martin-intercultural I love 1940s films. But this one seems to have been oddly hampered in its production values by the Brit-US studio partnership that made it.There is witty, acerbic dialog. Ms Rutherford as the spirit medium was no doubt a revelation at the time. (She was at no risk of compromising her physical beauty or glamor through quirky acting, and she knew it.) The country house setting and constant dining scenes are aesthetically arresting. But compared to the many noir as well as comedic masterpieces of the same era, the film feels like a throwback to the 1930s; a forgettable weekend comedy.The male character comes across cartoonish, visually and verbally. His wife's acting is wooden, certainly in the opening scenes. The ghost... I couldn't decide if the actress was struggling with a new set of teeth or just affecting an American accent. She is also painted in an unbecoming hue of green throughout the story, when black-and-white would have been so much less offputting.Lastly, it struck me what a cultural wrecking ball this project was: The occult themes aside, the main duo like to advertise their serial marrying status and past "sex history" (I quote). That's laying it on thick by 1940s standards. No doubt the viewers walked out of the cinema thinking how hip and modern and just great divorce is.

preppy-3 "Comedy" about novelist Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison) and his second wife Ruth (Constance Cummings) inviting spiritualist Madame Arcati (Margaret Rutherford)to their house. It seems he's writing a book dealing with the supernatural and wanted to see firsthand what happens at a seance. They have one and think nothing happens. However Charles starts seeing the ghost of his first wife Elvira (Kay Hammond). However no one else can see or hear her. Her wants her to go...but how? I saw a restored print with a crystal clear picture, great sound and strong color...but I hated it. It's supposed to be funny but I didn't laugh let alone smile once. I heard the jokes but they just weren't funny. It was more whimsical than funny and I hate whimsical films. It was reasonably well-acted and directed and had great set design but I was bored. I actually dozed off towards the end! The only saving grace was Rutherford. She was GREAT in her role and tears into it with gusto...but she wasn't funny either. Good-looking but unfunny. Also this won an Oscar for Special Effects which are very dated in this day and age.

lasttimeisaw A pristine restoration of David Lean's fantasy comedy based on Noël Coward's successful play, BLITHE SPIRIT is Lean's third feature film and pairs Rex Harrison and Constance Cummings as a middle-class couple Charles and Ruth, both have been married before, out of his whim, Charles invites a kooky medium Madame Arcati (Rutherford) to their rural house to arrange a séance, which he naively thinks is good for inspiration since he is a novelist and Ruth, takes the whole arrangement ever so light-heartedly, only participates out of sheer curiosity, but after the supernormal session, it turns out Madame Arcati is not a fraud at all, Elvira (Hammond), Charles' deceased first wife, has been invoked from the other side and materialises, but only to Charles, who is pleasantly surprised and they start to banter with each other, which vastly irritates Ruth.Seeking help from Madame Arcati of no avail, Ruth realises she must fight Elvira for Charles, and a subsequent outlandish accident, secretly plotted by Elvira, puts her in the same circumstance as Elvira, while Madame Arcati's final attempt to exorcise the dead from the living world fails, her crystal ball indicates a cue that there is another human being under the same roof is actually capable of accomplish that task.The story does sound idiotic and Coward's original play has no ambition to be a wacky science fiction other than a farcical fairytale (the film begins convivially with the "once upon a time" introduction), a frivolous (but also cartoon-ishly lethal) tug-of-war between two women divided by two worlds, with poles apart temperaments (Elvira is mischievously petulant while Ruth is uncompromisingly virtuous), thus, the acting is fairly engrossing, the four main characters all cop an attitude with their respectively distinct personalities, the repartees among Harrison, Cummings and Hammond are as rapid as any theatrical live performance, whereas Dame Margaret Rutherford's eccentric actualisation of Madame Arcati is an uplifting phenomenon, such a force of nature and she defies any ridicule of her calling.However, more essentially, it is Lean's cutting-edge job in fabricating a human-ghost co-existent magic presence becomes a major reason why this little piece of gem sustains its life-force, under the stunning Technicolor palette, this restored version is truly a boon for a first-time viewer, if you are into some carefree diversion of spectres, death and necromancy.

jc-osms Fragrant, fresh and frothy cinematic realisation of Noel Coward's amusing and entertaining play by David Lean long before he got, well, longer. It is of course The "Master" Mr Coward's plummy voice-over at the outset which gets us underway here.Long before the great director Lean tackled heavier subjects requiring many more screen minutes and wider screens too, he knocked out this colourful and visually appealing confection. It's years since I read or saw the play but witnessed very little here to make me think that the original text had been much tampered with, which is just fine as it's a hoot anyway. The film is opened out only occasionally, usually to show cast members getting to and from Rex Harrison's grand house and of course can employ special effects impossible in the theatre, although whether lashings of pale green make-up and a few occasions where living characters physically pass through ghosts justifies the Special Effects Oscar it bagged is questionable.Better to concentrate on the high quality ensemble acting with Rex Harrison playing another variation of Coward himself, all urbanity and suaveness, he only lacks a cigarette-holder to complete the facsimile. His two wives are also very well played by Constance Cumming and Kay Hammond, while Margaret Rutherford as ever loses no opportunity to ham it up to fine comic effect.There's plenty of gay repartee, just occasionally nudging at the boundaries of risqué-ness and while the story seems a trifle extended to get to its predictable if still amusing conclusion and betrays some poor continuity at times, the actors play it with enough vigour so that the whole rarely drags.Lean in one of his first colour films displays his knack for cinematography but otherwise isn't extended much other than pointing the camera at his beautifully clothed, terribly posh cast and mixing in a few not-too-special effects as indicated above.No doubt this engaging light fantasy was a pleasant tonic for a cinema-going public fatigued by several years of war, its interest in the afterlife reflecting a trend to the fantastic (its contemporaries include "A Matter Of Life And Death", "The Ghost & Mrs Muir", even "It's a Wonderful Life").