Blithe Spirit (1945) User Reviews

Ectoplasmic!

[Spondonman · 8/10 · 15 January 2006]

I taped this from UK Channel 4 on 20th Dec '90 - it has a better soundtrack than the admittedly budget DVD from Carlton. The Technicolor is still sumptuous, clever and thought-provoking however and overall it doesn't need remastering - just turn the volume up! Noel Coward's witty play transferred to the ghastly green screen perfectly, in 1945 it was as wildly old-fashioned as "Brief Encounter" was in 1936 on stage as "Still Life". But same as that film and almost everything Coward did from the '20's to the '40's, it remains eminently watchable and a riveting experience.

Basically Rex Harrison's dead 1st wife is summoned back in a séance to the "real world" much to his and his 2nd wife's consternation. A marvellous cast mainly depicting erudite and splendidly eccentric English so-called "middle-class" - because they had to work for a living hence they were all highly paid working class - an amusing concept Coward would have violently and amusingly disagreed with. Margaret Rutherford takes the prize for the most eccentric performance as ever flailing never failing Madame Arcati the lively spiritualist. The dialogue is urbane, brisk and witty throughout, so a thorough knowledge of English language and English customs up to 1945 is essential to getting the most from this.

That can also mean that although it helps you don't have to be English and live in England to enjoy it. A previous non-blithe commenter with apparently no sense of humour from the UK displayed a complete non-understanding, non-interest and non-acceptance of anything British and must desire complete separation from anything to do with Britain - probably apart from the passport. What would the ghosts of 1945 say if they could come back today and realise that a classic such as this can be dismissed so negatively?

Quite enjoyable.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 26 May 2011]

This is a movie version of Noel Coward's play by the same name. Apparently Coward thought this film from David Lean was simply awful (actually, that's an understatement--see the IMDb trivia for what he actually said), but I enjoyed it nevertheless and don't know what upset him so. It seemed like all good fun.

Charles (Rex Harrison) is married to Ruth (Constance Cummings). Seven years earlier, he'd been married to Elvira (Kay Hammond) but she died of pneumonia, so not surprisingly he remarried. However, when the wife invites a goofy psychic (Margaret Rutherford) to the house to have a séance with some friends, VERY unexpected things result. It seems that Charles' old dead wife has now somehow returned and no one other than Charles seems to think she's there. In fact, Ruth thinks he's crazy! But, when Elvira is able to throw things about the house, Ruth is finally convinced. At first, it's just an odd annoyance. However, when Elvira decides to kill Charles so that he can join her in the afterlife, things get VERY strange and unexpected consequences result. I'd say more, but it might spoil all the fun.

The film is quite fun and the acting is nice. It's simple, silly fun--and perhaps Coward wanted more out of the film, but I think for me that's quite enough to make it worth seeing.

A Light and Entertaining little Screwball Comedy

[davidmvining · 7/10 · 15 September 2020]

Once again, David Lean adapts a play by Noel Coward, but this time Coward wasn't particularly enamored with the results. The play is set entirely in one room and ends a particular way, but Lean expanded the visual scope of the film to include action outside the room and offered up a different ending that is a more ironic twist on events than the original. It's a witty little affair about a widower, his new wife, and the ghost of his first wife coming to visit.

Charles is married to Ruth, and their marriage seems to be a happy one. They tease each other about their previous spouses, both of whom had died, but they are dedicated to each other. Charles is setting out to write a mystery novel and invites over a few friends to witness the work of Madame Arcati, the local medium, to come for dinner and a séance. Perhaps because of the red meat she ate at dinner or because of some random thought at the back of Charles' mind, Madame Arcati opens the door for Elvira, Charles' first wife, to come to the mortal realm as a specter that only Charles can see.

The effect of Elvira's presence is mostly done with green makeup that matches her green gown and red lipstick and fingernail polish. It's slightly reflective so it pops a bit more on screen than everything around her, and it's a fine solution for how to capture a ghost on screen considering the amount of work it would have been to convincingly do double exposures for the amount of time the characters interact. And yet, it still feels somewhat flatly theatrical instead of cinematic, only providing small moments where people pass through Elvira or she carries a potted plant across the room. For all the effort to make her pop on screen, she still feels very physical in her presence, a problem that might have been impossible to fix at the time.

