]]s, and scraping a living from poor boxes and performing weddings. Hope yearns for a decent parsonage and a sense of permanence for their children, but uncomplainingly provides them a good life and a supportive home for Will.

For his part, Will understands his own nature and laughs at his own foibles, bending where he can in good conscience. He often enters situations in anger or to instruct but leaves humbled and renewed in spirit. While Will sincerely lives by and teaches by example (which includes his family) the tenets of the Methodist [[Book of Discipline (United Methodist)|''Discipline'']], he also learns from his [[Church (congregation)|congregations]] to be flexible and change with the times.
 
When their third child, a boy, is born, Hope and Will cannot agree on a name and he remains unbaptized for three months. Hope wants to name the baby William Spence Jr., but Will does not like the idea of his son going without a middle name as he did. He wants the boy to have and be called in "the good old Canadian custom" by the middle name of Frazer. Will seems to give in to Hope but the following Sunday baptizes him William Frazer Spence. Hope serenely accepts the change.

Oldest son Hartzell (named for Will's guiding bishop) has a hard time coping with the idea that a minister's son should be an example to the other boys. Will explains that "a pastor's family walks a tightrope, balancing with one foot on earth and one foot already in [[Heaven]]." After learning that Hartzell has been sneaking into the movies, a pastime seemingly forbidden by the ''Discipline'', Will takes him to the theater to point out why the film is bad for him. They see a [[western (genre)|western]] but rather than finding it sinful, Will is impressed by its moral. The following Sunday he preaches a [[sermon]] advising his congregation that young people may have something to teach their elders.

In the 1920s, the family is assigned to a church in [[Denver, Colorado]], that, despite having many well-heeled members, is old, uncomfortable and decrepit. In a time of economic prosperity for the country, the Spences cope with possibly their most dilapidated parsonage yet. Will has come to appreciate his wife's serenity with life and resolves to provide her a decent parsonage by building a new church.

His plans at first are thwarted by power struggles among several snobbish members of the church. He loses one wealthy patron, Mrs. Sandow ([[Beulah Bondi]]), to the [[Baptists]] when he refuses to stop ministering to her chauffeur ([[Harry Davenport (actor)|Harry Davenport]]), and another, influential banker Preston Thurston ([[Gene Lockhart]]), after organizing a children's [[choir]] to replace the off-key church choir, run for years by Mrs. Thurston ([[Laura Hope Crews]]), her family and social circle. Soon after, Hartzell ([[Frankie Thomas]]) is expelled from school because of a gossip campaign falsely accusing him of making a young girl pregnant and forcing her family to move to [[San Francisco]].

A deeply discouraged Will investigates a job offer in [[California]] that offers the beautiful church and parsonage he and Hope have always dreamed of but discovers that he cannot surrender in his struggles with the Thurstons. He seeks out the girl's family and learns that there is no truth to any part of the rumor. Returning to Denver, Will confronts Mrs. Thurston and her circle, who started the rumors to punish Will, and suggests that if they don't contribute substantially to the building of the new church, he will call them out in his sermons.

A repentant Mrs. Sandow begs to return to the church and Will inveigles from her the [[stained glass window]], new [[Ernest M. Skinner|Skinner organ]], and [[carillon]] that as luxuries are being cut from the plans to finance a recreation center for the church. A year later, their dream church and parsonage finished, Will accepts the challenge of returning to Iowa to aid a small church in trouble, confident that he leaves behind a revitalized church when its members, including all those with whom he locked horns, gather spontaneously on a weekday morning to sing "[[The Church's One Foundation]]" as he plays it on the new carillon.

==Cast==
* [[Fredric March]] as William Spence 
* [[Martha Scott]] as Hope Morris Spence 
* [[Beulah Bondi]] as Mrs. Lydia Sandow 
* [[Gene Lockhart]] as Preston Thurston 
* [[Elisabeth Fraser]] as Eileen Spence (aged 17) 
* [[Harry Davenport (actor)|Harry Davenport]] as Elias Samson 
* [[Laura Hope Crews]] as Mrs. Preston Thurston 
* [[Grant Mitchell (actor)|Grant Mitchell]] as Clayton Potter 
* [[Moroni Olsen]] as Dr. John Romer 
* [[Frankie Thomas]] as [[Hartzell Spence]] (aged 18) 
* [[Jerome Cowan]] as Dr. Horrigan 
* [[Ernest Cossart]] as Mr. John E. Morris 
* [[Nana Bryant]] as Mrs. Morris
* [[Hobart Bosworth]] as Richard Hardy Case (uncredited)
* [[Mary Field]] as Tallulah 'Lulu' Digby (uncredited)
* [[Chester Conklin]] as Crying Man (uncredited) 
* [[Jack Mower]] as Man at Baptism (uncredited)

