Watch Blithe Spirit For Free

Fantastic!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

"Comedy" about novelist Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison) and his second wife Ruth (Constance Cummings) inviting spiritualist Madame Arcati (Margaret Rutherford)to their house. It seems he's writing a book dealing with the supernatural and wanted to see firsthand what happens at a seance. They have one and think nothing happens. However Charles starts seeing the ghost of his first wife Elvira (Kay Hammond). However no one else can see or hear her. Her wants her to go...but how? I saw a restored print with a crystal clear picture, great sound and strong color...but I hated it. It's supposed to be funny but I didn't laugh let alone smile once. I heard the jokes but they just weren't funny. It was more whimsical than funny and I hate whimsical films. It was reasonably well-acted and directed and had great set design but I was bored. I actually dozed off towards the end! The only saving grace was Rutherford. She was GREAT in her role and tears into it with gusto...but she wasn't funny either. Good-looking but unfunny. Also this won an Oscar for Special Effects which are very dated in this day and age.

This is a movie version of Noel Coward's play by the same name. Apparently Coward thought this film from David Lean was simply awful (actually, that's an understatement--see the IMDb trivia for what he actually said), but I enjoyed it nevertheless and don't know what upset him so. It seemed like all good fun.Charles (Rex Harrison) is married to Ruth (Constance Cummings). Seven years earlier, he'd been married to Elvira (Kay Hammond) but she died of pneumonia, so not surprisingly he remarried. However, when the wife invites a goofy psychic (Margaret Rutherford) to the house to have a séance with some friends, VERY unexpected things result. It seems that Charles' old dead wife has now somehow returned and no one other than Charles seems to think she's there. In fact, Ruth thinks he's crazy! But, when Elvira is able to throw things about the house, Ruth is finally convinced. At first, it's just an odd annoyance. However, when Elvira decides to kill Charles so that he can join her in the afterlife, things get VERY strange and unexpected consequences result. I'd say more, but it might spoil all the fun.The film is quite fun and the acting is nice. It's simple, silly fun--and perhaps Coward wanted more out of the film, but I think for me that's quite enough to make it worth seeing.

I thoroughly enjoyed this adaptation of Noel Coward's play. For one thing, it is sumptuously filmed with fine cinematography and lavish costumes and sets. The direction from David Lean is also first rate, as is the upper class and sophisticated screenplay.Though I must say the performances also deserve mention. Rex Harrison gives one of his best comic performances bringing a sense of sardonic wit and charm to the role of the man haunted by his first wife. Constance Cummings is very appealing as Ruth, and acquitting herself even better is the glamorous Kay Hammond as Elvira who looks quite like Gertrude Lawrence. But it is Margaret Rutherford who gives a criminally overlooked and divinely eccentric performance as Madame Arcati who steals the show.And I must mention the music, it is brilliant. The Irving Berlin song Always has quickly become a favourite of mine. The story is quite an original concept. If there were any problems with the movie there are one or two things like Madame Arcati realising the true identity of the person who was summoning the spirits that could've done with more explanation, and the ending does suffer from some tampering from the ending in the play and felt rather abrupt. Overall though, I do recommend Blithe Spirit. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I recently saw the Broadway revival of "Blithe Spirit" starring Angela Lansbury, Rupert Everett, Christine Ebersole, and Jayne Atkinson. It's a terrific production, and shows what good actors can do with a play that is less than perfect. Angela Lansbury is extremely funny as Madame Arcati.It was probably a mistake, then, to check out the film version of the play starring Rex Harrison. The movie does not have the energy or the laughs of a good stage production."Blithe Spirit" is probably one of those plays that works better with a live cast, in an audience full of people who have come to laugh. The actors can improvise, give touches and nuances to their performance and delivery of the lines, and involve the audience on a personal level that you can't get in a movie house, or with a DVD showing, where the audience is separated from the story by the "Fourth Wall." The story: Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison), a successful writer, lives with his wife Ruth (Constance Cummings) in a house in the English countryside. Seeking information for his next book, a book dealing with the supernatural, Charles invites Madame Arcati (Margaret Rutherford, reprising her role from the original 1941 London production), a local spiritual medium, over to his house to conduct a séance. Charles believes that spiritism is a sham, but hopes to pick up "the tricks of the trade." But then Madame Arcati brings back the ghost of Elvira (Kaye Hammond), Charles's first wife, who died of pneumonia seven years ago. Elvira refuses to leave, and develops a spitting rivalry with Ruth over Charles (complicated by the fact that only Charles can see or hear Elvira).On stage, the actors can give performances that invite laughs in this situation. But on the screen, the actors in "Blithe Spirit" tear through the lines as if they don't know that anyone is listening to them. They mumble lines that were designed to get laughs on the stage. The performances by Harrison, Cummings, and even Kaye Hammond are flat and lifeless. Only Margaret Rutherford seems to have retained her spark and humor as Madame Arcati.The Oscar-winning visual effects in the film are unimpressive -- not just by today's standards, but by the standards of 1946! They consist mostly of Kaye Hammond walking around in fluorescent green outfits and makeup, being photographed in special lighting to make her look like a glowing ghost.The cinematographer deserves some credit for creative lighting. But compare the dull visual effects of "Blithe Spirit" to the truly groundbreaking effects in Disney's "Song of the South" -- which was eligible for awards the same year. In "South," humans and animated characters share the screen seamlessly for minutes at a time. Compared to "South," the Oscar that "Blithe Spirit" received for special effects was completely undeserved.At any rate, I can only encourage you to catch the Broadway revival of this play with Angela Lansbury before it closes. As for the movie with Rex Harrison, skip it.