Still, the effect of the movie isn't visceral, relying so heavily on witty dialogue between its four stars. Charles' response to Ruth's questioning of his past brings out a fun line about how Charles will consult his diary for the history of his sex life and get back to her after lunch, for instance. The whole haunting flips on its head when Ruth ends up dead, accidentally at the hands of Elvira who used her ghostly powers to cut the brakes on Charles' car intending for Charles to die and spend eternity with her. Suddenly, Elvira is haunted by Ruth in a way that resembled Charles being haunted by Elvira without Ruth being able to see. It's a witty twist to the situation, and a lead in to the film's ending act that sees the return of Madame Arcati as she tries to send both back to the afterlife in a series of entertaining failures that does more to return Ruth to Charles' vision than anything else.

Now, haunted by both of his dead wives, Charles is trapped, exasperatingly so. The situation has left him jaded about death and the loss of his spouses, and when Madame Arcati does eventually get them sent back to where they came, Charles feels free. This is where the play and film are different, apparently. The play sees him simply escape with his life, free of his wives, but the movie adds a new ending where Charles dies on the same bridge that Ruth died on in an ironic twist that sees Charles spending the rest of eternity with both Ruth and Elvira.

It's an entertaining little morsel of fun from Coward and Lean, something that uses the occult in an entertaining way and is filled with witty, fun dialogue. It's not my favorite screwball comedy (that would probably be Bringing Up Baby), but it's certainly a highlight.

ghostly colour rendition !

[paulfreeman · 17 March 2007]

This film was shot using the original 3-negative Technicolor system. Sometime in the 50's/60's when TV was buying up old movies, the negs were called up from the vaults in Denham to make new prints, only then was it discovered that one entire set (the magenta ones) had gone missing.

The re-issue prints were cobbled together extracting the magenta element of the picture using old prints and a sort of optical subtractive process. It was not wildly successful as anyone who watched the movie on TV in the 60's or bought the early VHS can attest. It has a sort of ethereal, greenish, washed-out look to it. I suspect the optical soundtrack master was also missing for the 1st 2 reels (22 mins)

The current TV release (2007 on TCM) and the DVD is a perfect Technicolor print, so either the magenta negative has been unearthed or (more likely) the magic of digital wizardry has recreated the missing component.

"Nuts to Ruth!"

[Holdjerhorses · 7/10 · 27 March 2006]

As a cinematic archive, "Blithe Spirit" preserves a certain style and era of the British stage, and Noel Coward's writing, that otherwise would be lost.

I've personally never quite understood the popular "rage" Noel Coward's plays are said to have been. I appeared onstage (early in my short-lived acting career; yes, I'm a member of SAG and Equity) as Charles Condomine, so I'm familiar with "Blithe Spirit." And while I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton onstage in Coward's "Private Lives," and Joan Collins in the same play, I was more intrigued by the movie stars' stage performances than by the actual script.

Coward's dialogue is SO arch and precious (and of its period) that it absolutely requires an upper-crust British accent to work, and a fairly rapid light touch to disguise how studied and artificial it really is. No American ever spoke this way. (Of course, Shakespeare's dialogue was also of its period and nobody ever spoke in iambic pentameter, either: yet it's anything but arch and precious.) "Blithe Spirit" gives Margaret Rutherford and Kay Hammond the chance to recreate their stage roles for the camera, and Rex Harrison and Constance Cummings the opportunity to perfectly embody the rarefied world of the Condomines. (Miss Cummings, incidentally, was American. She married a British actor, moved to London and enjoyed a long and successful stage career. She was London's original Martha in Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?") The actors in "Blithe Spirit," even the minor characters, are flawless. One example (and for me perhaps the funniest line in the production) is Hugh Wakefield's response (as Dr. Bradman) to Madame Arcati's (Rutherford) pronouncement that as a young girl following in her mother's footsteps as a medium, she always used to be sick before going into a trance. "How fortunate that you grew out of it," Bradman deadpans with perfect throwaway aplomb.

