Cinema’s most beloved angel is of course Clarence Oddbody (Henry Travers) who showed George Bailey (James Stewart) what life would have been like had he never been born in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) but a close second should surely be Cary Grant’s utterly charming (of course…) Dudley in Henry Koster’s The Bishop’s Wife.
David Niven, who was originally cast in Grant’s role, is Bishop Henry Brougham who, as Christmas approaches, is trying to raise funds for a new cathedral (the film never says where it’s set) and mostly failing. He’s so obsessed that he’s neglecting his wife Julia (Loretta Young) and daughter Debby (Karolyn Grimes) but the literal answer to his prayers might just be Dudley who turns up mysteriously, tells Brougham (but no-one else) that he’s an angel and manages to inveigle his way into the family as the bishop’s new assistant. Instead of helping Brougham to raise money he gets him to see how much he’s been neglecting his family and friends and unexpectedly falls in love with Julia.
The Bishop’s Wife skates dangerously close to the very edge of sickly sentimentality but the strength of the performances and some unexpected developments (the film makes room for an unabashed atheist, Professor Wutheridge (Monty Woolley) and sensibly refuses to wag a disapproving finger) keep it just the right side of the line. Grant brings his customary light touch to Dudley (it’s impossible to imagine Niven, or anyone else, in the role) and its his characteristic easy-going charm that makes him unlike any other screen angel. He’s a more worldly celestial visitor than most, falling, understandably, for Loretta Young’s charms, scandalising polite society with his shameless flirting and finally admitting that he’s envious of Brougham. A lesser actor may have come across too ethereal and pious, but Grant is so down to earth that it’s at first easy to believe that he might just be a well-meaning mortal on a mission. We first see him being spectacularly nice on a wintry pre-Christmas night but none of his actions initially can’t be explained away. His escorting of a blind man through heavy traffic may just be reckless bravado and his saving of a baby in a runaway pram just good timing. He may aid Debby’s attempts to throw a snowball by magical means or else it might just be a lucky throw. It’s a full 40 minutes until we finally see him perform a clearly supernatural act, constantly refilling Wutheridge’s glass of wine.
Niven and Young refuse to be cowed by Grant’s star power and hold their own as the clearly loving but troubled couple whose lives are made better by Dudley’s intervention. Niven plays the increasing irritation of Brougham as all around him succumb to Dudley’s charms with a nicely judged understatement. He could have been a farcical stereotype but his exasperation – which borders on a nervous breakdown – is beautifully done by Niven and we’d expect nothing less. No-one does affable good grace like Grant, but no-one does quiet exasperation and stiff-upper-lip discomfort quite like Niven.
Young makes the most of a role that could have been a typical romantic supporting role – she plays well the tension caused by her understandable attraction to Dudley and her very clear love for her husband. There’s a real chemistry between the tree leads that again helps fend off the ever circling danger of sugary sentiment. They make the problems between the Broughams seem very real but manage to deal with it all with great wit and – yes, that word again – charm. The supporting cast is full of memorable turns, from Woolley’s likeable atheist, not so set in his ways that he’s not willing to at least entertain the idea of divine intervention, to Elsa Lanchester’s smitten maid Mathilda. Two of the child actors, Karolyn Grimes and Bobby Anderson, playing Debby Braugham and the young boy defending the snow fort here had appeared in the previous year’s It’s a Wonderful life as Zuzu Bailey and the young George Bailey respectively.
Production of The Bishop’s Wife was a troubled affair with early cast changes (Young replaced Teresa Wright who had to bow out when she became pregnant and Dana Andrews was originally cast in one of the leading roles), it was started by director William A. Seiter but was replaced by Koster at the behest of producer Samuel Goldwyn who also ordered a complete overhaul of the script. The halt in production saw Niven and Grant swapping roles and many of the original cast (Marcia Anne Northrop as Debby, Dame May Whitty as Matilda, Selma Ross, Jerry de Castro, Mary Field and Edwin Maxwell) leaving for other projects. What became of Seiter’s footage is unclear but Goldwyn is said to have suffered a not inconsiderable loss of between $700,000 and $800,000 due to the reshuffle.
The Academy were impressed with the results, nominating the film for Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, Best Sound and Best Picture (but weren’t impressed enough to award it anything but Sound) but audiences initially proved resistant. Fearing that audiences were being put off by the title, believing it to be a more overtly religious film than it actually is, Goldwyn arranged a hasty re-release under the slightly risque title Cary and the Bishop’s Wife which fared rather better – as much as 25% better in some areas.
Grant, Young and Niven reprised their roles in a 30 minute radio adaptation broadcast on 1 March 1948 as part of The Screen Guild Theater and it was adapted again for the Lux Radio Theater three times, with Niven and Tyrone Power on 19 December 1949, with Grant and Phyllis Thaxter on 11 May 1953 and again with Grant and Thaxter on 1 March 1955. The original film became a Christmas television staple in the States where, like It’s a Wonderful Life it grew in stature over the years, such that a remake, the not-terribly-good Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington vehicle The Preacher’s Wife, appeared in 1996.
Thanks to the glorious performances and memorable set pieces (the ice skating sequence in particular) The Bishop’s Wife has stood the test of time remarkably well. It’s hard to imagine Christmas without it now.
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