Angel on My Shoulder

Yesterday, I watched a very old movie (1946) which involved a gangster getting a second chance at life, after he was shot dead by his partner. The devil, played by Claude Rains, had made Eddie an offer he couldn’t refuse: take the place of a judge running for Governor of the state, in order to blacken his name; in return, Eddie would be allowed to get his revenge on his old partner, Smiley.

As things progressed, Eddie fell for the judge’s fiancee, Barbara, and acting true to his own nature, reacted to people and events in such a way that he foiled the devil’s plans and even made a hero out of the judge. When given the chance to avenge his own death, he didn’t, and thereby hangs the tale.

What is a “Walk-in”?

‘A walk-in is a new age concept of a person whose original soul has departed his or her body and has been replaced with a new soul, either temporarily or permanently.’

The idea that this could happen goes back to WWII, when soldiers coming back from the front lines of battle would seem to be changed somehow.

The implication was that the person had died and come back to life, only with different interests and personality. No one understood Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in those days.

Here Comes Mr. Jordan

This wasn’t the first movie to feature a “walk-in”. In 1941, Claude Rains got to play an ‘angel’, Mr. Jordan, who helps the hero of this story ‘fulfill’ his destiny by allowing him to become someone else, after he was involved in a vehicle accident. That accident wasn’t supposed to happen, but his original body, a boxer, was destroyed when it did happen.

In the end, he gets to switch bodies again, and ends up in the championship fight of his life.

This movie was remade in our era as “Heaven Can Wait” starring Warren Beatty as a football Quarterback (QB) who goes through the same body switches, only to play in the Superbowl.

The ‘deja vu’ scene which allows the heroes to recognize each other is played here:

Conclusion

The purpose of the “walk-in” theory, seems to me, to be a substitute for Reincarnation. In our speeded-up, modern society, we don’t want to wait for another lifetime to finish the work we left undone, when we die.

However, we need to bear in mind that NOW is the time and HERE is the place to do our best. Don’t wait for another opportunity; it might never come again.

Picture Credits

Angel on My Shoulder courtesy of google.com

Here Comes Mr. Jordan courtesy of google.com