Blithe Spirit

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.

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

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

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.

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