Blithe Spirit

The novelist Charles Condomine is looking for material for his next book and holds a séance at his house, taking the medium Madame Arcati for a fraud. After the séance his first wife Elvira, who is dead, appears in the house, and only Charles can see her. His second wife Ruth thinks he has lost his mind. Elvira intends to take her husband with her. David Lean directed. The source is Noël Coward's play. Rex Harrison plays Charles, Constance Cummings plays Ruth and Margaret Rutherford plays Madame Arcati. It was shot in Technicolor with music by Richard Addinsell. Coward was not happy with the result. He counted the play among his best work and had told Lean to leave it alone; the changes upset him and he said the ending in particular ruined it. Tom Howard won the Academy Award for visual effects; keeping Elvira on screen in green light was serious technical work at the time. It was well received in Britain and made money there. It did not do business in the United States. Who it is for: viewers who like English drawing-room comedy and Margaret Rutherford. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a cinematic adaptation. The film keeps the stage structure of the play and stays almost entirely in one room.