Cummings and Harrison are utterly believable and droll as the Condomines: the very embodiment of British drawing-room comedy of the '40s.

But Rutherford and Hammond steal the show. Rutherford in particular exhibits really astonishing emotional and vocal range in a role that can easily be one-dimensionally comic. Kay Hammond somehow manages to seem to "float" slightly off the ground (watch how she uses her hands to achieve that effect), and her slightly exaggerated upper-crust diction relishes and milks the most out of her every syllable: "'Twasn't a punt; it was a launch," sounds flat on the page but listen to what she makes of it on the stage. Or her vocal rendering of her dalliance with "Captain Bracegirdle" on her honeymoon with Charles in "Budleigh Salterton." Priceless! While Cummings and Harrison are the two "normals" in "Blithe Spirit," Rutherford and Hammond can -- and do -- take every advantage of their characters' over-the-top renderings, physically and vocally as actors, demonstrating once and for all how Coward SHOULD be played.

Repeated viewings yield deeper appreciation for these performers' historic expertise as artists.

Somehow Margaret Rutherford's hilarious performance was under-appreciated at the time

[jacobs-greenwood · 6/10 · 26 September 2017]

Just prior to Brief Encounter (1945), director David Lean and screenwriters Ronald Neame and Anthony Havelock-Allan adapted producer Noël Coward's droll play about a widower husband whose deceased wife 'haunts' his current marriage, taunting his current wife (also a widow) in this Technicolor comedy. Neame was also its cinematographer. Using many of the same techniques found in Topper (1937), it also earned Tom Howard the first of his two Oscars for Special Effects; the other was for Tom Thumb (1958).

It stars Rex Harrison as the widower Charles Condomine, Constance Cummings as his current wife Ruth, and Kay Hammond as his first - now deceased wife Elvira, essentially the title role. Margaret Rutherford plays a marvelously entertaining quirky character named Madame Arcati, who's a spiritualist or medium if you will, with the 'expertise' that summons the ghostly Elvira to the here-and-now, where her presence plays havoc with Charles's and Constance's relationship ... especially since no one can see or hear Elvira except Charles.

Charles has very little conversational discipline - he's unable to control his harsh repartee with Elvira - such that Constance believes he is insulting her, which causes their estrangement. After Charles convinces Elvira to make her presence known to Constance (by moving objects in the room), the situation is further exacerbated when Charles becomes all too comfortable with the arrangement: having both his wives around. But neither Constance nor Elvira like the status quo, which leads to a most unfortunate event, when one of Elvira's schemes to change the situation backfires, making it worse for her.

Spirited Comedy

[kenjha · 7/10 · 12 February 2011]

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.

Spiritual mirth is a joyous thing.

[hitchcockthelegend · 9/10 · 4 March 2008]

Blithe Spirit is directed by David Lean and adapted from by Noel Coward's play by Lean, Coward, Ronald Neame and Anthony Havelock-Allan. The title Blithe Spirit was devised out of the poem by "To a Skylark" written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The film stars Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, Kay Hammond and Margaret Rutherford. Music is by Richard Addinsell and Neame is the photographer. Plot finds Charles (Harrison) and his second wife Ruth (Cummings) haunted by the ghost of Charles' first wife, Elvira (Hammond). Medium Madame Arcati (Rutherford) is enlisted to try and help. Things get colourful to say the least...

Written by a maestro and directed by someone so gifted, Blithe Spirit is a fantastical comedy that gladdens and lifts the spirits (no pun intended) to the point that this viewer always wears a grin 12 hours after watching it. Noel Coward's witty approach is given perfect treatment from David Lean and a cast clearly having fun with the material to hand. Rex Harrison is all fresh faced and youthful, whilst some of his mannerisms of incredulity and cheek are a joy to behold, while Constance Cummings & Kay Hammond bounce off each other with electrical mirth. However, it is Margaret Rutherford's show all the way, her portrayal of the batty, almost maniacal, medium Madame Arcati is a lesson in visual and well delivered oral comedy, it is something that on its own is worth watching the film for.

