Spirito allegro

A pristine restoration of David Lean's fantasy comedy based on Noël Coward's successful play, BLITHE SPIRIT is Lean's third feature film and pairs Rex Harrison and Constance Cummings as a middle-class couple Charles and Ruth, both have been married before, out of his whim, Charles invites a kooky medium Madame Arcati (Rutherford) to their rural house to arrange a séance, which he naively thinks is good for inspiration since he is a novelist and Ruth, takes the whole arrangement ever so light-heartedly, only participates out of sheer curiosity, but after the supernormal session, it turns out Madame Arcati is not a fraud at all, Elvira (Hammond), Charles' deceased first wife, has been invoked from the other side and materialises, but only to Charles, who is pleasantly surprised and they start to banter with each other, which vastly irritates Ruth.

Seeking help from Madame Arcati of no avail, Ruth realises she must fight Elvira for Charles, and a subsequent outlandish accident, secretly plotted by Elvira, puts her in the same circumstance as Elvira, while Madame Arcati's final attempt to exorcise the dead from the living world fails, her crystal ball indicates a cue that there is another human being under the same roof is actually capable of accomplish that task.

The story does sound idiotic and Coward's original play has no ambition to be a wacky science fiction other than a farcical fairytale (the film begins convivially with the "once upon a time" introduction), a frivolous (but also cartoon-ishly lethal) tug-of-war between two women divided by two worlds, with poles apart temperaments (Elvira is mischievously petulant while Ruth is uncompromisingly virtuous), thus, the acting is fairly engrossing, the four main characters all cop an attitude with their respectively distinct personalities, the repartees among Harrison, Cummings and Hammond are as rapid as any theatrical live performance, whereas Dame Margaret Rutherford's eccentric actualisation of Madame Arcati is an uplifting phenomenon, such a force of nature and she defies any ridicule of her calling.

However, more essentially, it is Lean's cutting-edge job in fabricating a human-ghost co-existent magic presence becomes a major reason why this little piece of gem sustains its life-force, under the stunning Technicolor palette, this restored version is truly a boon for a first-time viewer, if you are into some carefree diversion of spectres, death and necromancy.

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

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.

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.

Has David Lean made a bad film? Not to my knowledge, no! This one is quite fun, I revisited the picture recently and even though I don't like it as much as the masterpiece Oliver Twist, Blithe Spirit is excellent fun for the whole family.

The acting is tremendous, it's mindblowing. Although the dialogue is rather upper class, I quite enjoy it. Margaret Rutherford as Madame Arcati is the star of the film, perfect, perfect and perfect.

The direction is sublime as usual by Lean.

There's plenty to enjoy here, a nice film for everyone.