Movie · 1945 · Comedy, Fantasy · 1h 36m · NR · English
Curator score: 4.9/10 (22.8K ratings)
Elvira is the kind of gal who can turn an evening into a night you'll never forget!
Overview
While holding a séance for skeptical novelist Charles Condomine, self-proclaimed 'spiritualist medium' Madame Arcati inadvertently summons the spirit of his deceased first wife Elvira, leading to an increasingly complex love triangle with Ruth, his current wife of five years.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.9/10
IMDb: 7.0/10
Letterboxd: 3.46/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 78%
TMDB: 7.0/10
Director
David Lean
Production
Noel Coward-Cineguild, Two Cities Films, J. Arthur Rank Organisation
Cast
Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, Kay Hammond, Margaret Rutherford, Hugh Wakefield, Joyce Carey, Jacqueline Clarke, Marie Ault, Johnnie Schofield, Noël Coward
Where to watch
fuboTV, TCM, Max
Curator Review
Verdict
A brisk, witty supernatural farce with polished 1940s style, sharp dialogue, and a deliciously mischievous ghostly premise. It’s especially rewarding if you like stagey British comedy, marital chaos, and elegant old-Hollywood craftsmanship.
Best for
fans of sophisticated screwball and drawing-room comedy
viewers who enjoy ghost stories played for laughs
classic film lovers interested in Technicolor production design
audiences who like acerbic marital satire and verbal wit
spooky-season viewers wanting something light rather than scary
Skip if
you want genuine horror or suspense
you dislike theatrical, dialogue-driven comedy
you’re put off by old-fashioned gender politics and upper-class satire
you prefer fast-paced modern comedy or broad slapstick
Overview
Blithe Spirit is a wonderfully airy haunted-house comedy that turns infidelity, jealousy, and the afterlife into a very civilized mess. The setup is simple and irresistible: a séance goes wrong, a dead first wife returns, and the living wife is left to compete with a ghost who has no intention of being reasonable. The result is a sly, elegant farce with a constant undercurrent of mischief.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is the combination of Noël Coward’s brittle wit and the film’s immaculate visual polish. The performances keep the comedy afloat, while the production design and color work give the whole thing a glamorous, slightly unreal glow. It feels like a drawing-room play that has been let loose into a haunted dream.
Bottom line
Some viewers may find the marital humor dated, especially in the way the wives are framed around Charles’s perspective. But as a piece of sophisticated escapism, it’s still very easy to enjoy. It’s charming, a little venomous, and full of the kind of deadpan lines that make classic British comedy so durable.
Top Letterboxd reviews
eely (3.5★) · 542 likes
when i die darling dress me in my finest negligee and paint me viridescent from head to toe so i can haunt your ass in style.
fran hoepfner (3.5★) · 528 likes
one wife two wife dead wife green wife
spap1 (3.5★) · 232 likes
let me start out by saying that this film can so easily be taken as just a fun, escapist sort of classic film.
but it is a film that, at its heart, is of course a harshly hilarious criticism of the English upper-middle class.
this adaptation of Noel Cowards classic play, which i recently saw on the West End with Jennifer Saunders (this was marginally better), stays faithful to just that, perhaps even without knowing it had been doing so… more
Anna🍓 (5★) · 165 likes
My favourite niche genre of film is Rex Harrison in ghost/human relationship movies, they should have made more of these bad boys!!
I hope I can serve as much as Elvira did as a ghost when I die
phoebe 💫 (4★) · 158 likes
ok but the painted green-red lipstick-red nails thing is such a Lük thank you Kay Hammond