==Reception==
The film was received quite warmly both theatrically and critically, the ''[[New York Times]]'' calling it "a Fine and Human Story of a Minister's Life".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F07E2D6133BEF3ABC4C52DFB767838A659EDE|title=Movie review|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|first=Bosley|last=Crowther|date=November 14, 1941}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/1940/film/reviews/one-foot-in-heaven-1200413526|title=One Foot in Heaven|date=1 January 1941|website=Variety.com|access-date=12 November 2017}}</ref>

==Radio adaptation==
On April 20, 1942, ''[[Lux Radio Theatre]]'' presented a 45-minute adaptation of ''One Foot in Heaven'', with [[Fredric March]] and [[Martha Scott]] reprising their original roles.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Those Were the Days|journal=Nostalgia Digest|date=Spring 2017|volume=43|issue=2|page=33}}</ref> This program was fifteen minutes shorter than the usual 60 minutes in order to make room for a 15-minute government broadcast explaining upcoming [[World War II]]-related [[price controls]].<ref name="Pittsburgh Press">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=M1IbAAAAIBAJ&pg=1455%2C3654147&q=WJAS+1320+Theater+ha+Scott+lalk |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Pittsburgh Radio Programs |page=30 |newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press |date=1942-04-20 |access-date=2021-05-21 }}</ref><ref name="Pittsburgh Post-Gazette">{{cite news |url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=r5RRAAAAIBAJ&pg=2322%2C5384553&q=WJAS+Theater+Features+Martha+Scott+eric+March+One+Heaven+Eastern+War+1320+price+control |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Features Today |page=4 (Daily Magazine) |newspaper=The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=1942-04-20 |access-date=2021-05-21 }}</ref> A second ''Lux'' radio adaptation of ''One Foot in Heaven'', this time airing for a full hour on the summer series ''[[Lux Summer Theatre]]'', aired on July 27, 1953, with [[Dana Andrews]] in the lead role.<ref name="Toledo">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fnpOAAAAIBAJ&pg=3409%2C5017413&q=Dana+Andrews+star+One+Foot+Heaven |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title= Radio Highlights |page=4 (Peach Section) |newspaper=Toledo Blade (Ohio) |date=1953-07-27 |access-date=2023-03-17 }}</ref>

==Notes==
[[Olivia de Havilland]] was originally scheduled for the role of Hope Spence, but was moved over to star opposite [[Errol Flynn]] in ''[[They Died with Their Boots On]]''.<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/357/one-foot-in-heaven#articles-reviews|title=One Foot in Heaven (1941) - Articles - TCM.com|website=Turner Classic Movies|access-date=12 November 2017}}</ref>

[[Raymond Massey]] was [[Hartzell Spence]]'s choice to play his father<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/357/one-foot-in-heaven#trivia|title=One Foot in Heaven (1941) - Trivia - TCM.com|website=Turner Classic Movies|access-date=12 November 2017}}</ref> while his mother preferred [[Fredric March]]. The studio's decision to cast March was made independently of the family's wishes.

The Reverend [[Norman Vincent Peale]] was hired as a technical advisor on the film.<ref name="auto"/>

The film which Spence goes to see with Hartzell is [[William S. Hart]]'s 1917 Western ''[[The Silent Man (film)|The Silent Man]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/357/one-foot-in-heaven#notes|title=One Foot in Heaven (1941) - Notes - TCM.com|website=Turner Classic Movies|access-date=12 November 2017}}</ref> At the Hollywood premiere of the film, Hart was a guest of honor.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/245808|title=One Foot in Heaven|last=Miller|first=Frank|website=Turner Classic Movies|access-date=7 Feb 2018}}</ref>

In an uncredited role, [[Gig Young]] made one of his earlier on-screen performances as a dog groomer seeking a license.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://movies.tvguide.com/one-foot-in-heaven/cast/108204 |title=One Foot in Heaven Cast and Details |access-date=2013-12-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224113124/http://movies.tvguide.com/one-foot-in-heaven/cast/108204 |archive-date=2013-12-24 }}</ref>

The book on which the movie is based takes place and ends well before 1939. However, the use of "Methodist Church" in the film is an impossibility because Methodist faith in America did not unify under the name "[[Methodist Church (USA)|Methodist Church]]" until after the terms of reunification of the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]], the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the Methodist Protestant Church were agreed upon and voted upon in Kansas City in 1939.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0033980}}
* {{TCMDb title|357}}
* {{AFI film|27031}}

{{Irving Rapper}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:One Foot In Heaven}}
[[Category:1941 films]]
[[Category:1941 drama films]]
[[Category:American biographical films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:1940s English-language films]]
[[Category:1940s American films]]
[[Category:Films scored by Max Steiner]]
[[Category:Films about Christianity]]
[[Category:Films based on biographies]]
[[Category:Films set in Colorado]]
[[Category:Films set in Iowa]]
[[Category:Films set in Ontario]]
[[Category:Films set in the 1900s]]
[[Category:Films set in the 1910s]]
[[Category:Films set in the 1920s]]
[[Category:Films directed by Irving Rapper]]
[[Category:Warner Bros. films]]
[[Category:American biographical drama films]]
[[Category:English-language biographical drama films]]