10 Best Carl Reiner Films

Sometimes, you have to work with what you got. But when what you have is George Burns, you're on safe ground, even when the script is written by Larry Gelbart.

Gelbart created the M*A*S*H sitcom after the film's success and, according to Alan Alda, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, is one of the painfully unfunniest writers in Hollywood. His behavior on M*A*S*H led to Alda lampooning his entire persona in Crimes and Misdemeanors.

But of the work Gelbart scripted, Oh, God! is at least harmless - never setting out to be a particularly religious or anti-religious film but instead just that time George Burns was our Lord and savior.

And who better for God to rely on to spread his word than country music star John Denver? Granted, I can think of a few better options, but I'm willing to hear God out.

What works in Oh, God! is essentially everything you'd expect to work: Burns' kindly yet cranky grandfather is an ideal movie God. Morgan Freeman was too busy on The Electric Company for the gig, so Reiner found his seventies contemporary. Burns' God is even less of a lesson-teacher than Freeman, happy just to demonstrate a few miracles or even a card trick.