Ghostly goings on with a cracking turn of events at the hour mark, mark this out as a truly delightful movie, thankfully we get an ending that is perfect and in tune as regards the fun that has gone before it. Essential viewing for the classic comedy fan. 9/10

The Original 12 May 1945 Picturegoer Magazine Review

[PicturegoerMagazine · 7/10 · 14 July 2009]

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.

A comic masterpiece with all the right ingredients

[SATURIASIS · 10/10 · 26 August 2004]

Noel Coward wrote Blithe Spirit in 5 days during Britain's darkest days of the Second World War. The play completed 3 decades as Britain's longest run in West End for a comedic play. The film which was adapted from the play was directed by David Lean and incorporated some of the most sophisticated special effects yet seen in a movie. The film tackles some dark themes such as death and falling in and out of love. The characters themselves are on the face of it unsympathetic. Elvira is a siren, Ruth is shrewish and Charles a misogynist. Despite this the film works well as a comedy because of the quick and clever dialogue between the characters and the scene stealing performances of Margaret Rutherford's Madame Arcarti. You end laughing at and sometimes with the characters as one would do a Shakespeare comedy. Never has a film about death been so funny

It's fun but the story doesn't make much sense

[Maciste_Brother · 6/10 · 1 August 2007]

Having seen BLITHE SPIRIT several times since I was a kid and having seen it recently again, I finally realized why I never thought much of this film: the story just doesn't make any sense at all. The set-up is excellent. Had the movie stayed at the same level as the beginning, it would have been a classic but somewhere in the middle, the film is derailed beyond repair with plot points that belie the whole set-up. The idea of a séance that accidentally beckons the ghost of a deceased wife, who then proceeds to start haunting her still living husband, who's now married to a new wife, is filled with potential and the way it's achieved in the first act is actually quite fun. But the second and third act don't jibe at all: in the second act, Ruth and Charles realize that Elvira the Ghost wants Charles for herself and Elvira is planning on killing him so she can live for all eternity with her husband. But Elvira's plan backfires as she inadvertently kills Ruth instead, who, when once dead, runs after Elvira and torments her (Charles doesn't see the dead Ruth yet).

With Ruth out of the picture, we only see Charles and Elvira the Ghost talking and reminiscing of their relationship. Suddenly, Elvira hates Charles, has always hated Charles and his boring life, and she even admits she had a fling with another man when she was still married to Charles. The two bicker on and on, and the comedy steams from the "how can I get rid of this annoying ex-wife from hell who is haunting me" plot line. This is when the story falls apart because the story doesn't make any sense: if Elvira hated Charles so much and even had an affair with another man, why would she want to kill Charles so she can stay live with him permanently in the afterlife? Her actions of wanting Charles all to herself ended up with Ruth getting killed and yet Elvira loathes her husband? Plot point #1 that doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

Having lost a wife again and being haunted by a wife he despises, Charles is now desperate about his situation and wonders how to get rid of Elvira the Ghost. As he's trying to get rid of Elvira with the help of the medium who started the whole mess, Madame Acarti (wonderfully played by the eccentric Margaret Rutherford) inadvertently summons the ghost of Ruth. Now Charles is haunted by two ex-wives, Elvira and Ruth. More wacky comedy ensues. As the story moves along, the medium finally realizes who is actually summoning these dead wives, because Charles is certainly not the one doing it: it's the maid.

Huh?

Why? Why would the maid, who has psychic powers of some sort, summon Elvira and then Ruth? No explanation is ever given for this out-of-left-field storyline. I'm sure it has something to do with the very British "working class tormenting the upper class" thingy but even so, this makes plot point #2 that doesn't make any sense.

When they figure out who is responsible for the appearance of the two dead wives, the medium exorcises the house and the ghosts are banished. But at the very end of the film, the house is still haunted by some unseen ghost and the two dead wives weren't really banished. Instead they deliberately cause a car accident which kills Charles, and at the very end, we see a ghostly Charles sitting in between Elvira and Ruth on some bridge. The whole comical conclusion belies the whole set-up: the only time we saw the ghosts of Elvira and Ruth occurred after some sort of séance and yet we now see Charles, as a ghost, sitting next to his dead wives, without having been summoned by anyone. Plot point #3 that doesn't make any sense at all.

