Cinema Sunday:The Bishop's Wife

Christmas is coming!

It's practically here! 

So it's another edition of Cinema Sunday with a holiday movie.

This week we turn our attention to a romantic comedy from 1947 called The Bishop's Wife.

It's the Christmas season and Bishop Henry Brougham (David Niven) has got a lot on his plate working to build a new cathedral, mostly trying to get a bunch of stuck up super rich church members to cough up some of their considerable wealth to get the dang thing built. 

His constant stress and focus on fundraising for the new cathedral has left the bishop super stressed out and his family, wife Julia (Loretta Young) and their young daughter Debby (Karolyn Grimes), neglected. 

He fervently prays for guidance. 

Which is when Dudley the angel (Cary Grant) pops up. 

Dudley convinces Henry he really is an angel but he can't tell anyone else.  But yay, Henry has an angel is his corner and surely he's gonna get that cathedral built now. 

Maybe Dudley has other plans? 

He spends time with Debby, playing games and telling her stories. 

Dudley takes Julia out to lunch, goes shopping with her and in one particularly magical sequence, takes her ice skating in Central Park. 

Meanwhile, Henry is as stressed out over the friggin' cathedral as ever. Well, Dudley is no help at all, spending all that time with his daughter and...

His wife. What's the big deal with that anyhow, how much time Dudley spends with Julia and Julia is so taken with him and...

OK, Henry is starting to pay attention now. 

Henry confronts Dudley about why he isn't helping him with the cathedral. 

Dudley reminds Henry that he prayed for guidance, not help with the cathedral. 

Dudley convinces one of the wealthy widows to re-direct her million dollar donation from the cathedral to a fund to help the sick and the poor.  

And Henry gets a swift kick in the pants that there is more to his ministry than building a cathedral and that ministry starts at home, spending more time showing Julia and his daughter how much he loves them.   

There's a lot more to this movie that that very truncated summary tells. I do realize it almost sounds like one of those treacly sweet Hallmark Christmas movies but this classic is miles above even above even the best of that dreck. 

Cary Grant is endearingly charming as the angel Dudley, fast and sharp with a well timed quip but always earnestly engaged in the lives of the people he's there to help.  It's not just Henry who needs his guidance. 

The Bishop's Wife is a wonderfully uplifting movie, perfect for the holiday season.