Blithe Spirit [DVD] [1945]

Noel Coward's favourite play, Blithe Spirit, was certainly a departure for David Lean, best known at the time for adapting Dickens. While it's the director's only comedy, the result is a delightful gem. Rex Harrison is an acerbic author haunted by the ghost of first wife Elvira (Kay Hammond), who tries to seduce him all over again. This throws his second wife (Constance Cummings) into a panic, second-guessing her lack of passion. It's a celestial sex romp that hasn't lost its bite. Margaret Rutherford, as always, steals the show as the sardonic medium. --Bill Desowitz

Blithe Spirit is David Lean's 1945 film adaptation of a comical three-act play by Noel Coward. Newly-married mystery novelist Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison) and his second wife Ruth (Constance Cummings) are haunted by the ghost of his first wife, Elvira (Kay Hammond). The film won the Academy Award for Best Effects (Thomas Howard I) in 1947.

In Blithe Spirit mystery novelist Charles invites a medium over for dinner in the hope of gathering enough material for his latest book, as well as exposing her as a charlatan. A series of incidents which transpire during the course of the night result in a chain of supernatural events, which wreak havoc on Charles' present marriage, while bringing to light serious flaws in his previous one.

United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Mono ), English ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Black & White, Interactive Menu, SYNOPSIS: The Noel Coward/David Lean combination which turned out such dramas as Brief Encounter and This Happy Breed sets its sights on the viewer's funny bone with Blithe Spirit. Rex Harrison plays a novelist, newly married to straight-laced Constance Cummings. While researching a book on spiritualism, Harrison is teased and tormented by the mischievous ghost of his first wife, Kay Hammond. Believing that Hammond wants to ruin his marriage, Harrison enlists the services of local medium Madame Arcati (Margaret Rutherford in her funniest performance). When Arcati fails to exorcise Hammond's spirit, Harrison decides to kill himself so that he can be reunited with her and spare wife number two the aggravation of being haunted. But Harrison's plans go awry: His second wife is killed, and now he has two playful spirits on his hands! Technicolor is used throughout Blithe Spirit, with the ghosts' shimmering paleness providing contrast to the plain, everyday colors of Harrison's conservative country home. Blithe Spirit was later transformed into the Broadway musical High Spirits, with the original script bent out of shape to turn the character of Madame Arcati (played by Beatrice Lillie) into the leading role. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Oscar Academy Awards, ...Blithe Spirit