The film is fun, sharply directed and the cast is wonderful and game but the story is completely bonkers. The whole thing feels like a play you'd see at a summer theater, the type of play no one really pays any attention to the story, a trifle little thing to see on a warm summer evening after downing a few gin and tonics.

This film had the potential of being a classic but alas the story is so inconsistent with what it's trying to set-up that it only works as a cute little movie with a cute cast and a cute idea that's never fully realized.

Dame Margaret Rutherford at her very best!

[arrival · 10/10 · 8 April 2007]

Undoubtedly Dame Margaret Rutherford's greatest Movie - looking surprisingly young, slim and energetic, and with a waistline of someone half her age! Here she plays the somewhat 'cranky' and eccentric Madame Arcati in Noel Coward's hilarious comedy.

Also stars a plummy-voiced Kay Hammond whose voice can get a little irritating after awhile. The marvellous Joyce Carey who was blessed with perennial youth plays the hapless Mrs. Bradman, who is always putting her foot in it! Constance Cummings and Rex Harrison play the unfortunate married couple who are haunted by the ghost of a previous dead spouse. Harrison playing very much himself here, and with an uncannily resemblance to the character 'Higgins' that he was to play some twenty years later in My Fair Lady; conceited and nauseatingly arrogant...

One of the best scenes in this classic that stands out far from the rest with some great dialogue, is when Mrs. Condomine pays a visit to Madame Arcati, demanding she be rid of her husband's previous wife's ghost. This turns into a fiery exchange of some great home truths for both characters! An interesting point is the drama of this, craftily slipped in the middle of an otherwise complete 'comic' Movie - very cleverly done! This Film has some marvellous Special Effects for its day, in particular, Rutherford's extremely long finger, and the clever shot of Constance Cummings running upstairs, and seemingly passing straight through Kay Hammond's ghostly apparition! All done in glorious Technicolor! A Gem not to be missed!

David Lean's sleight of hand of a Coward's chirpy play

[lasttimeisaw · 7/10 · 29 January 2016]

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.

Margaret Rutherford!

[[e-mail] · 3/10 · 2 January 2011]

There is exactly one reason to see this movie--and it's not because of the Noel Coward play or David Lean's direction. Margaret Rutherford, whom few movie goers are likely to remember, steals the movie completely out from under the rest of the cast with her performance as Madam Arcati, the medium who stirs up the spirit that transforms the life of the other characters. Margaret Rutherford was a splendid actress in her day, and this is a wonderful performance. This, I must say, is the least lively performance of "Blithe Spirit" I've ever seen, and David Lean's direction is hugely disappointing because it is so static. It displays none of the visual imagination that has earned Lean his rank among the greatest directors of all time. (He's also credited as one of the writers of the screenplay.) There is also some interest in seeing Rex Harrison when he was young and exceedingly handsome. But I can recommend only to people who've never seen Ms. Rutherford or who are so madly in love with Noel Coward or David Lean that they are willing to endure a turkey.

Another Lean classic

[darth_sidious · 11 January 2002]

Has David Lean made a bad film? Not to my knowledge, no! This one is quite fun, I revisited the picture recently and even though I don't like it as much as the masterpiece Oliver Twist, Blithe Spirit is excellent fun for the whole family.

The acting is tremendous, it's mindblowing. Although the dialogue is rather upper class, I quite enjoy it. Margaret Rutherford as Madame Arcati is the star of the film, perfect, perfect and perfect.

The direction is sublime as usual by Lean.

There's plenty to enjoy here, a nice film for everyone.

