The Bishop’s Wife, 1947, starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven with Monty Woolley and James Gleason in strong supporting charming roles.
This is the tale of a bishop (Niven in one of his best-ever roles) who is obsessively trying to build a new cathedral while neglecting his main mission and his beautiful wife. Grant plays an angel who comes down to earth, making everyone’s life better while mainly helping the bishop and his wife (Young) with their inner and outer conflicts
This is a wonderful comedy-romance with great writing (Sherwood & Bercovici), main scenes, direction (Henry Koster), acting. sets, and music throughout. There are elements of It’s a Wonderful Life here and the best of Christmas and Christian spirit throughout, albeit served up in a delightful, secular, Hollywood way. This is easily the best-ever old comedy about Xmas and comes highly recommended on all counts. Not a bad choice anywhere in its making, says a former AB provincial film-classifier. A 10/10.