History Film / TheBishopsWife

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_bishops_wife.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Usually only regular human men will hit on a guy's wife.]]

* ChurchLady: Soft-spoken church matriarch Julia is neglected by her ambitious but well-meaning Preacher Man husband until "Dudley," an angel sent to answer the husband's prayers, enters the picture (though the wife is unaware of Dudley's true nature) and starts paying attention to her, as part of an Operation: Jealousy that turns into In Love with the Mark on his part. The fact that an actual angel falls for her is a testament to her goodness, and notably, in the original film, when Dudley confesses his attraction to her, she tells him to leave, proving her devotion to her husband despite how kindly Dudley treated her.

* AdultFear: A very mild case in both versions, but if you're a loving husband and father, then having some strange (and admittedly handsome) man unexpectedly insinuate himself into your and your wife and child's lives, is sure to raise more than a few hairs. In both films, it's more or less made clear that Dudley would gladly replace Henry if given the chance.

* AdultFear: A very mild case in both versions, but if you're a loving husband and father, then having some strange (and admittedly handsome) man unexpectedly insinuate himself into your and your family's lives, is sure to raise more than a few hairs. In the original version, it's part of Dudley's plan to get Henry to realize what's at stake. In the remake, however, it's more or less clear that Dudley would gladly replace Henry if given the chance.

''The Bishop's Wife'' is a 1947 comedy-fantasy directed by Henry Koster, starring Creator/CaryGrant, Creator/DavidNiven, and Loretta Young.

* BabiesEverAfter: Dudley's ending narration reveals that Henry and Julia adopted Hakim.

* ImagineSpot: Near the end of the movie Dudley very briefly Dudley swaps himself into Julia & Henry's wedding photo but changes it back after hearing thunder.

* WoundedGazelleGambit: Margueritte Threatens this when she fears how close Dudley is becoming with Julia

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Joe Hamilton, who plans to buy up the neighborhood and church for the land. [[HeelRealization he gets better though]].

!!Tropes:

* DriverFacesPassenger: Sylvester gets so involved in talking to his back-seat passengers that he nearly drives their cab into a truck. Dudley has to use his angelic powers to save everyone else in the cab from death.
* ExactWords: At the end, when Dudley's machinations have resulted in Mrs. Hamilton deciding to spend her money on the poor, Henry asks why the cathedral is being cancelled when he prayed for help to build a new one. Dudley reminds Henry that Henry prayed for ''guidance'', not a new cathedral.
* FaceFramedInShadow: Dudley makes a suitably spooky entrance when he materializes in Henry's study with his face framed in this way.
* GetOut:
** The bishop, driven into a jealous fit and reeling from Mrs. Hamilton's decision to rededicate her donation to more charitable purposes, tells Dudley to leave and never come back.
** Julia also tells Dudley to leave and never return when he confesses his attraction to her.

* GossipyHens: Mean old Mrs. Hamilton and her old lady friends, who start getting judgmental after seeing Dudley and Julia at lunch. Dudley disarms them by inviting them over.
* GrandeDame: Mrs. Hamilton, the haughty old widow who demands that the cathedral be built her way--as a gaudy memorial to her late husband--or not at all. But see HiddenDepths below.

* HiddenDepths: Dudley discovers that Mrs. Hamilton actually didn't love her husband. The only man that she loved was a composer, a poor man who died young after she rejected him to marry rich Mr. Hamilton instead. This guilt over not loving her husband is what was driving her to demand the gaudy cathedral.
* INeverToldYouMyName: Dudley has a bad habit of addressing people by their names before being introduced. When Sylvester the cabbie catches him on this Dudley plays it off by claiming he saw Sylvester's name on his cab license.

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Why does an American Protestant bishop sound like an Englishman? Well, if you're David Niven, why not?
** Then again, if he's a married bishop he's likely Episcopalian, which is a branch of Anglicanism. Or he could have immigrated and held on to the accent.
* OperationJealousy: An altruistic, third-party version: Dudley's innocent but eyebrow-raising attentions to Julia are what it takes to make Henry realize how much he has been neglecting his marriage. Or, as he puts it, "Since you wouldn't let me represent you with Mrs. Hamilton, I represented you with your wife."
* PreachersKid: Sweet little Debby, the Broughams' young daughter. The neighborhood kids assume that as a bishop's daughter she'll be too goody-goody to play snowball wars, so Dudley gives Debby some supernatural assistance in winging a snowball.
* TheProfessor: Professor Wutheridge, who is trying and failing to write a book after being fired from the university.
* SnowballFight: Debby gets allowed into one after some divine assistance from Dudley.

** The skaters in the skating sequence are pretty clearly not the main cast either, although artful lighting helps to conceal that fact.

* OperationJealousy: An altruistic, third-party version: Dudley's innocent but eyebrow-raising attentions to Julia are what it takes to make Henry realize how much he has been neglecting his marriage.

* TalentDouble: No, Cary Grant wasn't an expert harp player. Those are the hands of a professional harp player in the scene where Dudley is playing the harp for Mrs. Hamilton.

** Then again, if he's a married bishop he's likely Episcopalian, which is a branch of Anglicanism.

* TalentDouble: No, Cary Grant wasn't an expert harp player. Those are the hands of a professional harp player in the scene where Dudley is playing the harp for Mrs. Hamilton.

* TheGoodShepherd: Henry is trying to be this, in any case, but his fixation on building the cathedral is obviously distracting him from what a bishop really should be doing. Dudley steers him on the right course.

* GrandeDame: Mrs. Hamilton, the haughty old widow who demands that the cathedral be built her way--as a gaudy memorial to her late husband--or not at all. But see HiddenDepths above.
* GuardianAngel: Dudley. It seems that guardian angels are case workers, sent to answer prayers, moving on when they aren't needed.

This film was given a RaceLift in 1996 and remade as ''The Preacher's Wife'', with Creator/DenzelWashington and Music/WhitneyHuston playing the parts originated by Grant and Young.

* HollywoodDriving: Sylvester gets so involved in talking to his back-seat passengers that he nearly drives their cab into a truck. Dudley has to use his angelic powers to save everyone else in the cab from death.