Blithe Spirit ***** (1945, Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, Kay Hammond, Margaret Rutherford, Hugh Wakefield, Joyce Carey) – Classic Movie Review 322

Noël Coward’s 1941 comedy Blithe Spirit is one of his finest plays. In 1945 Coward told film director David Lean: ‘Just photograph it, dear boy’, but Lean made changes, including a new ending ‘ruining my best play’.

Noël Coward’s vintage classic comedy Blithe Spirit is one of his finest three plays and is still frequently revived to new acclaim. David Lean’s 1945 movie version of it keeps all that’s valuable in it. The film is a delicious special pleasure, with the director transferring the work seamlessly, smoothly and without any effort showing. That’s a rare skill, by the way.

The happy second marriage of the renowned English writer Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison) to his second wife Ruth (Constance Cummings) is unfortunately turned upside down when his pesky first wife Elvira (Kay Hammond) has the ill grace to reappear in ghostly guise.

When national treasure Margaret Rutherford’s on screen, nobody looks at anyone else and she effortlessly and delightfully steals the show as Madame Arcati, the bicycling medium pedalling along like a wicked witch to help Charles and Ruth out by contacting the ghost.

The suave, charming ‘Sexy Rexy’ Harrison gives a polished performance as the mocking husband, Cummings is excellent as his harassed wife, and so is Hammond as the mischievous spirit of his first wife, who promptly materialises in one of Rutherford’s séances.

Coward’s cynically playful wit is a national treasure and it has, if anything, improved with age like fine wine. Lean directs brightly and efficiently, paying close attention to bringing out the best in the witty lines and sparkling performances. Though Harrison is a delight, it’s a great shame that Coward didn’t re-create his original stage role. However, Coward does contribute (uncredited) to the film as narrator.

Hugh Wakefield as Doctor George Bradman, Coward’s great friend Joyce Carey as Violet Bradman, Jacqueline Clarke as Edith also star.

Thomas Howard won the 1947 Oscar for Best Special Effects, Visual. They still look sweet and do the trick, and they must have been really difficult to achieve back in the pre-digital day. The film’s in glorious Technicolor, and looks a perfect treat in Ronald Neame’s cinematography.

Rutherford and Hammond created their roles in the original London West End production.

The screenplay is by Lean, Neame and associate producer Anthony Havelock-Allan, adapting Noël Coward’s 1941 play. Coward advised Lean ‘Just photograph it, dear boy’, but Lean made a number of changes to the single set play, adding exterior scenes, like the car journey to Folkestone merely referred to in the play. [Spoiler alert] The play’s ending, with Charles leaving his house free of his former wives, is changed for a scene where Charles dies and joins his two wives as a spirit. This infuriated Coward, saying they had ruined his best play.

The film was shot in May 1944 at Denham Studios. Nearby houses Denham Mount (Charles’ and Ruth’s home) and Fairway in Cheapside (Madame Arcati’s house) were used for exteriors. Filming was also done at Blacksmith’s Lane.

Angela Lansbury was Oscar-nominated in her debut at 18 as the lovestruck maid in Gaslight in 1944. So 2014 is the 70^th anniversary of Lansbury’s debut in the movies, celebrated by appearing on stage in London’s West End as the dotty medium Madame Arcati in a hit revival of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit.

The title comes from ‘Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! Bird thou never wert’ in Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem To a Skylark.

Charles’s risqué line ‘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.’ was deleted from the US release.

It was re-released in 2008 as one of the ten early David Lean features restored by the British Film Institute.

The cast are Rex Harrison as Charles Condomine, Constance Cummings as Ruth Condomine, Kay Hammond as Elvira Condomine, Margaret Rutherford as Madame Arcati, Hugh Wakefield as Doctor George Bradman, Joyce Carey as Violet Bradman, Jacqueline Clarke as Edith, Marie Ault as Cook, Johnnie Schofield as Man directing traffic, and Noël Coward as narrator (uncredited).

Coward published more than 50 plays, outstandingly Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter and Blithe Spirit.

The New Theatre/ Albery Theatre in London’s West End was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre in 2006.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 322

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/