Rating: 
Summary: A great movie
Review: I first saw this movie on British TV some years ago, and loved it. It wasn't available on video in the UK at the time so I had to order it from Amazon US, cost me more in shipping than the actual video but it was well worth it. I won't go into the story itself as all the other reviews have done that perfectly, but I will say that this is one of the best Christmas movies I have ever seen. I watch it all year round. Cary Grant as Dudley the angel is superb, David Niven as Henry, the poor, harassed bishop is suitably harrased and harrangued by the magnificent Gladys Cooper (Mrs Hamilton) at her patronising best, Loretta Young's Julia has a habit of storming up the stairs. Taxi driver Sylvester and Julia suddenly become expert ice skaters thanks to Dudley, and the Professor discovers that his nearly empty bottle of sherry keeps full no matter how much he pours out, the contents of which, as he says, inspires but not inebriates. Julia gets her longed-for hat and Henry gets stuck to a chair at Mrs Hamilton's. The Choir rehearsal is a delight, especially Bobby, and brings tears to the eyes. Beautifully performed by the Mitchell Boychoir, I wonder where they all are now? I fully reccommend this movie, it's a delight to watch not only at Christmas but all year round, there's a message in there somewhere for all of us.
Rating: 
Summary: ENTERTAINING ANGELS...
Review: "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for some people have entertained angels without knowing it." Hebrews 13:2 Cary Grant is Dudly an angel sent down as a result of the prayers of a new bishop (David Niven) in 1948's THE BISHOP'S WIFE (MGM). So caught up in trying to raise funds to build a new cathedral, the bishop neglects his beautiful, devoted wife (a doe-eyed Loretta Young). The tempted(?) Dudly shows the bishop's wife how to celebrate the precious, passing moments and the bishop learns the greatest lesson of all. The world's three great religions incorporate angels as real, created entities, messengers between the world of mortals and God. And movies about angels, both good and bad, will always be messengers of film entertainment. Here's a new to DVD title about a good angel that's worthy of your time. A classic. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Christmas Classic
Review: A great movie at Christmas or year round for that matter. Cary Grant, Loretta Young, David Niven, and Monty Woolley are fantastic. The mix of drama and comedy are prefect.
Anyone that enjoys Cary Grant of David Niven will love this movie. The director does a great job of keeping us enchanted with just enough reality and a hint of heavenly powers. The sets, music, and supporting cast are excellent.
I hope we will see another classic movie with Monty Woolley put on DVD, The Pied Piper (1942), which has him rescuing children from occupied France during WWII. I can't even find it on VHS.
The quality of this movie is excellent. They did a great job of restoring it and transferring it to DVD. There are a few extras included, but the movie alone is worth the price.
Rating:
Summary: Fine Xmastime Viewing-in Black and White Please!
Review: "The Bishop's Wife" is a feel good Christmas story in the "It's A Wonderful Life", "Miracle on 34th Street" tradition. The plot turns around a stressed out, overwrought, harried pastor (David Niven), constantly obsessed about raising funds for a new cathedral. He plays the pinch nosed role to the hilt and turns in the film's best performance. Thickening the plot is his patient, beautiful, too good to be true, supportive wife (Loretta Young), who he usually ignores. An angel ! (Cary Grant) appears to help him out of his misery. Grant is slightly too smooth for words but as good angels will, engineers a happy ending. Young's tolerant, loving attitude toward the brooding Niven is another high point of BW. I was unaware of how attractive she was. The supporting cast, including Gladys Cooper, Elsa Lanchester and Monty Woolley are excellent. The gloomy black and white, wintertime eponymous setting is perfect. This is one movie that should not be colorized! Some have suggested that Young's work in BW was a factor is her winning Best Actress Oscar for "The Farmer's Daughter" later in 1947. I have read elsewhere that it was Grant who suggested role reversals between he and Niven. The producers certainly were correct to agree! Niven was made to be that unhappy parson! The only weak point is that "famous" skating scene. What were they thinking? Since when do male angels take some guy's wife skating? That belonged on a cutting room floor! Viewers should find BW excellent Christmas time viewing, unhampered by the overexposure of the other "usual suspects" shown at that time of year.
