Off-topic pointless trivia: Batesville is a small town (pop. ~6,500) in southeastern Indiana roughly halfway between Cincinnati and Indianapolis. Nice little German-American village in the middle of all those Indiana cornfields, and they have a casket company in which Harry S Truman, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Regan, Gerald Ford, Bob Hope, Wilt Chamberlain, Farrah Fawcett, Fred Astaire, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, etc. are all buried.
And Leo Farnsworth too, apparently. 
Wow, how hard is it to spell Ronald Reagan’s name? :smack:
Might as well add Aretha Franklin and James Brown to the list of customers while I’m here.
I mentioned Batesville Casket Company because their slogan on their trucks is “Drive safely…Heaven can wait!”
I don’t live too far from Batesville, and I have been there many times. The town is practically owned by the Hillenbrand family, an extremely wealthy and conservative family that owns controlling interest in both Batesville Casket Company and Hill-Rom (hospital beds, related accessories). They are the largest manufacturers of their respective products on the planet.
Fun fact: in the USA, it’s very likely you’ll be born on a Hill-Rom hospital bed, get sick and die on one, then get buried in a Batesville Casket. Cradle to grave business model!
And yes, the Hillenbrand family is VERY proud of the celebrities that are buried in their caskets but I think the Reagans were buried in similar mahogany caskets made by Marsellus, a now defunct casket company.
I wonder if Jason Gay, columnist for the Wall Street Journal is a Doper? He has a column on superbowl quarterbacks today that is all about this movie.
Is it streamable?
ABC news reported during Jackson’s funeral that Ronald Reagan was also buried in a Batesville casket, but I read where Nancy was buried in a Marsellus. Not sure of the accuracy of ABC’s reporting, as Batesville doesn’t publicly (at least overtly) advertise their customers for dignity’s sake.
Batesville Casket owns them now, or at least their name and/or their product line. Not sure of the timeline, so with all the uncertainty clearly I can’t refute your claim!
To veer this discussion slightly back on track, I saw Heavan Can Wait in a second-run theater in '78-'79 and now after reading this thread I really want to revisit it!
Here’s the WSJ interview with Beatty: https://www.wsj.com/articles/my-talk-with-legendary-rams-quarterback-warren-beatty-11548264061
That would have to be the creepiest company to work in with all those people buried there.
I saw this when it first came out and loved it at roughly the age of 17. Every time I have a chance to see it on television I enjoy it although sometimes it’s chopped to pieces.
The writing, performances and editing are absolutely spectacular.
I always cry at the ending.
Watching the two of them on screen is like watching Woody Allen with Diane Keaton on screen.
" I know you. "
" I know ".
“Here. Hold my hand. It’s going to be ok.”
Ha, touché, Disgruntled Penguin!
You better believe Batesville keeps its 245 trioxin securely stored. Louisville is still in everyone’s memory.
Yeah, the original was much more heartfelt to me. The Warren Beatty version felt superficial in comparison to me. Didn’t care for Beatty in the role, either. But I’m a Robert Montgomery fan, so maybe that explains my preference.
Put me in this category as well. I loved it when it came out and find that much of it’s story, acting and production values hold up today. IMO, still a fantastic movie.
I mentioned the unrelated Heaven Can Wait earlier with Don Ameche that I like so much…hell, I even love the Meatloaf song.
Whenever Brady or another top QB gets sacked, I always say, “Sorry, Mr. Farnsworth.”
Love the film. Good time to watch it too!
Sorry to double-post and resurrect at the same time, but I’m re-watching Beatty’s version again and I have to say, if there’s really a deity out there and I meet it, it should look and sound like James Mason. As Roger Ebert said in his review, Mason, “ who somehow needs no preparation for this particular role…”
Dyan Cannon and Charles Gordon are priceless and the look on Jack’s face when Farnsworth (Pendleton) plays his sax is beyond how good it should look.
How nervous will Warren Beatty be when March 20, 2025, rolls around?
I think the same could be said for the original. Claude Rains was perfect as Mr. Jordan.
I’m now imagining swapping Claude Rains and James Mason in each of their roles ever, and I see no problem.
They are both great character actors, I do think that would work. I do wonder if Mason would lack a little as Capt Renault, but I can’t think of another where it would be an issue.
Weird one, I don’t think Rains would have been as good as Mason as Capt Nemo. So there we go, they can’t exchange Captains but anything else.
He probably thinks this movie is about him.