Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

JohnHowardReid A Boulting Brothers Production for British Lion-Romulus, filmed at Shepperton Studios. Copyright 1963 by Charter Film Productions. New York opening at the Sutton: 20 May 1963. U.S. release through Janus Films: May 1963. U.K. release through British Lion: 8 September 1963. London opening: 23 May 1963. Australian release through British Empire Films: November 1963. Sydney opening at the State. 10,638 feet. 118 minutes. Cut to 105 minutes for U.S. release. (Available on an excellent Optimum DVD. Starz/Anchor Bay have the PAL version for U.S.A. customers. Alas, I can't say if this version is the censored U.S.A. release. You'll need to check the running time).SYNOPSIS: Due to a clerical error, the wrong Reverend Smallwood is appointed to the living of a conservative British town.NOTES: Number eight on the 1963 list of the top money-making films released in the U.K. VIEWER'S GUIDE: Most suitable for all, although of course, parents, teachers and clergy should prepare themselves to answer some very tricky questions.COMMENT: I missed out on seeing the American version of this film. If the cutting has been loving and sympathetic, "Heavens Above!" would offer marvelous entertainment. For the only thing wrong with the film as shown in England is that it tends to out-stay its welcome. The producers should have taken up the good old blue pencil at the scripting stage. Or they should have had the courage to cut themselves, not leave it to Janus. I suppose they felt they'd spent so much money that they wanted to see it all on the screen. For most of its running time, "Heavens Above!" is an enjoyable if heavy-handed farce that benefits from its never-ending parade of dependable British character players handing out emphatically pointed lines of satire. The film even dares to raise troublesome questions of Christian social morality. And of course it really puts the boot into the Church of England's administration. The film deserves to be taken seriously, even if the Boultings themselves are obviously unsure how importantly their Smallwood is meant to be taken. Sellers, however, leaves no doubt in his sermons, all of which are presented with transparent sincerity. In fact, except for the final absurdities, Sellers provides a finely etched, well-rounded characterization. It's a pity the director forces him to lapse now and again into slightly inappropriate slapstick.Production values are first-class, with a special pat on the back to Albert Witherick for his marvelously dingy, appropriately rundown church and vicarage sets.

tieman64 Another satire by directors John and Roy Boulting, "Heavens Above!" stars Peter Sellers as a Christian chaplain who takes over the running of a small church. To the chagrin of local businessmen, clerics and land owners, Sellers' "progressive" beliefs upset the status quo; he offers charity to the poor, is friendly with Afro-Caribbean men and lets a family of squatters live in his church. How dare he!? The Boulting Brothers' "I'm All Right Jack" pitted capitalists versus communists and union workers. "Heavens Above!" does something similar, portraying Christian values as being unsustainable, irrational and downright ill-effective in a world governed by both the logic of capitalism and the golden calves of profit and private land ownership. Ill-equipped for this world, Sellers' character finds himself locked in a rocket and blasting off into outer space. For the idealistic chaplain, Christianity and planet Earth itself are incompatible (thus "heaven's above"). Of course the opposite is also true; "earthly" capitalism heavily depends upon different forms of "Christian" welfare. In Britain, it was itself via the burgeoning welfare state which capitalism co-opted and neutralised "threatening" Christian socialists and worker movements.Though "Heavens Above!" wastes a good premise, the always watchable Peter Sellers elevates things. His chaplain is idealistic, kind-hearted, but tragically pushed to a point of near-total disillusionment. Forgotten by most film-lovers, the Boulting Brothers anticipate the works of Lindsay Anderson.7.5/10 – Worth one viewing.

