How does a frustrated Episcopal bishop thwart divine intervention and win back the affections of his wife? This was just one question answered in Henry Koster’s triumphant romantic fantasy, The Bishop’s Wife (1947). Not particularly well received upon its’ initial release, today the film is widely regarded as a superb holiday classic and rightfully so. Casting is inspired, with the theme of ‘good will toward mankind’ made all the more rich with the passage of time, since it is a quality sorely lacking in our contemporary festive film fodder. Adapted by Leonardo Bercovici and Robert E. Sherwood from a novel by Robert Nathan the film tells the story of a man challenged in his faith. In desperation and prayer he asks for divine intervention and is granted that request, though not without its own set of consequences.
The bishop, Henry Brougham (David Niven) has been working for months on plans for the new George B. Hamilton cathedral. However, funding for the project has reached an impasse when stoic widow, Mrs. Hamilton (Gladys Cooper) demands that its religious iconography take on the continence of a shrine to her late husband. Losing sight of his commitments to his family, wife Julia (Loretta Young) and young daughter, Debbie (Karolyn Grimes), as well as his flock of parishioners, Henry seeks guidance from God. He also needs to be taught a lesson.
Enter the charming and somewhat devilishly playful angel, Dudley (Cary Grant). Revealing his true identity only to Henry, Dudley rekindles a spark of romance in Julia – but more for him than for Henry. After the bishop is detained with another round of committee meetings, Dudley meets Julia at the park where Debbie is engaged in a rousing snowball fight. Sending the child off with the bishop's housekeeper, Matilda (Elsa Lanchester) Dudley takes Julia to lunch at Chez Michel, the restaurant where Henry proposed, and the place of so many happy memories for her from days gone by. He reads her palm explaining, "I see a woman who's adored...you were born young and that's how you'll always remain."
Dudley also becomes instrumental in inspiring a very old friend of the Broughhams, Professor Wutheridge (Monty Woolley) to write his Roman history text book - a project effectively killed when Mrs. Hamilton had Wutheridge fired from the university for his 'progressive' teachings.
Later, Dudley arrives at the widow Hamilton's stately manor, playing a composition by the late Allen Cartwright - the only man Mrs. Hamilton ever loved but ultimately the lover she shunned for the security of her late husband's money. Hearing the composition played on a harp in her living room, the widow is stirred to kindness; the experience ultimately softening her heart toward the bishop.
This was Samuel Goldwyn’s personal production; a holiday film that ultimately developed into so much more than initially planned. In the embodiment of Cary Grant, there is a genuine sense of otherworldly presence. Veering between his usual naughtiness, but on this occasion infused with a saintly veneer, Grant is utterly believable as the angel with an agenda.
Two of the film’s most poignant scenes illustrate Dudley’s supernaturally manipulative presence. The first occurs when Dudley modestly recants the Biblical story of David and the lion to a young and wide-eyed Debbie. The tale is told with such sincerity that it draws Matilda, Henry, Julia and the bishop's secretary, Mildred Cassaway (Sara Haden) from their daily chores - effectively pausing time for a brief moment out of their otherwise complicated and busy lives. The second scene takes place inside Henry’s forgotten church, St. Timothy's where Dudley literally wills a pack of wayward boys into a masterful choir that exalt the hymn ‘O Sing To God' with ethereal sincerity.
The cast is rounded out by James Gleason as the bubbly cab driver, Sylvester whom Dudley and Julia are endeared to after leaving St. Timothy's. Spotting skaters in New York's Central Park, Dudley has Sylvester pull over to the curb and the three take to the ice in a delightful sequence that is both light-hearted and utterly charming.
By now, however, Henry has had enough. He demands that Dudley leave his household for good - a prayer answered only after Dudley's attempt to woo Julia as a man is thwarted by her. "Kiss her for me you lucky Henry," Dudley tells the bishop before leaving for good. And although the rules of his visitation ensure that neither the Bishop nor Julia will have any recollection that he ever even existed, Dudley's final act of kindness endures as a complete rewrite of the Bishop's Christmas service.
"Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking. Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child's cry, a blazing star hung over a stable, and wise men came with birthday gifts. We haven't forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, with the sound of bells, and with gifts.
But especially with gifts. You give me a book, I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry can do with a new pipe. For we forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled, all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. It's his birthday we're celebrating. Don't let us ever forget that.
Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most. And then, let each put in his share, loving kindness, warm hearts, and a stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shinning gifts that make peace on earth."
With an inspired score by Hugo Friedhofer, The Bishop's Wife is engaging in every way. The story was remade in 1996 by Penny Marshall as the all black The Preacher’s Wife but without any of the magical spark that continues to linger in this original.
MGM DVD has re-released this title as part of their Holiday Classics box set with different cover art but the same middle of the road transfer. Although the B&W image is quite sharp and detailed, there is an extensive amount of edge enhancement and shimmering of fine details that generally tends to distract throughout the film.
For the most part, the gray scale has been impeccably rendered although several sequences look as though contrast levels have been artificially boosted. Age related artefacts are present, though not pronounced. The audio is a Chace Stereo rechanneling of the original mono with limitations in fidelity. Regrettably, there are NO extras.
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
5
VIDEO/AUDIO
3
EXTRAS
0
Deserves to be on Blu-Ray?
YES!
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