Ghost & Mrs Muir
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List Price: $19.98
Features
• Black & White
• Closed-captioned
• NTSC
In Theaters : 26 June, 1947
Video Release : 21 March, 1991 |
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Ghost & Mrs Muir Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥
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One of a Kind, Exquisite and Perfect
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On any list of the Ten Most Romantic Films Ever Made, "The Ghost and Mrs Muir" will likely always be present. This beautiful 1947 black and white film by Joseph Mankiewiecz, with a gorgeous score by Bernard Herrmann (better known for the foreboding ones he did for Alfred Hitchcock), and marvellous performances by Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison, represents the best of post-War British romanticism. It can only be described as - well, haunting. Once seen, never forgotten, and pull out your handkerchiefs, you will need at least two.
Gene Tierney plays Lucy Muir, an exquisite young widow with a little girl who moves to the seashore to get away from her late husband's domineering sister and mother. Lucy's financial resources are limited, but she happens onto a house overlooking the sea that is surprisingly affordable - it appears the house has had trouble remaining occupied, due to "disturbances". Lucy and her daughter fall in love with the house and move in, accompanied by Martha, their housekeeper. Shortly afterward, Lucy is confronted by the source of the house's disturbances: its former owner, one Captain Gregg, a seaman who died in the house, and still considers it his. He has chased out all subsequent owners and intends to do the same with Lucy, but she stands up to him defiantly, and lets him know that she will NOT be leaving and he can do as likes. He admires her spirit, and, having glimpsed her beauty (Ms. Tierney was surely at her most radiant in this film), he softens and agrees to share the house with her and her little family, although she asks him to refrain from contact with her little girl. Captain Gregg is played by a deliriously attractive Rex Harrison, who brings to the role an irrisistable blend of charm, irony, and crustiness.
A bantering but affectionate friendship develops between Lucy and Captain Gregg's ghost. The Captain has clearly fallen for the new owner of the house, so much so that when Lucy's slender funds begin to run low and she confronts the possibility of losing the house she has come to love as much as he, Gregg dictates his very salty memoirs to her - they are published and become a best seller, ensuring Lucy's future.
However, Captain Gregg eventually realizes that his presence in Lucy's life is preventing her from going out and meeting living men. Reluctantly, he decides to withdraw, and does so in a way that leaves Lucy no memory of Gregg's "reality", but rather a memory of an imaginary character that she dreamed and who then inspired the book. After Gregg disappears, Lucy begins to go out into society, and almost immediately meets George Sanders - an experienced cad with whom she falls in love, only to find that he is married with several children. The heartbroken Lucy retreats into solitude and decides that the only companionship she needs is her growing daughter, the loyal Martha, and the beloved house by the sea.
Years pass, and Lucy's daughter grows up and becomes engaged to (naturally) a naval officer - when her daughter brings her fiance home, Lucy finds out that the little girl knew all about Captain Gregg and had frequent contact with him - something they both hid from Lucy. More years pass, and now it is Lucy's granddaughter who is engaged to (naturally) a naval officer. Lucy and Martha have grown old together in the house, and, on a windswept night, the white-haired, tired Lucy passes quietly away in the great armchair in the Captain's old room - he suddenly appears before her and holds out his hands, and she springs up, young and beautiful again, and the two pass silently out into the briny night, finally able to live out the love they could not share while one of them still walked among the living.
It sounds terribly soppy, but the script is of such high quality, the performances so note-perfect, the production so atmospheric, that the film never wanders into over-sentimentalization or saccharinity. Its gentle romanticism recalls a lost era (alas, even Britain no longer makes films like this!) and, once seen, leaves an indelible memory.
A five-star classic, and a must-have for fans of post-War British filmmaking of this genre. |
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