Blithe Spirit

[jboothmillard · 7/10 · 30 January 2008]

The third directed film from Sir David Lean (The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia) is pretty good one. Basically author Charles Condomine (My Fair Lady's Sir Rex Harrison) needs some background for his new book about the supernatural, so he and his second wife Ruth (Constance Cummings) invite the dotty old medium Madame Arcati (an unforgettable Margaret Rutherford) and friends Dr. George Bradman (Hugh Wakefield) and his wife Violet (Joyce Carey) for a séance. During this séance, Charles was sure he heard the voice of his dead first wife, Elvira (Kay Hammond), and soon enough, when everyone has left, he is seeing and talking to her too, while Ruth's in the room. Most people would be shocked about seeing and talking to their dead wives, but Charles is pretty calm, only Ruth is worried about him talking to what she can't see, and being offended and confused when she think's he's talking to her. The next day though, she gets proof of Elvira's presence when objects are being lifted and thrown everywhere. Ruth after a little while wants Elvira out of her house, so she tries Madame Arcati, but she says she can't. Soo Charles also wants to get rid of her, especially when he finds out she tried to kill him to join her, and instead killed Ruth, and doing this turned her into a ghost too. Eventually Madame Arcati agrees to try everything she can to get rid of them, and with the help of maid Edith (Jacqueline Clarke), she manages it. In the end, after a few seconds of them disappearing (sight and sound wise) Charles still has them helping him leave the house (e.g. putting his coat and hat on), before he eventually crashes on the bridge where Elvira and Ruth are waiting, and he falls from the sky as a spirit. A happy ending? I'm not sure. Harrison is charming and witty, Hammond is glamorous and humorous as the dead first wife ghost, Cummings is appealing as the second wife, and I suppose Rutherford does steal the show at times as the almost bonkers old medium. Some of the best jokes were when Harrison talks to Hammond, and Cummings mistakes him talking to her. A good comedy, a good leading actor, some good supporting female stars, a good director, a good story, in full, a good film. It won the Oscar for Best Special Effects. Very good!

Lively and entertaining

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 4 August 2020]

A lively and entertaining farce, told on an extremely small scale but with a maximum of entertainment value. Noel Coward's blissful comi-fantasy play has been filmed many times over the years, but this post-war adaptation is the stand-out version, shot in beautiful colour which really brings out the eeriness of the supernatural characters. Rex Harrison and the others are perfectly smart and amiable in their roles but the stand-out is, inevitably, a scene-stealing Margaret Rutherford as the eccentric medium. BLITHE SPIRIT also offers a surprisingly dark kind of storyline complete with unforgettable punchline.

Middling teaming of Noel Coward, David Lean and Rex Harrison...

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 13 May 2006]

After a séance comically brings forth the ghost of his first wife, a British writer attempts to juggle time with the nagging spirit (whom only he can see) and his current spouse. From Noel Coward's popular play, full of dry humor and cute special effects (which won an Oscar), but performed indifferently by a rote Rex Harrison. Directed by David Lean, the picture is quaint and rather unmemorable. Oddly, Noel Coward produced the film but did not adapt the screenplay, which is instead credited to Lean, co-producer Anthony Havelock-Allan and cinematographer Ronald Neame! Lots of grand talent gathered together, but the returns are only fair. **1/2 from ****

Excellent Film

[kokelly60 · 10/10 · 21 December 2004]

I really enjoyed this film! My middle daughter is a big Margaret Rutherford fan and she really excelled in this. Constance Cummings was also brilliant in her part and I think it is sad that she did not excel in film afterwards for whatever reason. I only heard about this film a number of months ago and since buying it on DVD I have watched it a number of times and still enjoy it.

Its a film from a "bygone" era so to speak as they really don't make films like these anymore.

I would highly recommend this film and would have no hesitation in giving it a 10 out of 10!!

Saved by Rutherford

[JoeytheBrit · 6/10 · 23 September 2010]

Noel Coward's brand of comedy has never really appealed to me, and much of the comedy and incidents in this film are too predictable to be truly amusing. Where it does score is by having the wonderfully dotty Margaret Rutherford in the role of Madame Arcati, a crackpot medium who inadvertently calls Rex Harrison's first wife (Kay Hammond) back from the dead, much to the annoyance of his second wife (Constance Cummings).

I found Harrison to be quite annoying throughout this film. Not only did his voice grow increasingly irritating as the film went on, but his character seemed to be very poorly developed. One moment he seems happily married to second wife Ruth while also eventually being delighted to be re-united with Elvira, the next he can't seem to wait to be rid of the pair of them so that he can enjoy some newly-found bachelorhood. Perhaps I was missing something, my concentration wavered at times as the film struggled to hold my attention.

