Blithe Spirit (1945)

 David Lean's "Blithe Spirit"


Of the two films that David Lean directed in 1945, "Brief Encounter" is by far the better and more memorable film. That being said, his first effort that year, "Blithe Spirit," despite its poor commercial  reception at the time, has since been reappraised as being a classic British-style screwball comedy. Even more notably, its use of technicolor. 

The film stars Rex Harrison as a middle-aged writer named Charles who is happily married to his second wife. After inviting a medium over to perform a séance, Charles' first wife appears as a ghost. This angers Ruth, who is committed to having her removed.

As far as the production was concerned, everybody was unhappy. The film was adapted from the popular stage play by Noel Coward. Coward, because he was very unhappy with the way his previous adaptations had been butcherered by American studios so he sold the rights of the film to an independent British studio. However, due to many of the casting decisions and script changes, he felt the film version 'ruined the best play [he] ever wrote. The actors were also unhappy with the production. Rex Harrison returned to acting after being on leave for 4 years in the service during World War II. He felt as though director David Lean was unsuitable for directing a comedy and gave bad advice and direction. Actress Margaret Rutherford also noted that the filming of the movie took six months instead of the planned twelve weeks because of the difficulties with the color stock. Overall, nobody involved with the film enjoyed the process or even the finished product.

Despite the poor commercial success of the film, it is retrospectively viewed as an impressive British comedy. I don't think the film was particular funny, but I did find it very amusing regardless. I was most engaged with the vibrancy of technicolor, especially as an important visual device to allow viewers to see the green paint on the actress(es) playing ghosts. Overall, a solid watch, but nothing to write home about.



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