Holiday Watch: The Bishop's Wife (1947)

Watched:  12/18/2025

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Henry Koster

I will be honest and say that when we watched The Bishop's Wife  (1947) the first time during COVID, I am pretty sure I was about three sheets to the wind and maybe didn't quite give this movie its due.  I seem a bit dismissive of the whole thing in my post.

But this time around, I quite liked the movie.  

David Niven plays a Bishop, recently appointed, who has been tasked with raising funds for the building and completion of a new Cathedral.  His new responsibilities and position have left him stressed and ignoring his wife (Loretta Young) and daughter (the same girl who played Zuzu in It's a Wonderful Life, Karolyn Grimes).  

After Niven prays on his challenges, an angel, played by Cary Grant in a tailored suit, appears to him, promising to assist.  Niven is shocked, but comes to accept it as truth.  But is uncertain how the angel can help.  

The movie has a tremendous amount of fun showing how Dudley, the angel, can and does help in large and small ways.  Sometimes he's guiding blind men through traffic, sometimes he's setting the conditions for a scholar to finally write their great work.  As an angel, he knows just what to say, and in the Bishop's house, which seems an unfriendly place, the staff - especially the maid Mathilda (Elsa Lanchester) - take an immediate shine to him.  

However, as the Bishop goes about his business, it leaves Dudley, posing as an assistant, to spend time with the Bishop's wife.  And both seem to get along famously.  

There's an odd bit of melancholy to the film - first with the state of affairs for the Bishop and Julia.  Julia's wish they'd never left their old neighborhood and church, and the Bishop worrying over how to please demanding patrons.  This is a family in crisis.  But (SPOILERS) as the film rolls to a conclusion, we learn that Dudley has fallen for Julia, and she's made him realize how tired of his life as a wanderer he is.  And maybe this touch of happiness, of what could have been, is a wound he'll carry. He can make others happy or help them, but who is there for Dudley?

The film is cagey about Julia's feelings - and in 1947 can't have a Bishop's actual wife say them out loud.  

It does make me wonder - did Wim Wenders watch this movie and think "yes, but what if...?"  Likely not - he would have said so.  But his Wings of Desire is a favorite, and I think it'd make a truly interesting double-bill.