The production values are quite high for a mid-forties British film, and Hammond's simple but effective ghost make-up is quite impressive. It's just a shame that, by the end of the film you can't help feeling they all deserve to be stuck with each other for eternity

Sumptuous looking and polished adaptation of Noel Coward's comedy

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 30 December 2009]

I thoroughly enjoyed this adaptation of Noel Coward's play. For one thing, it is sumptuously filmed with fine cinematography and lavish costumes and sets. The direction from David Lean is also first rate, as is the upper class and sophisticated screenplay.

Though I must say the performances also deserve mention. Rex Harrison gives one of his best comic performances bringing a sense of sardonic wit and charm to the role of the man haunted by his first wife. Constance Cummings is very appealing as Ruth, and acquitting herself even better is the glamorous Kay Hammond as Elvira who looks quite like Gertrude Lawrence. But it is Margaret Rutherford who gives a criminally overlooked and divinely eccentric performance as Madame Arcati who steals the show.

And I must mention the music, it is brilliant. The Irving Berlin song Always has quickly become a favourite of mine. The story is quite an original concept. If there were any problems with the movie there are one or two things like Madame Arcati realising the true identity of the person who was summoning the spirits that could've done with more explanation, and the ending does suffer from some tampering from the ending in the play and felt rather abrupt. Overall though, I do recommend Blithe Spirit. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Spirituous black comedy!!

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 23 November 2018]

That's my field of knowledge and l'm glad to see it bring to big screen by Noel Coward, a hard subject to touch fo few people this picture goes beyond that l've could see lately, it's a boggy matter and seen with a huge skepticism due the dogmatic concept by the church, this picture uncover this old mystery afterlife in a black humor provide by british tradition, largely used by the funny Rutherford's character, the leading casting with Harrison a real british manners and the wives Constance Cummings and mainly Kay Hammond are great and gorgeous and sexy as well, l'd to see it twice to reach a final consensus, unforgetable special effects appied in early times are notewhorthy by David Lean!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2010 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25

Brilliant.

[kimbpaul · 8/10 · 15 June 2021]

Can't decide who plays their character best, Dame Margaret or Sir Rex, but every bit of dialog sparkles. I never tire of watching this. The remake pales in comparison.

Noel Coward-David Lean's madcap comedy

[kijii · 7/10 · 13 November 2016]

This is another of the four Noel Coward-David Lean joint ventures. As I look though David Lean's DIRECTORAL filmography, I see that his career began with these Coward joint ventures, passed though a brief Dickens phase, ran through drama and romance period, and ended with those huge multi-award winning epics like: Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Doctor Zhivago (1965), Ryan's Daughter (1970), and A Passage to India (1984). In any case, I am determined to watch as many of his 18 movies as I can. Although Blithe Spirit was one of Coward's favorite plays, it is far from anything I would expect from Lean. It's probably his main mad cap comedy, in that it is notable for its silliness. It is 'the British version of the Topper movies, with live people forced to interact with playful ghosts from their past.

As the movie begins, mystery writer, Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison), and his wife, Ruth (Constance Cummings)—both previously married and widowed--are holding a party with friends. At the party, Charlie plans to do research (on the tricks of phony psychics) for his next novel. In this case, they hire the local soothsayer, Madame Arcati (Margaret Rutherford). Madam Arcati is an excited devotee of paranormal arts and practices. However, she is also a novice of her given trade. When the group holds a seance that evening, Arcati gets her incantations mixed up and brings back the spirit of Charlie's dead wife, Elvira (Kay Hammond). As in a Topper movie, only Charlie can see Elvira's ghost, and he looks like a fool to everyone else as he talks and interacts with her while she remains invisible to them.

