L'esprit s'amuse

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.

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.

I thoroughly enjoyed this adaptation of Noel Coward's play. For one thing, it is sumptuously filmed with fine cinematography and lavish costumes and sets. The direction from David Lean is also first rate, as is the upper class and sophisticated screenplay.

Though I must say the performances also deserve mention. Rex Harrison gives one of his best comic performances bringing a sense of sardonic wit and charm to the role of the man haunted by his first wife. Constance Cummings is very appealing as Ruth, and acquitting herself even better is the glamorous Kay Hammond as Elvira who looks quite like Gertrude Lawrence. But it is Margaret Rutherford who gives a criminally overlooked and divinely eccentric performance as Madame Arcati who steals the show.

And I must mention the music, it is brilliant. The Irving Berlin song Always has quickly become a favourite of mine. The story is quite an original concept. If there were any problems with the movie there are one or two things like Madame Arcati realising the true identity of the person who was summoning the spirits that could've done with more explanation, and the ending does suffer from some tampering from the ending in the play and felt rather abrupt. Overall though, I do recommend Blithe Spirit. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I taped this from UK Channel 4 on 20th Dec '90 - it has a better soundtrack than the admittedly budget DVD from Carlton. The Technicolor is still sumptuous, clever and thought-provoking however and overall it doesn't need remastering - just turn the volume up! Noel Coward's witty play transferred to the ghastly green screen perfectly, in 1945 it was as wildly old-fashioned as "Brief Encounter" was in 1936 on stage as "Still Life". But same as that film and almost everything Coward did from the '20's to the '40's, it remains eminently watchable and a riveting experience.

Basically Rex Harrison's dead 1st wife is summoned back in a séance to the "real world" much to his and his 2nd wife's consternation. A marvellous cast mainly depicting erudite and splendidly eccentric English so-called "middle-class" - because they had to work for a living hence they were all highly paid working class - an amusing concept Coward would have violently and amusingly disagreed with. Margaret Rutherford takes the prize for the most eccentric performance as ever flailing never failing Madame Arcati the lively spiritualist. The dialogue is urbane, brisk and witty throughout, so a thorough knowledge of English language and English customs up to 1945 is essential to getting the most from this.

That can also mean that although it helps you don't have to be English and live in England to enjoy it. A previous non-blithe commenter with apparently no sense of humour from the UK displayed a complete non-understanding, non-interest and non-acceptance of anything British and must desire complete separation from anything to do with Britain - probably apart from the passport. What would the ghosts of 1945 say if they could come back today and realise that a classic such as this can be dismissed so negatively?

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.