Blithe Spirit

It's one strange experience, but this comedy adaptation has an undeniable charm and some notably good special effects for the time. However somehow it doesn't quite come together fully and while entertaining it fails to develop, mainly due to being a little too silly and predictable. Although it might not really be all that memorable, there are still some good performances and scenes making it worth the watch.

Of course Coward's dialogue is acerbic, but this film is kooky in all the wrong and obnoxious ways. The comedy depends on the characters being maddeningly stubborn, its visual gags lack any spark of creativity (now the ghost is over here!), and plot devices follow glaringly inconsistent logic (why can ghosts manipulate the environment but not physically interact with people?). It's also more stagey than Lean's best work, featuring very little grace of which cinematographer Neame was capable.

Further evidence of what a great team David Lean and Noel Coward made. Very charming and funny

motormouth bore. kay hammond has this proto-kristen schaal energy that's occasionally amusing

An interesting and amusing comedy, it falls a bit flat in that it's too silly and absurd to view seriously but not silly enough to be a romp.

I’m not from across the pond but I believe the word I’m looking for is “balmy”. It’s an effervescent piece of lightly humerous, slightly scandalous ménage à trois that plays otherworldly murder for laughs and therefore gets extra points in my ledger. The cinematography is harder than it looks and the colors retain an eerie, singular quality.

You can see it was a comedy made for stage, but it has been made work just fine in a film format. The actresses in this one steal the show, especially Margaret Rutherford, who shows hilarious sass and no small amount of crazy in her role as Madame Arcati. Overall it does have its laughs, but it feels a little bit too disjointed to completely catch attention and to keep me fully entertained.

Even at the time, ghosts and comedy had been done before, and better. This one didn't really get adapted from the play, but more like filmed from the play, only with the benefit of a little bit of special effects. I'd like to complain about Ruth misinterpreting Charles too often, but my girlfriend thinks I'm talking to her when I'm on the phone with somebody, or even when I'm watching a movie and not speaking at all, so I guess I'll count that as realistic.

Never remotely as charming as it wants to be. Just silly. Give me Topper anyday instead.

Any movie where Margaret Rutherford is mad as a button is a good one in my opinion. The idea of two nagging wives haunting you was frighting as well, no matter how much you cover it up with humor. That's two things I'll always remember from Blithe Spirit (1945).

Great visual effects and make-up for the day.

Very silly but equally charming. The type of thing that has been expanded on ever since and it feels a bit underdeveloped in it's naivety and simplicity but that doesn't matter all that much. It's a fun piece of fluff.

Not bad.

watched: 2013, 2022

Fairly amusing, but let down by how frustrating Ruth is as a character (you saw a table levitate and yet you don't think there's anything strange going on? you have to take every comment your husband says to the ghost as directed at you even though he's not looking at you and clearly not talking to you?), a dumb inconsistency (so Elvira, the ghost, can pick up objects yet can't touch Charles? that's silly...) and the utterly charmless main character.

This has a quiet charm which makes up for the stongly signposted plot-line (in parts). Totally stolen by Margaret Rutherford's Mada Arcarti but creditable light rom-com performances from the entire cast. Well directed and the effects are good for their time. If you take it for what it is a great adaptation of a Coward play - you'll love it.

Stagey supernatural yarn, daft rather than funny

Some funnies, but nothing to really keep me interested.

Breezy supernatural comedy with future Miss Jane Marple Rutherford stealing it as a wacky medium.

David Lean and Noel Coward team up to churn out another well done film