Blithe Spirit, based on a Noel Coward play, is more or less a four-hander in which Rex Harrison's stiff upper lip is unmoved by the arrival of his dead wife's ghost after a catastrophic seance. Thing is, he's remarried, and the ladies don't really get along. I'm really not to sure about Kay Hammond's green make-up as the ghost, or her drunken slur, for that matter, but you get used to these conventions. Despite the macabre streak in the story, it's all quite amusing (and saucy! they couldn't say THAT in an American film of the time!), and it only gets in trouble when it overdoes it. The Margaret Rutherford's muscled medium is quite kooky, but I find a lot of her physical business a bit trying. Similarly, while I enjoyed the crazy (if not entirely unexpected) turns the film took in the third act, there's an awful sense by that point that wit has entirely replaced emotion, and it's hard to care when no one onscreen seems to. Fun, but not entirely successful.
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deckard.
so blithe! Kay Hammond was fantastic as a ghost, loved her somewhat quirky way of speaking.boulderman
Good but Rex lacked emotionSiskoid
Blithe Spirit, based on a Noel Coward play, is more or less a four-hander in which Rex Harrison's stiff upper lip is unmoved by the arrival of his dead wife's ghost after a catastrophic seance. Thing is, he's remarried, and the ladies don't really get along. I'm really not to sure about Kay Hammond's green make-up as the ghost, or her drunken slur, for that matter, but you get used to these conventions. Despite the macabre streak in the story, it's all quite amusing (and saucy! they couldn't say THAT in an American film of the time!), and it only gets in trouble when it overdoes it. The Margaret Rutherford's muscled medium is quite kooky, but I find a lot of her physical business a bit trying. Similarly, while I enjoyed the crazy (if not entirely unexpected) turns the film took in the third act, there's an awful sense by that point that wit has entirely replaced emotion, and it's hard to care when no one onscreen seems to. Fun, but not entirely successful.MilenaFlaherty
So witty. Should be on more lists.Lang Welles
Worth watching just to admire Rutherford's wonderfully excentric style of acting.