The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

           

               It’s been many years since I’ve watched The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, a 1947 paranormal romance (yes, they existed back then too), starring Gene Tierney, Rex Harrison, and George Sanders (you may not recognize him till you hear his voice, and then realize ‘My stars and garters, it’s the voice of Shere Kahn’).  I still remembered it being a sad movie to me as a kid, and still remembered the main events of the plot.  But it’s always fun as an adult to watch movies you saw as a kid, and see how your reaction might change.

                Well, I’m happy to report that I still think The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is a very good, sweet film.  Now, if you just want to watch the movie completely cold (well, other than you already know there’s going to be a ghost, Mrs. Muir, and some romance), read no further.  Otherwise, I’m going to drop some minor spoilers in the next paragraph (probably no more than what you’d read on the back of the vhs or dvd). 

                In 1900 England, Lucy Muir, a young widow and mother, decides to move from London to a seaside cottage.  She is warned by the realtor that the house is haunted, but she falls in love with the house the first time she sees it and insists on living there.  Her first night there she is haunted by the ghost of the house’s previous owner, retired sea captain Daniel Gregg.  But she refuses to leave, and the widow and ghost soon develop a liking for each other.  But how can love work between the living and the dead?

                Like I said, it’s a very good, sweet film, with an eerie beginning, a middle that’s by turns funny and tragic, and a moving denouement.  The dialogue’s great, and Rex Harrison delivers a great performance, rocking a salty seaman accent.  The musical score, by Bernard Hermann, is gorgeous.  Seriously, that man was a movie-composing genius.   His famous number “Scene D’Amour,” from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, was used a couple of years ago for the climactic scene from Best Picture The Artist.

                But back to Ghost and Mrs. Muir.  The black and white cinematography is great, and the supporting cast (Edna Best as Muir’s plain-spoken maid, Victoria Horne as Muir’s unpleasant sister-in-law, Robert Coote as a skittish realtor, and Whitford Kane as a London book publisher) are all charming. 

                I think the one weak point of the film is Gene Tierney as Mrs. Muir.  She was a very beautiful woman, but I found her performance a little flat and thought her character too  passive sometimes.  The film’s strengths make up for it, though.

                So if you’re alright with watching romantic comedies and watching old black-and-white films (and if you’re not—what’s wrong with you!?), go ahead and look up The Ghost and Mrs. Muir on netflick or rent it on amazon or just buy it.  It’s a nice, classy film.