My Favourite Movies: Blithe Spirit

This is another one I can ‘blame’ my father for. I suppose that he grew up with films both during and after the war – being just 10 years old in 1939 when it started. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he saw this 1945 classic at the cinema aged 16. He certainly loved his movies enough to have got the money from somewhere, even in those difficult days.

Anyway, Blithe Spirit directed by David Lean was the film adaptation of the successful Noel Coward stage play. Indeed Coward produced the film which gives you some idea of its pedigree. The story revolves around author Charles Condomine (played effortlessly by Rex Harrison) and his new wife Ruth (played by Constance Cummings). To gain some background information for his latest crime novel and to entertain some guests he invites local psychic Madame Arcati (played completely over-the-top by the outstanding Margaret Rutherford) to hold a séance. Unfortunately for all involved not only is Madame Arcati a real psychic but Charles’s previous wife, the flighty and impulsive Elvira (played by the rather attractive and very funny Kay Hammond) has been looking for such an opportunity to re-enter his life. As the only person who can see her – at least initially – Ruth thinks that Charles has become quite mad. But as Elvira gets up to more and more mischief it becomes clear that it’s going to be a fight between Elvira and Ruth for the affections of Charles – a fight to the death!

This film is so frightfully British that you could almost run it up a flagpole and salute it. Not only are the accents very ‘BBC’ correct but the locations scream middle England (though apparently the Condomine’s live just outside Folkstone). Overall you get the impression that this is a comedy designed to get smiles out of its audience rather than crude belly laughs. It pokes gentle fun at the middle class with their pretentions and aspirations that can be enjoyed by classes either side of them as well as the middle class itself – if only it could stop being pompous for long enough to realise it’s the butt of the joke! It certainly evokes a era long gone – if it ever existed – where the middle class had servants, dinner parties and bags of leisure time. It is actually a time capsule of middle class ambition, an ambition made of paper which is easily torn apart by their ignorance and arrogance. Of course, being a Noel Coward play it’s also frightfully witty. One line in particular almost jumped off the screen at me:  “It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit”. It’s a wonderful line! This is a gently comedy from a much gentler age (despite being made just as WW2 finished) and should probably be viewed on a wet Sunday afternoon with a nice cup of hot chocolate and although it probably won’t have you howling with laughter it will probably leave a smile on your face for a few hours after the final scene.