Rating:
Summary: The Bishop's Wife
Review: Plot: Dudley is an angel who comes to help a bishop, in answer to the Bishop's prayer for help in getting funds for his new cathedral. The bishop is beginning to lose faith and believes his marriage is failing. Dudley restores his faith, and brings happiness back to the marriage, but the new church remains unbuilt. Cary Grant and Loretta Young starred in two films: BORN TO BE BAD in 1934 and thirteen years later, THE BISHOP'S WIFE. This picture was nominated for Best Picture in 1947, but lost to GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT. This is Cary Grant's 51st film and his second in 1947. THE BISHOP'S WIFE was remade into THE PREACHER'S WIFE in 1996, starring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston. THE BISHOP'S WIFE is the story of Julia Brougham and Henry Brougham, played by Loretta Young and David Niven, respectfully. Henry, plays an Episcopalian bishop, who is all caught up with building a new cathedral for his church and has forgotten about his wife, Julia. Henry wishes that he could have some help with the financing his project and prays to God for assistance. In comes Dudley, Cary Grant, an angel, who has been sent to honor his wishes. Dudley then decides he will work for Henry as his assistant, but in reality decides to spend a lot of time with Julia to make her happy, which infuriates Henry. However, in the end, Dudley disappears forever from their lives after accomplishing all he came to do. It turns out that an old rare coin given to Julia by Professor Wutheridge, Monty Woolley, is worth a fortune and the new cathedral can be built after all. Julia and Henry get back together and are much happier because Dudley has shown them the way. Cary Grant has an awful lot of talent in this movie. With his acrobatic ability, he relearned how to ice skate; his musical ability lead him to play the harp, and this of course was not one of his funny films. This was a serious role for Cary and it turned out very well. Variety review of November 19, 1947, states, "Cary Grant is the angel of the piece and has never appeared to greater advantage."
Rating: 
Summary: ANGELIC FANTASY ONLY MEDIOCRE ON DVD
Review: Cary Grant is an angel. David Niven is the bishop. Loretta Young is the Bishop's Wife. See a love triangle starting to form yet? This is a Samuel Goldwyn film that is as enchanting and fulfilling as anything to ever come from Hollywood. The bishop is being pressured to build a cathedral by a society matron (Gladys Cooper - who even in her late thirties was always playing somebody's widow or mother) and has no time for his wife. Dudley (Grant) is an angel, the answer to the bishop's prayer that turns out to be his greatest obstacle when he takes a sudden interest in Julia (Young).
Previously released by HBO Home Video, this MGM edition appears to be the same disappointing transfer as before. Gray scale and contrast and black levels are weak. Digital compression artifacts crop up now and then and edge enhancement and aliasing problems make for a real frustrating viewing experience. The sound has been matrixed by CHACE INC. into a sudo-stereo mix. The original mono is also included for the film purist. Both are strident and lacking in tonal quality and bass. There's a theatrical trailer included but nothing that will set the world on fire or enhance your love of this holiday classic. I suppose the one saving grace of the film is the film itself - with Grant, Young and Niven at the helm, the first time viewer is guaranteed an enchantingly good time.
Rating: 
Summary: Forget the re-make with Whitney "Who"ston!
Review: Walk right past the re-make. As in many cases, the original is about a gazillion times better, unless of course you are a Denzel fan, in which case, I would say, go ahead and get the re-make. This is a classic movie, with beautiful actors, Loretta Young, Cary Grant and David Niven and a beautiful story that quietly suggests(via Grant as an angel) not the existance of Santa, but of God, in such a non-preaching and non-intrusive way, it eases its way into your living room. I guess my favorite part of the movie is the theme, that the man-made artificial constructs of religion, such as church buildings with over-the-top stained glass tributes and priests and all that other stuff pale in comparison to the idea of a Supreme Being who loves all people, regardless of lifestyle, wealth or any other similar junk and that finally God is good, loving even humorous.
Rating:
Summary: THERE 'IS' MAGIC AT CHRISTMAS TIME.
Review: This is one of those films that captures the essence, the 'wonderment' and that magical 'something' that touches a cord deep down inside of you. The special effects are nothing spectacular compared to today's standards, but for the time period in which this original B&W film was made they capture your attention and make you double-take with amazement... and if you dare to let go and loose yourself in this film you will marvel and believe that angels do walk amongst us, and that seemingly normal occurances in our lives today often do reflect the magic of Christmas time as well as those odd inexplicable occurances of our everyday life.