As the story progresses, Charlie, Ruth, and Elvira's spirit all become upset. Ruth doesn't understand what's going on; Elvira really doesn't want to be there as a ghost; and the mix up of living with two wives—in two different psychic spheres at the same time--frustrates Charlie. Elvira finally gets her revenge on Ruth by killing her in a car accident. NOW the problem becomes that both wives are dead but neither of their ghosts has left Charlie 'to pass over to the other side.' Worst of all, getting rid of these apparitions can only be done with the help of the totally incompetent Madame Arcati. Though she enthusiastically accepts the challenge of getting rid of the ghosts; all of her chants, incantations, and textbook research on paranormal phenomena comically fail her. The plot may seem a bit hackneyed today, but with Rutherford's performance, anything old becomes totally new and refreshing again!!

-----------------------------

In summer 1941, Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit" opened on the London stage, with Coward himself directing. Appearing as Madame Arcati, the genuine psychic, was Margaret Rutherford, in a role in which Coward had earlier envisaged her and which he then especially shaped for her. Later, Rutherford would carry her portrayal of Madame Arcati to the screen adaptation, David Lean's Blithe Spirit (1945). And not only would this become one of Rutherford's most memorable screen performances - with her bicycling about the Kentish countryside, cape fluttering behind her - but as well, it would establish the model for portraying that pseudo-soothsayer forever thereafter. (As Noel Coward had Margaret Rutherford in mind for his Madame Arcati creation, so, it is said, did Agatha Christie have Margaret Rutherford in mind for hers of Miss Marple.) Despite Dame Margaret Rutherford's appearances in more than 40 films, it is as Madame Arcati and as Miss Jane Marple that she will best be remembered.--- From IMDb's Mino Bio for Margaret Rutherford.

A "Spirit" Not So Blithe

[Rob-120 · 3/10 · 17 May 2009]

I recently saw the Broadway revival of "Blithe Spirit" starring Angela Lansbury, Rupert Everett, Christine Ebersole, and Jayne Atkinson. It's a terrific production, and shows what good actors can do with a play that is less than perfect. Angela Lansbury is extremely funny as Madame Arcati.

It was probably a mistake, then, to check out the film version of the play starring Rex Harrison. The movie does not have the energy or the laughs of a good stage production.

"Blithe Spirit" is probably one of those plays that works better with a live cast, in an audience full of people who have come to laugh. The actors can improvise, give touches and nuances to their performance and delivery of the lines, and involve the audience on a personal level that you can't get in a movie house, or with a DVD showing, where the audience is separated from the story by the "Fourth Wall." The story: Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison), a successful writer, lives with his wife Ruth (Constance Cummings) in a house in the English countryside. Seeking information for his next book, a book dealing with the supernatural, Charles invites Madame Arcati (Margaret Rutherford, reprising her role from the original 1941 London production), a local spiritual medium, over to his house to conduct a séance. Charles believes that spiritism is a sham, but hopes to pick up "the tricks of the trade." But then Madame Arcati brings back the ghost of Elvira (Kaye Hammond), Charles's first wife, who died of pneumonia seven years ago. Elvira refuses to leave, and develops a spitting rivalry with Ruth over Charles (complicated by the fact that only Charles can see or hear Elvira).

On stage, the actors can give performances that invite laughs in this situation. But on the screen, the actors in "Blithe Spirit" tear through the lines as if they don't know that anyone is listening to them. They mumble lines that were designed to get laughs on the stage. The performances by Harrison, Cummings, and even Kaye Hammond are flat and lifeless. Only Margaret Rutherford seems to have retained her spark and humor as Madame Arcati.

The Oscar-winning visual effects in the film are unimpressive -- not just by today's standards, but by the standards of 1946! They consist mostly of Kaye Hammond walking around in fluorescent green outfits and makeup, being photographed in special lighting to make her look like a glowing ghost.

The cinematographer deserves some credit for creative lighting. But compare the dull visual effects of "Blithe Spirit" to the truly groundbreaking effects in Disney's "Song of the South" -- which was eligible for awards the same year. In "South," humans and animated characters share the screen seamlessly for minutes at a time. Compared to "South," the Oscar that "Blithe Spirit" received for special effects was completely undeserved.

At any rate, I can only encourage you to catch the Broadway revival of this play with Angela Lansbury before it closes. As for the movie with Rex Harrison, skip it.