Plot
Good natured Reverend Henry Biggs finds that his marriage to choir mistress Julia is flagging, due to his constant absence caring for the deprived neighborhood they live in...
Release Year: 1996
Rating: 5.2/10 (5,346 voted)
Director:
Penny Marshall
Stars: Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston, Courtney B. Vance
Storyline Good natured Reverend Henry Biggs finds that his marriage to choir mistress Julia is flagging, due to his constant absence caring for the deprived neighborhood they live in. On top of all this, his church is coming under threat from property developer Joe Hamilton. In desperation, Rev. Biggs prays to God for help - and help arrives in the form of an angel named Dudley. However, Dudley's arrival seems to cause even more trouble...
Writers: Robert Nathan, Robert E. Sherwood
Cast: Denzel Washington
-
Dudley
Whitney Houston
-
Julia Biggs
Courtney B. Vance
-
Reverend Henry Biggs
Gregory Hines
-
Joe Hamilton
Jenifer Lewis
-
Margueritte Coleman
Loretta Devine
-
Beverly
Justin Pierre Edmund
-
Jeremiah Biggs
Lionel Richie
-
Britsloe
Paul Bates
-
Saul Jeffreys
Lex Monson
-
Osbert
Darvel Davis Jr.
-
Hakim
William James Stiggers Jr.
-
Billy Eldridge
Marcella Lowery
-
Anna Eldridge
Cissy Houston
-
Mrs. Havergal
Aaron A. McConnaughey
-
Teen
Taglines:
They needed help. What they got was a miracle.
Release Date: 13 December 1996
Filming Locations: Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
Box Office Details
Budget: $40,000,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: $7,649,752
(USA)
(15 December 1996)
(1783 Screens)
Gross: $48,102,795
(USA)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
In 2009, Whitney Houston revealed on
The Oprah Winfrey Show that by the time
The Preacher's Wife started shooting, her cocaine and marijuana habits had gotten so bad that there was never a day while filming the movie on which she had not done some drugs.
Quotes: Marguerite Coleman:
Things haven't changed since Adam, and he gave up one of his ribs so he'd have somebody to keep things from.
User Review
A pale remake of a minor Christmas classic
Rating:
You have to wonder why some folks out in Hollywood try to remake that which
was done so very well the first time. You can just see them sitting around
the conference table talking about adding color and, oh, yeah, lets make the
characters black! It would be OK if they really tried to do it better. But
they are really just trying to cash in.
Such is the case with "The Preacher's Wife". A modernized color version of
the Cary Grant vehicle, "The Bishop's Wife", the insertion of even this
excellent black cast does nothing to enhance the story.
Denzel never seems to capture the sly charm of Dudley, the angel sent to
help the Preacher. Now we know Denzel can be a charmer, but even he cannot
deliver through this tired direction and uninspired script. Nothing really
works in the movie (unless, perhaps, you never saw the original), the
Preacher is not sympathetic enough, Whitney isn't at full strength as the
title character, and even Gregory Hines can't seem to make the villain seem
like much of a baddie.
0