Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The cheerful dead, 4 Jul 2004
This is a film I've loved since I was a child. It only came out on DVD last year, but the film was made in 1945. It must be about 20 years since I last watched it and, I'm pleased to say that it has aged well and I enjoyed it just as much today as I did on all the previous occasions that I watched it. As you would expect in a script created by Noel Coward, it's very clever and very witty. Margaret Rutherford is one of my favourite comic actresses and she's on form in this film, playing a dotty old medium, Madam Arcati, who conjures up the spirit of her client's first wife - and is then quite at a loss to know how to get rid of her. Rex Harrison plays the client: author, Charles Condomine, who arranged for Madam Arcati to have a séance at his home. He's hoping that she's a fraud and he wants to study her methods for the book he's writing. Coward could have written this part for Rex Harrison who plays the part with cool, sharp, intelligent wit. His wives - the first Mrs Condomine, Elvira, played by Kay Hammond and the current Mrs Condomine, Ruth, played by Constance Cummings are both excellent: the naughty, mischievous Elvira taking every opportunity to annoy and upset poor Ruth and get Charles into trouble; the indignant Ruth, in turns angry and exasperated. There's a playful and good natured feel to the film. Elvira's more teasing than spiteful; Ruth is never pushed too far and Charles quite enjoys having both his wives with him - if only they could get on nicely together.I think it's probably fair to call this film a 'classic' of its kind. I'm so pleased to have found it available on DVD. It's just the thing to cheer up a wet Sunday afternoon. I recommend it.
|
|
|
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Timeless classic, 8 Nov 2004
This is British filmmaking at it's best. No matter that this was made in 1945, it still entertains today.
The movie is based on a play by Noel Coward and centres around an author (Rex Harrison) who, with his second wife (Constance Cummings)invites a medium to perform a seance in his home. His intention is to perform research for a novel he is writing but the medium, brilliantly played by Margaret Rutherford, unwittingly raises the spirit of his deceased first wife,Elvira.
From then on, the unfortunate man is caught between his warring wives. The battle is all played out with humour, as is the hapless authors efforts to get the medium to get rid of Elvira.
This is a movie that is well worth watching and funny for any age group.
|
|
|
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rex Harrison's Best Film, 14 Jul 2006
"You're almost as good as me!" Noel Coward is reported to have remarked to Rex Harrison. There's no way to compare Coward with Harrison in the play now but Harrison was almost certainly a better film actor and this is his best film.
The film of My Fair Lady is Harrison's best known starring role and is a lavish recreation of the stage show, somewhat lumbering and overlong if entertaining. Blithe Spirit by contrast is pointed, light, witty and a small masterpiece of film making craft. It's not a popular crowd pleaser despite the play's continuing revivals with amateur stage societies, but is a rare high comedy with a ghostly theme of reincarnation.
The director David Lean and the lighting cameraman Ronald Neame didn't find it funny, though this is not obvious from the finished result. The film's real backer, apart from Noel Coward, was producer Anthony Havelock-Allan, who saw it as a successor to The Ghost Goes West and Hollywood screwball comedies of the 30s. The only real deficiency is the casting of Kay Hammond as Elvira, who excellent though she is, the camera reveals as too old and less sexy than Constance Cummings. All the players act superbly however and David Lean's direction foreshadows his next film, Brief Encounter. Both films were box office flops at the time
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
![Blithe Spirit [DVD] [1945]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51p8CoDvwnL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Blithe Spirit [DVD] [1945]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JVRYaI4QL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Ghost And Mrs Muir [DVD] [1947]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JSWGPGDXL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Happiest Days Of Your Life [DVD] [1950]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514dotAI2lL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Ghost And Mrs Muir [DVD] [1947]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JSWGPGDXL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Gene Tierney
![Bell, Book And Candle [DVD] [1958]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/417QDH47M4L._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ James Stewart
![Comedy Classics - Miss Robin Hood [1952] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51xIH3GeqML._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Margaret Rutherford
![A Matter Of Life And Death [DVD] [1946]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QPT95HF6L._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ David Niven
DVD ~ Margaret Rutherford
