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.
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.