Rating:
Summary: Warm And Well Done, BUT Biblically Innacurate
Review: There are as of today 42 reviews here of THE BISHOP'S WIFE, and while all rightly speak of the glowing warmth of this confection of whimsy, it should also be noted that other elements besides the simple story line contribute to its success. While it does feature Christmas scenes, they are not essential to the story, but merely a marketing ploy by the maker to increase theatre attendance and box office sales in what was normally a slower time of attendance. The warmth and quiet joy that so pervades the movie is due not only to fine acting, excellent direction, and lavish yet fitting sets, but also to an inspired musical score. The casting of an Angel to come to earth and help an Episcopal Bishop to ostensibly build a cathedral when funds are short, could not have been better than the one and only Cary Grant. His natural urbanity, and suave good looks and demeanor were perfect for the role. The character of 'Dudly' had to walk a narrow line between earnestness and a perfunctory fulfilling of duties and Mr. Grant easily found the exact blend of dignity with warmth. The rest of the cast is up to his caliber with David Niven the starchy Bishop, Loretta Young as the neglected wife of the title, and a first rate supporting cast, including such scene stealers as Monty Wolley as the Professor. Fantasies of this type require a very deft and light hand in order not to become maudlin and saccharine, nor so light as to have no substance. This film does have several layers of thought and director Henry Koster must be given the lion's share of credit for this. While there were five men involved in the original script and rewrites, it is the director who must primarily account for the tone of a film, and the tone here is bright and ennobling. Composer Hugo Friedhofer is perhaps the second person most responsible for the overall cohesiveness of the theme as he creates lovely melodies to compliment the various scenes. The main theme with the credits and especially that wonderfully exuberant yet polite theme for the ice skating scene are works of art in themselves and stand well along side the 'inspired' singing of the perfect harmony of the Mitchell Boy Choir in the church scene. Such 'heavenly' tones would be impossible to form in a boy's choir today in our crass day and age. It is amazing to see how much social attitudes have changed in just the short time since 1947, of which this film is a sort of time capsule. Often overlooked by the audience are the settings for the players since, like the background music, they are not supposed to intrude upon the story and actors. Here we have a wonderful set of designs, especially of the interiors, which often include ceilings in view, so that we believe that the story is taking place where intended. The fine atmosphere created of gray winter days is wonderfully offset by the lighthearted designs used in the outdoor scenes, especially the skating pond in the park. The romance of the setting even in the cold of winter causes an easy suspension of disbelief, as we must note that doubles are used for our principals while skating. Today you would have canned Rock-N-Roll with deafening amplification rather than a popular band. Instead of 'Sylvester' the cabby filled with warmth and gratitude for the beneficence of the Angel and the Bishop's wife, we find bullet-proof barriers and surly drivers. While it is nice to credit Cary Grant with the bearing of an Angel, the Biblical fact remains that no angel is recorded to have visited man in fleshly form since the Bible was completed, for that inspired Word of God is what is intended to guide us today. And it is an offense to Angels to portray them as so "not cold and not hot" as to imply their being incomplete, wandering, lonely creatures for whom we should have sympathy. Loretta Young was a beautiful woman, but no true Angel since after the Great Flood of Noah's day would consider ever envying a mortal or coveting his wife. This stratagem is used to create a false 'love' story in the plot to create the title character and to attract those given to the personality cult then surrounding Miss Young. This contrivance at odds with fact was created as a marketing tool to appeal to the ladies, and not with regard to Scriptural accuracy. The fact that while Jesus' birth is recorded in the Bible, but nothing like Christmas is ever mentioned there, further shows that the movie is intended as a fantasy and should be viewed only on that level. Thus the church represented in the film does not represent the accurate message of the Bible, even as the "Shepherd's Song" scene and the mention of Sylvester's descendents "rising up and calling him Blessed" is a warping of the true context of the Holy Scriptures. This film is the more remarkable today in that there are no creations anything like it (save for a sad remake), and due to the disintegration of the moral fiber of our society, there will never be any things like it in this System of Things. God wants our days to be happy and gay in the original meaning of that word, and not with the corrupted meanings so prevalent today. Watch the film for the contentment it leaves you as you envy our forebears the more innocent and at least Godly-oriented lives they cold then enjoy. During the Great Resurrection to come we will be able to welcome back to a restored Paradise Earth all the people who made this delightful film into a world then having the genuine, noncommercial atmosphere that our loving God intends for us. Seen in this light, this film is an unintentional foreshadow of some things to come!
Rating:
Summary: a great film!
Review: "The Bishop's Wife," is such an entertaining and heartwarming film, not just for the Holidays but anytime. It deserves all the stars it can get. I'd give it ten stars if I could. It's well worth seeing and Loretta Young, David Bivan and Cary Grant make a wonderful and all star cast.
|
