Blithe Spirit is a 1945 British fantasy comedy film directed by David Lean. The film stars Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, and Kay Hammond. Blithe Spirit is an adaptation of Noel Coward’s 1941 play of the same name.
Director: David Lean
Production Company: Two Cities Films, Cineguild
Distributor: General Film Distributors (UK), United Artists (US)
Cast: Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, Kay Hammond, Margaret Rutherford
US Box Office: Unknown
Film Format: Technicolor
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
Release Date: May 14, 1945 (UK); October 3, 1945 (US)
Plot Summary: Novelist Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison) is married to Ruth (Constance Cummings). Charles is working on a supernatural book, so for a reference he mockingly hires medium Madame Arcati (Margaret Rutherford) to perform a séance that will allegedly allow him to talk to a spirit. Unfortunately for Charles, the séance actually works, and calls forth the spirit of the dead first wife Elvira (Kay Hammond), who haunts him. Now Charles needs to find a way to get rid of Elvira.
Production: Several Hollywood studies attempted to buy the rights to the play Blithe Spirit, but writer Noel Coward turned them down because he disliked previous American adaptations of his plays. Instead, Coward sold the rights to British company Cineguild, who would produce the film through their subdivision Two Cities Films.
British director David Lean was chosen to direct Blithe Spirit. This was Lean’s third film and his first comedy film. His first two films were dramas and interestingly enough were also based on works written by Noel Coward. The three lead roles went to Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, and Kay Hammond. Kay Hammond (Elvira) and Margaret Rutherford (Madame Arcati) reprise roles that they played in the original 1941 run of the play. The indoor scenes were filmed at Denham Film Studios in Denham, Buckinghamshire in February to May of 1944. The exterior scenes were also filmed in nearby Denham neighborhoods.
Fun Facts and Trivia: Cary Grant was originally offered the role of Charles, but he turned the producers down. Noel Coward wanted Myrna Loy to play the role of Elvira, but she was under contract with MGM at the time and the studio refused to loan her out to Cineguild. In Blithe Spirit Rex Harrison plays a man who is haunted by a ghost, but a few years later he stared in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) where he himself plays a ghost.
Reception: In the UK, Blithe Spirit was moderately successful at the box office, it was one of the top 10 highest grossing native British films that year, but its returns were still considered to be disappointing. The film was also unsuccessful in the United States, it did not make enough money to be listed on Variety‘s annual list of the top grossing films of the year. Coward himself disliked the film because Lean changed the play’s ending.
However, Blithe Spirit did receive positive reviews from critics at the time. For example, Variety praised the film’s cinematography and thought that Margaret Rutherford’s performance was great. Modern reviews for Blithe Spirit have also been generally positive. For example Daniel Etherington of the British Channel 4 liked that the film was a “quintessentially English” take on the American Screwball Comedy film genre.
Oscars: At the 1947 Academy Award Ceremony Blithe Spirit was nominated for one Academy Award, Best Special Effects (Tom Howard). Howard won the Best Special Effects Oscar that year.
Why You Should See It: Blithe Spirit is a funny classic British comedy film. The film does a good job combining humor and supernatural elements in a way that doesn’t feel forced. The film’s technicolor film really makes the make up and camera work stand out. It is also interesting for being both an early fantasy film and for being an early fantasy comedy. While David Lean’s later epic films still receive a great deal of attention, his earlier films like Blithe Spirit are lesser known, but still good.