Blithe Spirit (1945)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

David Lean

Writers:

David Lean (adaptation) and
Ronald Neame (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

14 May 1945 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Romance

Tagline:

One Wife Too Many

Plot:

Adapted from a play by Noel Coward, Charles and his second wife Ruth, are haunted by the ghost of his first wife, Elvira. Medium Madame Arcati tries to help things out by contacting the ghost.

Plot Keywords:

Ghost | Medium | Author | Supernatural | Doctor

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Rex Harrison	...	Charles Condomine
Constance Cummings	...	Ruth Condomine
Kay Hammond	...	Elvira Condomine
Margaret Rutherford	...	Madame Arcati
Hugh Wakefield	...	Dr. George Bradman
Joyce Carey	...	Violet Bradman
Jacqueline Clarke	...	Edith

Also Known As:

Noel Coward's 'Blithe Spirit' (UK) (complete title)

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

UK:U (video rating) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:A (original rating) | Spain:T

Filming Locations:

D and P Studios, Denham Studios, Denham, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Noel Coward-Cineguild

Trivia:

Following the success of the play in London and on Broadway, every studio in Hollywood wanted to make the movie of Blithe Spirit (1945). However, Noel Coward took the project to his friend David Lean, with whom he had co-directed the Oscar-winning In Which We Serve (1942). However, Coward was not at all happy with Lean's film of Blithe Spirit (1945). He later asked Lean, "How the hell did you fuck up the best thing I ever did?"

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: After the séance when Elvira first appears, she flops onto the settee by the fire. As her dress billows you can see wear the green ghostly make up ends half way up her leg, showing normal skin above the make up line.

Quotes:

[first lines]
words on a Victorian sampler: "When we are young / We read and believe / The most fantastic things. / When we are older / We learn with regret / That these things cannot be"
Narrator: We are quite, quite wrong!

Movie Connections:

Version of Blithe Spirit (1956) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Always

Fun from the 40's Brit flick

This is the second of three collaborations in film done in the mid 1940's between David Lean as a Director and playwright Noel Coward including This Happy Breed and Brief Encounter. This is an early film in Lean's directorial career who would of course go on to make such major films as Doctor Zhivago, The Bridge on the River Kwai and A Passage to India. Coward produces and narrates this film as well. A great cast with Rex Harrison as a novelist, Constance Cummings as his second wife, Kay Hammond as his first wife and Margaret Rutherford as the medium Madame Arcadi. This is a fun fantasy/comedy/romantic story. I haven't seen this in years. I would give it an 8.0 of a scale of 10.