 |
Year
: 1947
Director:
Henry Koster
Starring:
Cary Grant, Loretta
Young, David
Niven |
The Bishop's Wife
The
story centres around Henry, an episcopalian Bishop,
who has devoted quite some months on plans for
a brand new Cathedral (and raising the money to
pay for it). Unfortunately both his family life
and his religious duties have found themselves
pushed far into the background during this time.
Praying fpr help and guidance Henry is rewarded
with an angel, named Dudley, being sent down
to help him out. Dudley relieves some of his
Henry's heavy burden by charming the parishioners
and raising the required funds. With Christmas
approaching Dudley helps raise the christmas spirits
of Henry's wife Julia - a little too helpfully
for Henry's liking.
Until
a few years ago this used to be practically a staple
of the Christmas holiday TV schedules, but nowadays
it much harder to find which is a shame as it is
really charming old movie. Cary Grant is obviously
a required taste, but this is certainly amongst
his best movies. David Niven steals the film as
the title character of Bishop Brougham - its strange
to think that Niven was originally cast as the
angel and Grant as the Bishop, with the roles only
being reversed after initial shooting had started
and the studio bosses were unhappy with the original
results. The christmas spirit goes along really
well with the film with christmas shoppers, skaters,
and also most obviously benefiting from its associated
ecclesiastical tone, the choir. Overall it is
a great movie, shame it seems to be fading from
the public view. By the way avoid the dreadful
1990's remake named The Preachers Wife.
The
Bishop's Wife a
good film if you can find it in the schedules. It
is placed at December 3rd in our Christmas
movies guide (USA edition)
Buy
this film and more from our Christmas
DVD store in association with Amazon.com