Review of The Bishop's Wife (1947) by Duane B — 12 Apr 2009

Hot on the heels of last year's Xmas miracle fantasy flick, "It's A Wonderful Life"... comes a pseudo-copy. Except instead of a jolly St. Nick type of visiting angel, we throw some sex appeal. Cary Grant, who I previously thought could do no wrong, bends over to the sentimental pap audience who can't fullfill their own spiritual emptiness with the faith they proclaim to have. So they drudge up an angel because they have to see to believe. It would have been more interesting if Dudley's Heavenly status was left unknown. For the audience to ponder whether we rooting for a prayer-answerer or a con man. But no such luck again. Dudley shows his cards right away.

The plot is simple enough, Dudley is sent to answer the Bishop's prayers- and ends up falling in love with the Bishop's wife. Uh-oh. Bad Angel. Well, Dudley may be able to turn water into wine- or in this case - sherry into self-replenishing, non-alcoholic sherry, but he was not able to restore my faith in this film.