blithe spirit.txt

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Blithe Spirit (1945) 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038363/

Blithe Spirit (1945) is a British fantasy comedy film in Technicolor directed by David Lean. The screenplay by Lean, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Ronald Neame, and Noël Coward is based on Coward's 1941 play of the same name. Its title is derived from the line Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! Bird thou never wert in the poem To a Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

A harmless séance at the home of novelist Charles Condomine and his wife Ruth summons up the ghost of Charles' glamorous first wife Elvira.

  Rex Harrison  ...  Charles Condomine  
  Constance Cummings  ...  Ruth Condomine  
  Kay Hammond  ...  Elvira Condomine  
  Margaret Rutherford  ...  Madame Arcati  
  Hugh Wakefield  ...  Dr. George Bradman  
  Joyce Carey  ...  Violet Bradman  
  Jacqueline Clarke  ...  Edith  

  
Blithe Spirit (d. David Lean, 1945) was the second of three Noël Coward adaptations produced by Lean's new company Cineguild. Ronald Neame, co-founder of the company alongside producer Anthony Havelock-Allan, was again the director of photography, and the film was another Technicolor production. Coward himself performed the witty introductory voice-over. With its cast of distinguished comedy actors, the film did well with post-war audiences, but Coward professed himself disappointed with the result, although Lean had warned him that 'high comedy' was not really his forte.

The film is stylish. The action is set at the Condomines' comfortable upper middle-class home in Kent, and great care was taken to ensure the right look for the set. An actor like Rex Harrison was quite at ease in the world of the play, but Lean himself reportedly found it not to his own taste. The special effects are convincing and Lean's lighting and framing give it visual interest. The action is stagey, so all depends on the cast and they play wonderfully, even though Harrison was considered by some to look too young for the role of the middle-aged Charles. Kay Hammond and Margaret Rutherford had created their roles on the stage; the play premiered at London's Piccadilly Theatre on 1941 and was still running when Coward invited Lean to make a film version.

Hammond, in her floaty green chiffon gown, green hair and pale make-up, is a sexy and mischievous Elvira, employing her throaty, theatrical drawl to good comic effect. The American actress Constance Cummings' Ruth, by contrast, is brisk and sensible. Margaret Rutherford's performance of Madame Arcati has passed into theatre legend and she recreates the role of the eccentric and rather incompetent medium effectively for film. Her joy at the realisation that she has actually managed to summon up a spirit is beautifully judged.

As with most of Coward’s work, Blithe Spirit is renowned for its dialogue. During an argument with Ruth, Charles declares, If you're trying to compile an inventory of my sex life, I feel it only fair to warn you that you've omitted several episodes. I shall consult my diary and give you a complete list after lunch. The line, considered extremely risqué by censors, was deleted from the US release.

Although it received positive critical reviews, the film was a box office failure on both sides of the Atlantic, but it is now widely regarded as a classic.

Variety observed, Inasmuch as this is largely a photographed copy of the stage play . . . the camerawork is outstandingly good and helps to put across the credibility of the ghost story more effectively than the flesh and blood performance does. Acting honors go to Margaret Rutherford as Mme Arcati, a trance medium who makes you believe she's on the level. There is nothing ethereal about this 200-pounder. Her dynamic personality has all the slapdash of Fairbanks Sr in his prime.

Daniel Etherington of Channel 4 rated it 3½ stars out of five stars and commented, Like a quintessentially English, supernatural take on the contemporaneous American screwball comedy, Blithe Spirit is a joy, sharing with its US counterparts fast, witty dialogue that has its origins in stage performance. Although the theatricality arguably hampers the film . . . the verve of the performances, in tandem with the striking Technicolor cinematography Oscar-winning special effects, elevates it . . . Rutherford almost steals the show, playing the kind of charismatically eccentric grand dame that would define her career.