Heaven Only Knows (film)

Plot summary

Due to a clerical error in heaven, a man who was to become a solid citizen and community leader, Duke Byron (Brian Donlevy), is born without a soul and instead becomes a corrupt gambling hall owner. To his dismay, he discovers that he has a guardian angel, Mike (Robert Cummings), who shows up in the guise of an Eastern tenderfoot, sent to help put Duke on the life path for which he was originally destined.

Mike returns to 1887 and the town of Glacier, Montana, where rival saloon owners Duke and Plummer also both want the deed to a rich copper mine. Mike makes sure Duke meets schoolmarm Drusilla Wainwright, knowing they were fated to be together but under orders not to work miracles or interfere.

Duke mistakenly believes Mike to be the Kansas City Kid, a gunfighter out to kill him. His henchman Treason decides to burn down Plummer's saloon, but a sickly child Duke likes, Speck O'Donnell, is trapped inside. Duke rescues him. Drusilla begins to fall in love with Duke, hoping he has seen the error of his ways.

A gunfight is arranged between Duke and Plummer to see which one gets the mine. A town drunk is killed by mistake, whereupon Duke shoots Plummer, angering the townspeople. Vigilantes intend to hang Duke, and when they can't catch him, they decide to lynch Mike instead. At the last minute, Duke is able to save Mike's life and reform his own. Mike rides off into the sunset and toward heaven, with the young boy Speck by his side.

Cast