craig hill Everybody is skewered in this potentially really good film, which falters as noted, no one comes out looking great, Christian, non- Christian, charity cases, welfare cheats, oblivious do-gooders, selfish non-do-gooders alike, with great insight offered on all of the above throughout. The primary comment seems to be that modern times has gotten Christianity right, that its message is obsolete, that the govt has filled in for dwindling public charity because society has moved from giving to being provided for---to the extent that the tattered welfare state is continuing. The oft-castigated ending was aqdded to continue in this vein the idea that Christianity, which doesn't work on Earth any more, may work better in its only alternative left, outer space, by sending broadcasts down from the heavens. At least that's the message the Boultings seemed to have wanted us to get, tho few on this site have. Like those few films that try to deliver important stories but don't quite work, the effort was worth it. Sellers plays his character perfectly, the entire cast is very good, the script is excellent for what it's trying to accomplish, and the ending, which does seem tacked on and out of place, is actually the logical extension to the quandary of Christianity in modern times that's displayed through the film.

Bill Slocum "Heavens Above!" is a barbed satire that cuts both ways, ridiculing organized religion for its complacence and its unrealistic aspirations and humanism regarding the perfectibility of man, especially the working-class kind. Though far from the funniest Peter Sellers comedy, it certainly is worthy in its own unique way.Sellers plays Rev. John Smallwood, an Anglican prison chaplain accidentally assigned to the affluent community of Orbiston Parva. A sincere man of faith, Smallwood tries to drum up a little church fervor from his largely lapsed congregation, preaching the Gospel as Living Word rather than as aural wallpaper for weddings and funerals. Yet every earnest effort only stokes greater amounts of selfishness, even brutality."There aren't enough real Christians about to feed a decent lion," Smallwood laments.At the same time, he must deal with the miserable quality of the clergy around him, like his own bosses in the Church of England hierarchy who strain only to keep their rich donor base happy and generous or the odd Pentecostal preacher who offers up damnation-filled sermons: "It's only the fires of hell that keep the churches warm.""Heavens Above!" is a comedy of despair. If there is a God, it seems to say, He has better sense than to waste His time with blighted human riffraff like the Smiths, an itinerant family who leeches off Smallwood while feigning piety. Sellers is terrific, though in a largely straight performance, pulling us in with his naive gentility to the point where a lot of the gags turn painful when he is the butt of humor. The closest Sellers gets to laugh-getting - other than when Smallwood unknowingly snacks from a bowl of dog treats - is the opening, where he provides an uncredited voice-over as an American narrator introducing us to the uninspiring sight of Orbiston Parva. However much he stumbles and is tripped up, Smallwood is simply too nice a character to laugh at.For all the apparent agnosticism in "Heavens Above", there's a strain of true religious belief in Smallwood's situation. Perhaps it's because the idea came from Malcolm Muggeridge, the last faith-friendly satirist England has produced. Smallwood is presented as a man of good works, but also doctrinal zeal. His scorn for the local pep-pill product "Tranquilax", it seems, is largely due to its proclaiming itself the "three-in-one restorative". For him, the only 3-in-1 restorative is the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost."Heavens Above!" is also interesting for the fact it catches Sellers just on the cusp of becoming an international star, still relatively round in body, making one of his last films aimed exclusively at his home British market. Like the later "Hoffman" and "Being There", this shows just how well Sellers could carry a film without resorting to silly accents or slapstick.The film's directors, John and Roy Boulting, do well to set Sellers up with an ace supporting cast recognizable from other Sellers productions of the period, including George Woodbridge and Cecil Parker as a pair of agreeably venal curates; Irene Handl and Eric Sykes as Mr. and Mrs. Smith, heads of a scruffy, thieving clan; and Kenneth Griffith as the fire-and-brimstone preacher.If only they cut that silly ending! There's other issues, too, like a penchant for slow camera zooms without reason, and the way the movie piles on Smallwood at the expense of comedy, but the out-of-left-field ending stings worst, an attempt at giving the film a falsely up note. Alas, when you really think about it, it only leaves Smallwood worse off than ever.But you do care about the guy, a sign someone was doing something right. Obviously that includes Peter Sellers. With more laughs and a tighter ending, "Heavens Above!" would have ranked among his greatest films. As it is, it's pretty good all the same, food for thought in our secular times.