Blithe Spirit (1945) - film review

To gather material for his next book, writer Charles Condomine invites a local mystic, Madame Arcati, to hold a séance at his house, in the presence of his wife Ruth and two guests.  Sceptical of Arcati’s powers, Charles is surprised when the image of his dead wife Elvira appears before him.  Apparently, the dead woman has returned to him, against her will, and can only be seen by him.  Convinced that Elvira intends to murder him so that she has someone to harangue for eternity, Charles appeals to Madame Arcati to send her back to where she came…

A rare comedy from David Lean, one of England’s finest filmmakers, is this "spirited" adaptation of a popular stage play by Noel Coward.  Lean and Coward collaborated on three other films: In Which We Serve (1942), This Happy Breed (1944) and Brief Encounter (1945), all classics of British cinema.  Blithe Spirit is something of an oddity, an eccentric drawing room farce which was hugely successful in its day but whose appeal has waned considerably since.  Whilst the film is attractively shot, in Technicolor, its special effects were pretty basic even for its time and now look positively prehistoric.  The photography and overall visual design are far less inspired than in Lean’s later films, suggesting a director who wasn’t overly enthusiastic about the project.   Coward himself was far from impressed with the result.

The film relies too heavily on its author’s brilliant (albeit dated) scripted dialogue and, if any thing, feels under-directed.   It’s staged more as a conventional theatrical production than a piece of cinema.  With a lesser cast, this would probably have been fatal, but what prevents the film from falling flat is its glorious ensemble of talented actors.  Rex Harrison relishes his lines and is perfectly cast as the aloof, totally unflappable writer (Coward in all but name).  As Harrison’s ghostly former wife, Kay Hammond comes close to earning a special place in madhouse, and again she makes the sour upper middle class repartee sparkle, in spite of being covered from head to toe in unflattering green makeup.

The thing that sells the film however is none of the above.  There is one other ingredient which makes it a real treasure, something to be relished and savoured, earning a place in any self-respecting film enthusiast’s DVD collection.  That ingredient is of none other than Margaret Rutherford, that indefatigable dowager of British eccentricity in its fullest bloom.  In every one of her screen appearances, the great, unsurpassed Margaret erupts from the screen like a juggernaut in full throttle, knocking a kindly Wagnerian force into even the most trite piece of comedy.  Here, as the ludicrously inept medium Madame Arcati, she is simply magnificent.  If there was just one reason for watching Blithe Spirit, it is simply to enjoy seeing Margaret Rutherford doing what she does best – bringing down the house, with the effortless grace and demonic power of a battalion of manically possessed bulldozers.  Heaven.

© James Travers 2007

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