The Canterville Ghost (1996) (TV)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Sydney Macartney

Writers (WGA):

Oscar Wilde (short story)
Robert Benedetti (teleplay)

Release Date:

27 January 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Drama | Fantasy

Plot:

Adaption of the famous Oscar Wilde tale about a young American girl that helps a British ghost find rest and forgiveness.

Plot Keywords:

Ghost | Castle | Supernatural | Kids And Family

Awards:

Won Primetime Emmy. Another 4 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Patrick Stewart	...	Sir Simon de Canterville
Neve Campbell	...	Virginia 'Ginny' Otis
Joan Sims	...	Mrs. Umney
Donald Sinden	...	Mr. Umney
Cherie Lunghi	...	Lucille Otis
Edward Wiley	...	Hiram Otis
Leslie Phillips	...	George, Lord Canterville
Daniel Betts	...	Francis, Duke of Cheshire
Ciarán Fitzgerald	...	Adam Otis
Raymond Pickard	...	Washington Otis

MPAA:

Rated PG for some haunting moments.

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:PG | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Knebworth House, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

Anasazi

Quotes:

Virginia 'Ginny' Otis: When a gentle girl can win a prayer from out the lips of sin/when a child gives up tears and the baron almond bears/when the silent chapel bell sounds the ghostly sinners knell/then shall all the house be still, and peace shall come to Canterville.

Movie Connections:

Version of "Mystery and Imagination: The Canterville Ghost (#1.7)" (1966)

how to find love with the help of a lonely ghost

Neve Campbell and her family (small brothers, sympathetic mum, physicist and cynic father) travel from America to England when he lands a lucrative research post, and almost immediately strange things begin to happen in the de Canterville ancestry home.

Bumps and moans in the night, bloodstains, invisible hands on the shoulder - yes, there's a ghost about.

Oscar Wilde's story takes shape beautifully in this TV version, one of the numerous adaptations of his tale for children. Patrick Stewart is the ghostly Simon de Canterville, doomed to walk the house at night for all eternity for his earthly crimes, and he is watchable, especially wrestling with the pride of 400 years dead and no one to bow and scrape around him.

This being a fairy tale there's romance for Ginny as well in the shape of a local Duke (Daniel Betts) who is sympathetic to ghosts and very charming, as local Dukes so often are in these stories. Donald Sinden and Joan Sims play butler and housekeeper, shielding guilty secrets, and Leslie Philips appears briefly as the current representative of family de Canterville.

Recommended for children and adults alike, 'The Canterville Ghost' is charming, touching, and with just the right amount of suspense. The Americans may be paint-by-numbers stereotypes, but that doesn't matter. Without Stewart, I might have rated this much lower, but it definitely deserves high points for his performance alone.