Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Blistering performances.

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.

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.

"Heaven's Above!" is a wonderful, well-crafted satire that mocks not Christianity but hypocritical and cold "religious" people. It is a British version of "In His Steps" turned on its head and inside-out: what if a sincere believer (Sellers) attempts to live out the gospel in the middle of a spiritually dead English parish? Unchristian attitudes range from the Bishop who complains that Rev. Smallwood (Sellers) "keeps bringing God into everything," to two women arguing over free food they have just (undeservedly) received as handouts telling a black man (Brock Peters) "You don't belong here" under a banner that reads "Love one another."The script is rife with topical political and social comments but the real focus is timeless: do people really believe what they say they believe? Is there a place for Christianity in a secular, materialistic society? The ending, which baffles some, gives the answer to this. All serious questions aside, "Heaven's above!" is a satirical, incisive look at human nature.

This film made a big impression on me when I saw it 30 years ago on late night TV and am glad to say that it's finally available in an excellent DVD transfer. What "I'm All Right Jack" did for unions and management, "Heavens Above" does for clerics and laypeople. It's an honest film about how religious and secular people react to someone who, innocently, tries to act according to Christ's teachings and ends up turning society upside-down. Peter Sellers as the naif Rev. Smallwood turns in one of his most appealing performances. Plenty of hilarious supporting characters (Roy Kinnear, Ian Carmichael, Brock Peters, Bernard Miles) round out the cast. Only script weakness is the last 10 minutes...but we will forgive them charitably in gratitude for the 100 minutes before that!