Blithe Spirit (1945)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Very well executed

A different way of telling a story

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

This spirited romp ranks up there as one of funniest film adaptations ever made of a Noel Coward story. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the performances in this breezy farce-- based on Coward's hit stage play-- are nearly unmatchable. Of note is Margaret Rutherford, who steals scenes left and right as Madame Arcati, a highly eccentric medium. In later productions, the medium has been played by Estelle Winwood, Mildred Natwick, Ruth Gordon and Angela Lansbury-- but I think Rutherford's performance is the one to watch. David Lean's direction is flawless and the film is done in such beautiful, breath-taking Technicolor that it is truly a joy to watch.

A couple is haunted by the spirit of the man's deceased first wife. Coward adapted his own play for the screen with the help of Lean and Neame. This was Neame's last credit as cinematographer before becoming a director. This was the third of Lean's first four films as director where he worked with Coward. It is an enjoyable farce with witty dialog, but never quite rises above the silliness of the subject matter (ghosts). Harrison and Cummings are fine as the couple, with him becoming bemused and her becoming exasperated after the appearance of the ghost of his first wife, a green-faced Hammond. Rutherford seems to be having the most fun as an incompetent medium.

When Noel Coward wrote Blithe Spirit it was to give British audiences something to laugh at during the blitz. Odd that he picked a subject like spiritualism which became popular in the United Kingdom after the first World War when people tried to contact loved ones left dead on the Western front. It was a serious thing back in the Twenties, yet Coward managed to find a whole lot of laughs in it.Blithe Spirit concerns a skeptical mystery writer who was twice married, his first wife dying of illness and he's now married to the second one. The husband here is Rex Harrison and he wants to write another novel with the background being spiritualism. He invites a well known spiritual medium in Margaret Rutherford for dinner with the express purpose of seeing how she operates.Well we can't say that Rutherford didn't warn Harrison about the unintended effects that eating red meat can have. The London broil that he was serving did look superb. She has her séance with the usual rappings, but when its over it turns out that Rutherford has managed to materialize Harrison's first wife Kay Hammond who only Harrison can see.Having two wives even if they exist on a different plane is a bit much for the household. The ghostly Hammond who looks fetching in that green tint she's photographed in wants to assert herself in what was her home. But that kind of gives current wife Constance Cummings a bad attitude because she's come to feel this is her home now.I can't go any farther, but simply to say that Coward gives us a whole lot to think about maybe leaving the dead alone. Also just what will the arrangements be in a next life?Blithe Spirit debuting in London in 1941 in the height of the blitz ran for 1997 performances there and Kay Hammond and Margaret Rutherford recreated their roles for this film. The other stars were Cecil Parker and Fay Compton. When it got to Broadway, the male lead was taken by Clifton Webb and I can certainly see Mildred Natwick in the part of the medium. The wives were Peggy Wood and Jacqueline Scott. Coward who narrates this film off screen also played the husband in touring companies.Coward's wit is certainly present in the play, but the accent here is on the physical comedy and the whole absurdity of the situation. Rex Harrison on the strength of the popularity of this film on both sides of the pond got a contract from 20th Century Fox studios in America. And the role of Madame Arcati the spiritualist became the most well known one that Margaret Rutherford ever essayed until the Miss Marple films of the Sixties and her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The VIPS.If Blithe Spirit does anything it will make you think about just what kind of arrangements one will have in a next life. Coward provides excellent food for thought.

This is a conscientiously photographed replica of Noel Coward's highly successful stage play, and as such demands full commendation. But I feel that a good deal better entertainment would have ensued from a freer use of the pictorial medium. Dealing as it does with the return of departed spirits it inevitably invites comparison with Topper, not, I am afraid to it's advantage. However, Noel Coward's dialogue - sometimes a little difficult to catch - keeps you well amused, and the acting generally is on a high level, and while the camera is allowed no great scope, photography is of excellent quality. The film is in Technicolour, which is presumably one reason why no liberties were taken with the stage play. Rex Harrison is easily natural as the harassed husband whose first wife's spirit appears disconcertingly and later kills his second wife. She, too, is conjured up from the dead and the pair of them see to it that their husband is involved in a fatal accident and is forced to join them in the spirit world, just as he had hoped he had got rid of them. Kay Hammond, in a somewhat terrifying green make-up with scarlet fingernails, is sulkily cynical as wife number one, and Constance Cummings scores too as wife number two. The hit of the show is the hearty fooling of Margaret Rutherford, the medium responsible for all the bother.Note - This review originally appeared in Picturegoer Magazine, 12 May 1945. Written by Lionel Collier.