Warren Beatty in Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Vitals
Warren Beatty as Joe Pendleton, L.A. Rams quarterback
Los Angeles, February 1978
Film: Heaven Can Wait
Release Date: June 28, 1978
Directed by: Warren Beatty & Buck Henry
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Ahead of the Super Bowl this weekend, one of the movies that the big game always brings to mind for me is Heaven Can Wait, Warren Beatty and Buck Henry’s 1978 remake of Harry Segall’s 1930s play of the same name, which had already been adapted for the screen in 1941 as Here Comes Mr. Jordan.
Beatty stars as Joe Pendleton, an affably simple-minded backup quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams whose sole ambition is to lead his team to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, his dreams are squashed when a celestial mixup delivers Joe to the afterlife way before his time, as his newly promoted guardian angel (Buck Henry) assumed Joe was going to die in a road accident and lifted his soul from his body before the collision to save him the pain.
After discovering that Joe was to survive nearly another half-century until March 2025, the escort confers with his urbane supervisor Mr. Jordan (James Mason), who compromises on a solution to place Joe in another soon-to-be-killed body until they can find a suitably athletic replacement. While within the body of greedy millionaire Leo Farnsworth, Joe meets and falls for the passionate environmental activist Betty Logan (Julie Christie). Joe uses his newfound resources to help Betty’s cause while arranging to buy the Rams to realize his dream of playing in the Super Bowl—even if he has to do so in another body. After Leo’s adulterous wife and her lover finally succeed in killing him, Joe is transported to the body of Tom Jarrett—the Rams’ current quarterback—after he is mortally injured while playing the Super Bowl against the Steelers.
Thus, Tom’s body gives Joe the chance to finally compete in the Super Bowl. After the Rams’ victory, Mr. Jordan once and finally reappears to Joe, assuring him that he will soon forget everything about his previous identities. By the time he’s dressing after the game, Joe has now fully become Tom Jarrett—to the confusion and ultimate dismay of his pal and trainer, Max Corkle (Jack Warden), who had been the only one to know Joe’s secret while he was Leo. Joe/Tom leaves a melancholic Max in the locker room with Joe’s old soprano sax, only to encounter Betty in the hallway outside. Betty recognizes a familiar spark in Tom’s eye, allowing herself to open her heart to the prospect of a promising future together.
What’d He Wear?
Before his untimely death, Joe Pendleton rarely appeared in anything more formal than his gray sweats or the occasional T-shirt and jeans before we saw him working his way through Leo Farnsworth’s opulent wardrobe of elegant evening-wear and nautical garb. After he’s transferred into Tom Jarrett’s body, he presumably dresses in Jarrett’s clothes after winning the Big Game—a simple and stylishly sporty casual look typical of the ’70s but also easily adapted to modern fashions.
Joe/Tom’s waist-length leather jacket is made from a dark-brown lambskin with dark-brown plastic zippers and buttons to match it. The straight front zip can be zipped all the way up to covert the collar into a standing funnel-neck, though Joe/Tom keeps it zipped low with the collar worn flat. The raglan sleeves are finished with single-button cuffs that Joe/Tom wears unfastened. The side pockets are framed by large seams, accessed through straight vertical zip entries.
Remembering Joe/Leo’s earlier words, Betty realizes “you’re the quarterback…” and accepts Joe/Tom’s invitation to coffee or somethin’.
Rather than the loud-printed sport shirts of the era, Joe/Tom wears a restrained ecru poplin shirt that could have also been worn with a suit and tie. Only the fashionably long-pointed collar belies its ’70s provenance, as the shirt otherwise demonstrates a standard design with its seven-button plain front and single-button barrel cuffs. The curved hem is meant to be tucked in, which Joe/Tom does before leaving the locker room.
Joe/Tom’s light stone-colored gabardine flat-front trousers have side pockets but no back pockets—a common trend in ’70s menswear that emphasized cleaner lines around the hips and thighs. He pulls a dark-brown leather belt through the waistband belt loops, coordinating with his dark-brown leather boots.
Consistent with the decade’s cowboy boot fad even with non-western outfits, these boots have plain pointed toes and shafts that rise above mid-calf—evident by the top of the shaft pushing through the only minimally flared plain-hemmed bottoms of his trousers.
On his way out of the locker room, Joe/Tom straps on his gold wristwatch, though this hardly gets any screen-time and—of course—isn’t the stainless Hamilton Pulsar LED watch which Joe had worn before his rapture.
How to Get the Look
Warren Beatty in Heaven Can Wait (1978)
While generally avoiding the excess of ’70s menswear trends, Super Bowl-winning quarterback Joe Pendleton Tom Jarrett brings a sporty flair to the otherwise staid business casual trappings of an off-white poplin shirt and stone slacks with his fashionable dark-brown leather zip-front jacket and matching boots.
- Dark-brown lambskin leather waist-length jacket with full front-zip, convertible collar, two vertical zip-entry side pockets, and raglan sleeves with single-button cuffs
- Ecru poplin long-sleeved shirt with long point collar, plain front, and single-button barrel cuffs
- Stone flat-front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and slightly flared plain-hemmed bottoms
- Dark-brown leather belt
- Dark-brown leather plain-toe cowboy boots
- Gold wristwatch
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
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