Plot
Charley Appleby is a hardware store owner whose frugality and commitment to his job have enabled his family to avoid poverty during the Great Depression and Prohibition. However, his relationship with his children and wife Nettie (Cloris Leachman) is strained. They especially want to go to see the Chicago World's Fair. His growing sons Willie and Rupert (Vincent Van Patten and Scott Kolden) manage to find work in a junkyard owned by a man named Felix with ties to bootleggers, and his teenage daughter Leonora (Kathleen Cody) decides to elope with a young man named Ray (Kurt Russell), who seems untrustworthy.
Charley is visited by a shabby-looking angel (Harry Morgan) who appears visible only to him. The angel tells Charley that his time will soon be up, and the shopkeeper decides to become religious, patch relations with his family, sell his business, and do the best he can to be a good father and husband before he dies. Charley's angel appears intermittently throughout the film, occasionally helping Charley, and occasionally causing mischief. The angel reveals his name as Roy Zerney.
Charley is initially unsuccessful at effecting change. His gestures are incomprehensible to his wife and children, who see his sudden change of behavior as bizarre, particularly his decision to sell the store. Charley appears ostensibly insane whenever he speaks to, or looks for, the lingering angel who is visible only to him. When Charley tries to take money from his account in the bank, he learns from the banker Ernie (Edward Andrews) that the bank will be closing for a while and may be in danger of foreclosure. He must loan money to son-in-law Ray, and to his friend Pete (George Lindsey). Business tightens, and Charley is running out of time and money.
However, Charley becomes an unlikely hero. His boys begin using a rickety Model T, unknowingly delivering illegal booze by Felix's request, and they are kidnapped and forced to drive away when the Chicago gangsters responsible for the operation are trying to flee the city. Charley personally chases them in the abandoned gangsters' car, dodging gunfire, and the police catch him presuming he is the criminal. While in prison, Roy tells Charley that today will probably be his last day on Earth, but Charley's thoughts are still of his boys.
When he returns home in the evening, Leonora and Ray return for an untimely visit just as the gangsters occupy his house and intend to take Charley's wife as another hostage. Charley defies them and defends his wife and kids with his own life. The fight ends when Charley and Ray, with the assistance of a timely appearance by Pete, succeed in defeating the gangsters and delivering them to the police. In the course of the fight, Charley was shot at point-blank range but miraculously receives no wound.
For capturing the criminals, Charley receives a $5000 reward posted by Chicago's police department. Ernie appears as a representative of the town to honor Charley as a town hero and present him with a hotel reservation and tickets to the World's Fair. He also informs them that the bank examiner has approved the bank's credibility and that it will be reopening tomorrow. Pete has also returned to repay his debt.
Charley, satisfied with the turn of events in his final day, says goodbye to his family and expects that he will still die, but Roy appears and reveals that the eleventh-hour decision in Heaven was to let Charley live. Roy physically intervened and pulled the bullet from the air, thus nullifying the prophecy and clarifying to Charley that he will live on, with an enriched outlook.
Harry Morgan was an American actor whose television and film career spanned six decades. Morgan's major roles included Pete Porter in both December Bride (1954–1959) and Pete and Gladys (1960–1962); Officer Bill Gannon on Dragnet (1967–1970); Amos Coogan on Hec Ramsey (1972–1974); and his starring role as Colonel Sherman T. Potter in M*A*S*H (1975–1983) and AfterMASH (1983–1985). Morgan also appeared as a supporting player in more than 100 films.
Cloris Leachman was an American actress and comedian whose career spanned nearly eight decades. She won many accolades, including eight Primetime Emmy Awards from 22 nominations, making her the most nominated and, along with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, most awarded performer in Emmy history. Leachman also won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award.
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Scott Cary Kolden is an American sound engineer and former child actor. Beginning his professional show business career at the age of eight, Kolden is perhaps best known for his Disney film roles; as Leonard in The Mystery in Dracula's Castle and as Rupert in Charley and the Angel, as well as for his role as Scotty on the NBC Saturday morning children's series Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.
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Yesterday is a 1981 Canadian drama film directed by Larry Kent and starring Vincent Van Patten and Claire Pimparé. It is a love story of a young soldier maimed in Vietnam, who allows his former girlfriend to believe he is dead to spare her anguish.
Kathleen Cody, often credited as Kathy Cody, is an American actress. She is best known for her role as the characters Hallie Stokes and Carrie Stokes, on the television series Dark Shadows, appearing from June 1970 through April 1971. Her career in film and television lasted over 30 years.
Vincent Van Patten is an American actor, former professional tennis player, and the commentator for the World Poker Tour.
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Jump, Darling is a 2020 Canadian drama film directed by Phil Connell. The film stars Thomas Duplessie as Russell, a rookie drag queen reeling from a break-up, who escapes to Prince Edward County, where he finds his grandmother Margaret in steep decline yet desperate to avoid the local nursing home. The film was one of Leachman's final performances before her death in 2021.
