Autumnsong: 25 Days of Christmas | The Bishop's Wife, 1947

The Bishop’s Wife | 1947

I really like how old movies used drawings
rather than photographs in their posters

Henry Brougham is a newly appointed bishop who dreams of building a new cathedral in his town… In fact, ever since he first became a bishop he’s become obsessed with this project, making raising money for the cathedral his first priority, at the expense of his other obligations in the old church, his relationship with old friends and even his time with his young wife and daughter. As a result, the bishop is lonely, unhappy, lost and his marriage is unmistakably broken.

Alone in his study, feeling lost and not any closer from having his cathedral than he was when he first started the project, the Bishop looks up at the painting of the cathedral above the fireplace to contemplate the canvas for a long moment. Placing his hands on the mantelpiece and lowering his head he prays… And when he raises his head again, Henry realizes that he is no longer alone. There is a well dressed gentleman standing right behind him.

His name is Dudley and he assures the Bishop that in spite of his apparent lack of wings for the moment, he is an angel. He was sent in response to the Bishop’s prayers, only Henry has no idea how to use an alleged angel’s powers to get his cathedral… Alleged, because the Bishop doubts the word of the angel at first… After all, if he were indeed an angel shouldn’t he be able to create a cathedral with the waves of his hands?

“- How would you explain it? (…) Tell the world you're being visited by an angel? You can't do that.”

From left to right: The bishop and the angel just after his arrival, as Duddley explains to Henry that he was sent as a response to the Bishop's prayers. They are standing besides the painting of the cathedral Henry wants so badly to build. The movie title. Dudley, Julia and the professor at the professor's home.

It’s interesting that the Bishop is the only one to whom Dudley reveals his identity, and the only one who doesn’t seem charmed and taken by the angel in the slightest… At first, Henry doesn't even believe the sharply dressed gentleman in his office is an angel, and he even goes so far as to demand some type of proof - to which the angel gently reminds him that surely a Bishop like himself should have a little more faith.

Duddley and the Bishop, at odds - as they are most of the time in the movie, not that the angel lets it get to him.

This relationship is strikingly differently from the relationship between Dudley and the professor. If the angel is upfront with Henry, with the professor he is exactly the obvious, and from the very beggining he is set on being vague with the old man, deliberately suggesting that they have met before, in a distant place. Which is perhaps what the professor - a non-religious, skeptical man - would expect from an angel. And for the longest time the professor tries not to let himself be fooled by the angel's charming ways (the scene in which his glass keeps refilling itself is particularly funny)... But eventually he gets to his own conclusions through rational means and when he does, even he accepts Dudley's presence with more naturality than the Bishop ever did.

The angel watching the professor with his Charlie brown tree

Even after Henry is convinced, he doesn’t seem to appreciate the angel’s presence at all! For the longest time Dudley seems remarkably useless at the most needed task of raising funds for the cathedral, which serves to exasperate then Bishop. and for most of the film, Henry is at odds with Dudley, doubting his claims to be an angel and wishing, even praying, for stranger to get away from his life… It doesn’t help that the angel devotes a great deal of energy to restoring the happiness of the Bishop’s wife, which doesn’t fail to make the Bishop jealous.

The angel and the bishop's wife in one of the first time they get to talk, after Dudley has just been incredibly kind to a little girl...

Passing for the Bishop’s assistant however, Dudley doesn’t seem to mind Henry’s ungrateful attitude and goes on with his task, to guide, not only the Bishop, but everyone around him. The scene in which he first arrives in the city is quite enchanting. As he walks through the streets of the city Dudley helps the locals in a multitude of small ways, and he leaves before they can even learn his name.

“(…) that's the way it always is. Angels come and put ideas into people's heads and people feel very proud of themselves because they think it was their own idea.”

From left to right: Julia contemplating the hat she wants in a window's shop / Dudley watching the family's christmas tree / Dudley telling Debby, the Bishop's daughter, a story

It is during that walk that he first comes across Julia, the Bishop’s wife. She is standing in front of a shop’s window, flirting with an exquisite hat on display… Julia’s expression denounces the strain inflicted upon her marriage on account of her husband’s obsession with the cathedral. She misses her old neighbourhood, and the simplicity of their lives when they first got together. Now they can never go fro strolls anymore, and whenever Julia goes, she goes alone. Her friends, like professor Wutheridge, have noticed the change. She no longer seems as happy and full of life as she used to be…

Dudley enchants a great many people with his presence. He inspires the professor to finally write a book he’s been postponing for decades, saves a small church by restoring interest in the boy’s choir, and takes the place of the Bishop’s assistance, dictating a new sermon to a typewriter that types by itself, as if operated by invisible hands. He even decorates the Brougham’s Christmas tree in a few seconds… But party tricks aside, it is with Julia that he spends the majority of his time…

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At first she is uneasy about spending time with her husband’s new assistant, but when the Bishop fails to send Dudley to represent him in meetings regarding the building of the cathedral, Dudley sees fit to represent him with his wife, effectively attempting to cheer up the young woman. And she’s charmed by him, both by his kindness and loving attitude towards her daughter and her friends (most noticeably the professor), and by his attentiveness towards herself, taking her to a favourite restaurant, persuading her to finally buy the hat she had her eyes on, and often simply talking to her, and truly listening to what she has to say.

The scene in which they go ice skating is positively magic.

What the angel couldn’t have anticipated however, was how, after spending so much time together, he would find himself strongly attracted to Julia,…

One of the best Christmas moments in the film... This movie has a lot of 1940s special effects, which is kind of cool

The Bishop’s Wife was a Book adaptation released in 1947, the same year as the Miracle on the 34th street. Originally Cary Grant was supposed to play the Bishop, but upon reading the script he was drawn to the part of the angel and the roles were switched. There could not have been a better choice. Carry performs the angel with gentlemanliness, charm, simplicity and warmth. He achieves a relationship with Julia which is intimate and yet, innocent. And in all his gentleness and calm, he doesn’t fail to convey the loneliness of his role…

“Please, don't send me away. (…) I'm tired of being a wanderer. I'm tired of an existence where one is neither hot nor cold, hungry nor full.”